(This post is part of the series describing the Community-Driven Tour 2008. To read these posts from the beginning of this 2+ month tour, click here.)

Three full moons have passed since we left Tucson on September 12. We have driven two oil changes worth of miles. We have slept in 2 countries, in 12 US states and 1 Canadian province, visiting 17 communities for workshops and meetings. And we are not done yet.

We have driven as far north as Canada, as far south as North Carolina, as far east as the Atlantic ocean.

We visited Niagara Falls at night. We spent a whole day walking 7+ miles all over Toronto, including a stroll through the multi-ethnic wonders of Kensington Market.

We hiked waterfalls and gorges in gorgeous Ithaca, New York. We rode the metro in Washington DC and picked apples in Danbury, Connecticut.

We attended a reading by a sour New Age philosopher at Malaprop’s - a magnificent independent bookstore in the robust downtown of Asheville, North Carolina, where book after book ultimately leaped into my possession. We spent a misty night at the lakeside home of a friend outside Knoxville, Tennessee, waking up to the quiet beauty of the waterfront wrapped in fog outside the window.

We have photographed stream after stream, barn after barn. We have had home-cooked meals in the homes of old friends, and have spent hours playing with their dogs.

Autumn’s arboreal rainbow has been the backdrop for every moment of the 2+ months of this journey so far, like watching a movie forward, then backward, and then forward again. Leaving Tucson and heading north in late September, we watched the leaves begin turning from green to gold. In early October, heading from Connecticut across western New York to Canada, the leaves peaked in brilliant golds and reds. Driving through Ontario in mid-October, gold and then brown leaves began falling from the trees. Heading south towards Pittsburgh and DC, those leaves were now reattached to the trees. And arriving further south, in Williamsburg, Virginia in early November, we found the season back in the full peak of gold and red with bits of green still hanging in there. This single season circled back twice for us, and we have been filled with awe and gratitude at every step.

There have been traumas - Dimitri’s dad, and then watching from a distance as the mother of a dear friend, Mark Myers, suddenly passed away as well. There have been minor inconveniences like head colds and bug bites. And there have been the highs of an election that brought words like “vision” and “possibility” to the lips of everyone we have met, and whose results left us crying in our hotel suite, receiving and making joyful phone calls to our kids and friends spread across the country.

We have met almost 1,000 people at 27 workshops and meetings. And we are not done yet.

Through all the sights and sounds and tastes of this fabulous tour, the most energizing part has been the work we traveled all this way to do in the first place, and the result of that work. We came to share a singular message, whether we were teaching Governance or Community Engagement:

Visionary community change is not only possible; it is practical and doable.

It is possible because it is not scientifically impossible.  We have seen visionary results occur repeatedly in our work, and in the work of others.

It is practical and doable because there are easy-to-use systems for doing it, which is what our workshops shared - the practical side of creating visionary community change through the day-to-day work of our organizations.

Several people have asked us what we have observed across the diverse communities we have visited. Our response is this: Everywhere we have been, to the workshop, to the sponsor, and to the individuals attending, the desire for leveraging the work organizations are already doing, to create more significant community change, is undeniable. People are craving concrete, practical, doable approaches, aligned behind the intent of creating a more compassionate, vibrant, healthy, resilient world.

The result has been universal enthusiasm for the possibilities inherent in Community-Driven approaches. That enthusiasm energizes us to begin preparing now to do this tour again next year!

It also energizes us to have the Pollyanna Principles available to you by Christmas. It energizes us to begin the Community-Driven Institute’s classes for consultants next year, as the next step in changing how this sector does its work.

But for now, the tour continues, and we are most energized about our next stop - Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln, we will not only do two workshops, but we will begin talking with community leaders about building a Community-Driven management support organization, to provide Community-Driven education and other resources for Lincoln’s community benefit organizations.

We are in St. Louis today, to spend the day with my darling friend, artist Jeane Vogel, who is always pushing me to think think think about the extent to which art is life is art. She has a show opening tonight; what a treat to be here for it!

And so, ten days before it is over, we can declare that the Community-Driven Tour 2008 has been a wild success. We have been honored to have been welcomed into so many communities, by so many incredible people, doing such extraordinary work. Each and every person who has had any part in this tour has our gratitude, beyond anything you can know.

Life is good indeed.

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(This post is part of the series describing the Community-Driven Tour 2008. To read these posts from the beginning of this 2+ month tour, click here. And to begin the Pittsburgh part of this adventure, head here.)

Friday, October 24
It is Friday morning. Raining. Rush hour traffic from the North Hills into downtown Pittsburgh. My voice is gone. None of this bodes well.

All omens vanish as we approach Community Radio Station WYEP, the venue for the morning’s events. More than thirty people will be attending as part of the NLI’s normal day-long Leadership Academy. Almost fifty more have signed up just to hear my talk. The room barely holds 60 comfortably. It will now hold 80 uncomfortably.

Michael and I are on the stage, and he is beginning his over-the-top introduction of me. He tells of how he first found me, and of the influence my work has had on the very being of the NLI. As he is about to hand the microphone over to me, a woman quietly enters the room, seeking a seat. “Oh look,” Michael says, as if an announcement to the group but really as a cue to me, “Yinka is here!”

Dr. Yinka Aganga-Williams was a student in the class we taught for Duquesne - Creating the Future of Your Community. The organization she founded - AJAPO - helps ensure a smooth transition to American life for refugees and immigrants from the African Diaspora.  AJAPO is well known throughout the Pittsburgh area for getting more done on a shoestring than many organizations can do with million-dollar budgets. And that is all because of Yinka.

Through our time together over all the distance-learning miles of that semester, Dimitri and I have grown to cherish the wisdom we have found in Yinka. We have never met in person, and yet have learned so much from each other.

And so, with Michael’s words, my heart leaps from my chest, and I forget I am on a stage in front of 80 strangers.  As Michael is about to hand the proceedings over to me, I have already left the stage, and am now hugging the fabulous Nigerian woman I have grown to admire so much.

(Yinka later tells Dimitri and me that when she completes her degree, she is considering taking her new-found leadership skills back to the African continent, to help build community there. She shares that the  emphasis in our class on the “community” part of the phrase “community leadership” had a profound impact on her current work and her future plans.  Wow!)

The day is taking its shape from such moments. Liz Nilsen is here - a colleague, client and friend whom we last saw (and worked with) in Danville, Virginia. She has moved to Pittsburgh, and it is wonderful to reconnect after almost 4 years since our time in Danville. “I love it here,” she whispers, almost afraid to tempt the gods. “We love it here, too,” I whisper back to her. “The energy in Pittsburgh is palpable!”

Then there is the amazing conversation with a gentleman who listened to my morning talk about the role of vision and values, both in Building an Energized Board and accomplishing great community results. He has approached me with a smile that covers his whole face. “We always feel as if our board is the strange one. But as I am listening to you, I am realizing, we are doing exactly what you talked about!”

I am excited to hear more. “How is it working?” I ask him.

“So so well!  The organization’s results are incredible. But to be honest, as I was listening to all the board problems everyone else was talking about in the session, I could not believe that’s what being a board was like for them.  Our board may feel like we are the odd ones, but we are actually the ones who are on the right track!  Listening to everyone in that room bemoaning their inability to find people to serve - and yet we have a waiting list of people who want to join our board!“

I am thrilled at his words, as we know this is the case. When boards are doing Community-Driven work, people want to be riding that train!!

One after another, I am spending the morning talking with folks. If I did not have a voice before the first session, I have lost that voice entirely by lunch. We are breaking bread at a great middle eastern restaurant, joined by a small band of consultants assembled by Michael to hear my talk. Among them is Cindy Shapira, with whom we had lunched two days prior. And Cindy is excited!

“Last night I began planning work with one of the groups I was telling you about the other day. And it worked! It worked so well!” She is beaming.

“At first they told me they already have a vision. But I got them to appease me and discuss the questions you suggested. And you cannot believe the vision they came to - it was comprehensive, and community-focused, and - well - visionary! They stretched beyond just their narrow mission to include a real picture of community health that will begin to inform their mission and their programs in all kinds of ways. It was unbelievable!”

The more she talks, the more we cannot wait to get the Community-Driven Consultant education program up and running next year. Cindy has already committed to be one of the first in attendance. She cannot wait to learn more.

The afternoon session will be an exclusive event, just for the grantees of PACE - Pittsburgh’s Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise. PACE assists community-based organizations that work with economically disadvantaged communities, and today is the first meeting of this round of grantees. They were part of the group who heard my talk in the morning, but this afternoon, it is just me and them - no larger group to get lost in.

The talk this afternoon is Building Engaged Support for Your Mission. We arrive and find they are still eating lunch. As any afternoon speaker will tell you, this is not good news - I can almost guarantee folks will be nodding off during my talk. Small group, speaker with virtually no voice left, food still heavy on their stomachs… I am doomed.

To top it off, there is no microphone.  We have learned, though, that Michael’s staff - and in particular, Elaine Franks, who I have come to believe is also single-handedly responsible for keeping the earth spinning on its axis - never sees obstacles.  They see only possibilities.

And so, while we were eating lunch, Elaine had gone to a nearby music store, where she had shelled out $50 for a cheap guitar amp (”We needed this anyway - good to have, when you do as many workshops as the NLI does!”).  She ran back to the radio station to borrow the wireless transmitter I had used that morning.  And by the time I am 10 minutes into virtually whispering my talk to this room full of community leaders, Dimitri has hooked up this system and I am at least whispering into a mic!

Given all that, the group is lively, and the talk is fun, with lots of laughing and even more aha moments. Afterward, folks respond in earnest, awakening from their post-lunch lull and hugging me, thanking me.

One woman shared, “It was inspiring. We do indeed have so much to build upon. Thank you so much for that message!”

And then she adds the icing on the cake: “But it’s not just your message - your phrasing is like poetry.” Wow!

Saturday, October 25
And with that, we are packing up our boxes and bags, stuffing the car with everything we own, and moving on - as quick as we showed up, we are gone. We are on our way to Washington DC.

In DC, we will spend time catching up on weeks’ worth of work piled so high we cannot see. We will do a workshop in Baltimore that has been sold out since just 2 hours after it was announced. We will have lunch with a man I have worked with closely under the extreme circumstances of plagiarism, and who has become both a colleague and a friend - Glenn Cook, the editor-in-chief of the American School Board Journal.

And best of all, we will get to spend time with my daughter, not sightseeing, but even better - just hanging out, discussing and watching the campaign, cooking, doing laundry, and just being together.

In the afterglow of this intense, stimulating, inspiring, energizing week at Duquesne University, we are ready to rest and recover. We are quite sure, as our time in DC passes, that every few hours we will remind ourselves of the marvelous encounters we had in our visit to Pittsburgh.

And who knows what next week will bring?

To be continued as the Community-Driven Tour 2008 continues…
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(This post is part of the series describing the Community-Driven Tour 2008. To read these posts from the beginning of this 2+ month tour, click here. And to begin the Pittsburgh part of this adventure,  head here.)

Thursday, October 23

It is Thursday. We are scheduled to spend some time before lunch with Dorothy Bassett, the dean of Duquesne University’s School of Leadership, with whom we worked to re-craft the Masters in Community Leadership program.

I like Dorothy a lot. She is warm and direct and genuine, and I appreciate all of that. Our first phone conversation almost 2 years ago was prior to our planning work with the School of Leadership. I remember being nervous about that first call, and that Dorothy’s complete lack of pretense immediately replaced my nerves with honest enthusiasm for the opportunity to work with her energy and intellectual curiosity.

Working with Dorothy during our planning sessions with the School of Leadership had been awe-inspiring, if for no other reason than she was entirely present and fully participating after having arrived, sleepless and jet-lagged, from Duquesne’s Rome campus - yes, that’s Rome, Italy - just hours before!

And so now, as we fast forward to this day almost 2 years later, I am looking forward to what we have been told will be a short meeting, as Dorothy has other appointments. After that brief meeting, we will enjoy lunch and after-lunch discussions with the Nonprofit Leadership Institute team. It will be a full day.

Since our planning work, the School of Leadership has added an assistant dean, Michael Forlenza (another Michael - how confusing!), and Dorothy has asked him to join the discussion. As we all focus on what is possible for the school to move to the next level, the conversation quickly catches fire. 30 minutes into that meeting, Dorothy and Michael F. both rearrange their afternoon plans. The next thing we know, we are all heading to lunch together.

The conversation moves back and forth - from envisioning what education can be at its transformational best (and how Leadership Education is certainly about nothing less than transformation - of individuals, of organizations, of communities), to the nitty-gritty realities of trying to make such a program a success within the bureaucratic layers of a university structure.

How to give the program’s infrastructure the time it needs to build and grow?

How to teach instructors to teach via distance learning, to take full advantage of all this new medium is capable of achieving for their students?

How to build strength into the program from the inside out?  How to engage the students themselves in building the program to be extraordinary?

By the time we part after lunch, it is almost 3pm. We know none of us will be able to tame the myriad possibilities floating in the ether around each of our brains.

The day has gone in a direction we never imagined, and so we spend what little time remains with our friend Michael (Kumer), discussing the ultimate conversion of the Nonprofit Leadership Institute into a fully Community-Driven Management Support Organization.

How can a management support organization / “nonprofit” resource center teach only what aligns with Community-Driven principles, and refrain from teaching classes that go counter to such principles (cooperative vs. competitive resource development approaches, for example - or governance aimed at community results, vs. governance aimed at the means - or community engagement vs. marketing…)?

How can such an organization avoid measuring success by tallying workshop attendance figures (the same “output” indicators they teach other organizations to avoid), and instead begin asking the critical questions that will lead to real indicators of systemic change?

On the heels of the invigorating discussion at lunch, our brains are too tired to focus much on these topics so late in the afternoon. Instead, Dimitri and I head back to the hotel to rest up a bit, after which we will head out into rush hour traffic to meet the NLI’s Allison Jones and her husband Kevin for dinner.

Allison and Kevin adopted us during our first visit to Pittsburgh several years ago. Allison runs the Boards by Design program at the Nonprofit Leadership Institute. She is young and alive and pure delight - a 40 Under 40 winner, and one of the most charming individuals one can hope to meet. Her husband, Kevin, is sweet and brilliant - a computer guy who loves bicycling (talk about a kindred spirit with Dimitri!). Allison and Kevin  are both choir singers, which is how they met. One cannot help but love being with them - not to mention that they find the BEST places to eat! (This time we are devouring a feast at Legume, which we cannot recommend highly enough!)

We hate to cut the evening short - after how huge this day has been, it feels overwhelming to think that it is actually tomorrow that is the BIG day - two workshops with a convened lunch discussion in between. In addition to the normal cold I have been enduring all this time, I now have no voice. To top it all off, by the time I crawl into bed, I realize I will have 5 hours sleep at best.

No sleep, no voice, and now I am coughing. What a way to head into a double-header…

(For the next post in the series on the mad adventure that is the Community-Driven Tour 2008, click here.)

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Taking a break from posting about the Community-Driven Tour to just share what everyone else is feeling - such pride and excitement!

As an American and as a mom, my excitement extends beyond our having an African American president.  My joy is heightened as I picture an African American family in the White House, their kids growing up playing on the White House lawns and in those hallowed halls that have, to date, been reserved for white families only.

Imagine such a thing!  Just imagine!

It took 200 years to get here.  It took the cause and effect of change after change, ripples in the pond, building on other ripples.

It took people of all shades of skin tone fighting to end systems that were wrong, and fighting to create what was just and fair - fighting to create a world where people are not judged by the color of their skin, but indeed by the content of their character.

Today, that strength of character feels overwhelming.  Imagine such a thing!

My daughter called from in front of the White House last night.  (Lizzie is quoted near the end of this article - that’s my girl!)  She screamed into the phone, “I don’t know if you can hear me over the noise, but you cannot imagine what it feels like to be here!”

But of course I can imagine.  We have turned a corner.  My daughter’s generation is more naturally colorblind than my generation could have ever hoped to be.  They are far more accepting of differing sexuality.  Having grown up with the world at their extended fingertips - their keyboards - they are instinctively global thinkers.

We always give lip service to “children being our future.”  This generation is that and more.  It is all the result of cause and effect.  The ripples in the pond.

I am speaking in Williamsburg, Virgina this afternoon.  I will start my talk with the same message I have used to start every talk along this tour:  Creating visionary change in our communities and our world is not only possible; it is practical and doable.

Today, and for the next few days and weeks,we will bask in what is possible.  From there, though, it will be time to make things practical and doable.  This will require that we aim our work squarely at the world we want to live in, and that we align our steps in that direction - that we consciously create  the future we want for tomorrow and for the thousand tomorrows that lie ahead.

We have much work ahead of us.  It is time to get started.

Image of the Obama Family thanks to the Chicago Tribune.  Image of my daughter’s friends rejoicing, thanks to Tom Lotito (bottom left.  Lizzie is bottom center.)

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(This post is part of the series describing the Community-Driven Tour 2008. To read these posts from the beginning of this 2+ month tour, click here.  And for Part 1 of this series on Pittsburgh, head here.)

Wednesday, October 22

Having arrived in town (and unloaded the whole car into yet another hotel) just 11 hours prior, we are at Duquesne, ready to head to lunch with Michael and the gang.  We join Allison Jones (director of Boards by Design and one of our favorite people in the world) and Carmen Rios, the group’s new Community Relations person, and head to the restaurant.

Michael has invited Cindy Shapira to join us, a consultant he describes as being a huge proponent of our work. It seems Michael has been handing Cindy articles and books and unfinished manuscripts I have written, and Cindy has been devouring them. Not content to simply put a toe in these Community-Driven waters, she is alive with the desire to help her clients create the change she knows is possible. As we enter the restaurant, Cindy already has a list of questions about how to handle this or that client issue. Dimitri and I spend lunch sharing our experience in navigating the waters Cindy is just starting to dive into, as she raises scenario after scenario. Wow!

We spend the rest of the afternoon with the staff of the Nonprofit Leadership Institute who, due to Michael’s dual role - ED of the NLI and dean of the Masters degree program in Community Leadership - is acutely aware of the issues related to both programs.  The discussion moves back and forth between both, reviewing status, considering obstacles, and getting excited about possibilities.  How can it be that every conversation we have, no matter the topic, is so lively?

And then it is back to the hotel. My cold is at its peak, and I am frightfully unhappy (and equally unattractive). The hotel’s internet is not working, and so I cannot work. I curl up in bed, watch a great movie and pass out. (If you haven’t seen Wall-e, see it. Don’t be distracted by the fact that it is animated. Put it on your Netflix list and see it!!).

(For the next post in the series on the mad adventure that is the Community-Driven Tour 2008, click here.)

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(This post is part of the series describing the Community-Driven Tour 2008.  To read these posts from the beginning of this 2+ month tour, click here.)

It will be hard to tell this story without first explaining why we have loved being in Pittsburgh, long before this trip. And that is the story of our relationship with Duquesne University.

Here is that story, as told by Michael Kumer, dean of Duquesne’s Masters in Community Leadership program. Years ago, when Duquesne’s School of Leadership decided to develop its Nonprofit Leadership Institute and asked Michael to head that entity, he went searching for “nonprofit wisdom.” He found Charity Channel, which is where he found me.

The story as told by Michael’s staff is that shortly after Michael’s encounters with my work the staff began referring to me as Michael’s “girlfriend,” as he was so often quoting me, reading my work aloud to them, sharing it with everyone he knew.

The story Michael told me when we finally met by phone was that my writings had “electrified” their program.

And finally, as Michael shared when he introduced me to a group of 80 community leaders last week, “If you have been curious about the different approaches we have always taken here at the NLI, the woman you are about to meet is the cause of every one of those approaches. Everything we have done at the NLI is modeled after her work.”

How does one live up to the expectations of such a long-time, devoted fan? Michael makes it easy. He is the most gracious and generous spirit I have ever encountered.

Our official work with Duquesne has evolved over time. Going on 2 years ago, we facilitated the School of Leadership staff through a Community Impact Plan, providing the strategic framework for transforming their Masters degree program in Community Leadership. Since that planning, the program is indeed different from what it looked like before we arrived, as they have begun aiming all their courses at the values and vision they articulated during that intensive week of work back in 2007. It has been fun to watch the change, down to their adoption of Community-Driven language into their course catalog!

Since that time, Dimitri and I have joined the faculty of the School of Leadership, teaching a course titled “Creating the Future of Your Community.” This is the distance learning course some of you have heard us crow about - students who included the most amazing people doing amazing work, dispersed all across the country.

Following that extraordinary experience, Michael joined the group that assembled in Tucson last June, to help us craft the Consultant Curriculum for the Community-Driven Institute. Through this confluence of working relationships, Michael has become one of our most energetic and passionate compadres in building strong programs to make visionary community change practical. Every conversation we have with Michael is enlivening, pushing the edges of what is possible.

Given all this as background, when Michael knew we were going to be journeying across the country, he invited us to spend time in Pittsburgh. And now, we are excited to see not just Michael, but the whole School of Leadership and Nonprofit Leadership Institute team, who have become our colleagues, clients, true co-conspirators in the Community-Driven journey, and best of all, friends.

It is late in the day Tuesday when we leave for Pittsburgh, directly after our workshop in Monroe, Michigan (another wonderful stop in a beautiful place with a fabulous sposor - the River Raisin Institute. Oh if only I had time to blog about everywhere we have been!!!).  It is 11pm as we are finally arriving in Pittsburgh. In just 12 hours, we will be having lunch with Michael and two of his staff - Allison Jones and Carmen Rios…

Click here for Part 2 of I Heart Pittsburgh!

Thanks to Pittsburgh Citizens for Better Libraries for the great photo of Michael in action!

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Part 2: Community-Driven Tour 2008
(For Part 1, head here)
If there is anything that has stood out about this tour, it has been the spirit of connection, friendship, warmth, love that has infused every step along the way.

The line between friends and family blurred years ago for me. These days, the line between clients and friends has blurred equally. And this trip has joyfully blurred all of it.

Along the route from Tucson to our first “official” stop, we visited Jeane Vogel - friend, colleague, incredible artist. We had planned on spending a whole day just playing with Jeane, seeing St. Louis, her hometown. And after dinner the night we arrived, I got the stomach flu, rendering me useless to anything but the bathroom the whole of our “day off.”

Jeane made me soup, and brought Dimitri a supper that included local beer. She hung out in our hotel suite, and let me moan on the couch. That’s what friends do.

(On the way back to Tucson, we will stop in St. Louis and try again. I want to see Jeane’s studio. I want to be surrounded by the beauty of her work. I want time to play with my friend who always makes me find something to laugh about, even in the worst of life’s tragedies.)

In Danbury, CT, we got to spend time with my best friend from childhood, Debbie, and her husband, whom I have known since we were all 18 together. And for the first time since our kids were born (Lizzie is almost 23), Deb and I took a whole day together to just do nothing. We did some shopping. We picked apples. We drove to pretty places.

It was great to visit with her sister (and their new puppy!), and her mom and dad (who were my 2nd family when we were growing up), and Deb’s own kids. But having Debbie all to myself for a whole day - a day where we could just “be” together - was total and complete heaven.

From there, we headed into western NY, where I got to see two friends I have not seen in 22 years. Roz and Paula and I were dorm-mates when I first left home for college in Binghamton, NY. And after 22 years apart, we picked up as if nothing had happened. Spending time with real friends is like that.

We are in Canada now. This part of the tour has been a million stories in one short week.

A fabulous day in Toronto with Dimitri’s family, surrounding him with the love and language and food that brought comfort to his mourning soul. I watched him relax and simply dwell in it - watched as his aged uncle and aunts showered him with love in the language of his birth - a language I do not understand, but knew every word they said. Even in the sadness of mourning,  love is its own language.

We connected with our friend and colleague, Jane Garthson, who drove the 90 minutes from Toronto to Guelph to help out with our workshop there.

Jane registered attendees. She sat at the book table while Dimitri took care of all the other workshop details. She helped us pack up as we prepared to leave. It was a wonderful gift. But then, friendship is always a wonderful gift.

As we prepare to leave Canada for Michigan, we are in London. Our dear friend Nathan Garber helped arrange for a workshop here, and we have spent the day with Nathan and his wife, Margaret, as they showed us the London they love.

In the late afternoon, we headed to Gibbons Park, where Sunny, the sweetest dog in the world, takes Nathan and Margaret for a walk each day. They showed us the park bench that Nathan and his sister and brother dedicated to the memory of their mother. We marveled at the work of the river beavers, as Margaret lamented the loss of tree after tree after tree.

In the sun’s last light, we walked the wooded trail along the Thames, looped across the almost-done-flowering meadow of the floodplain. As night fell, we meandered back across manicured park lawns, blanketed with fallen red maple leaves. Back at their home, we shared dinner and conversation curtailed only by the late hour.

Friendship. Love. Family. Connection. What else is there?

Several years ago, a colleague (who has since become a friend) had left the business world to work at a foundation in the next phase of his life. He was facilitating a group of consultants from the Community Benefit world, and as a warm-up, asked the group to tell of their favorite client. Consultant after consultant either said, “Well, they are all favorites,” or “I guess it would be the one I’m working with now.”

Finally Jon interrupted. “Are you guys all kidding?” he asked. “I just left the world of corporate marketing, and if I loved a client every 5 years, I considered myself lucky. Do you guys really love all your clients?” And we all smiled. In the world of community work, the answer is almost always, “Yes.”

And that has been the rest of this trip. Jane Kreha from the Dorothy Johnson Center for Philanthropy in Grand Rapids, who merely had to call and ask, “Can you keynote for us?” and I was ready to change my schedule to do so, just to be able to work with Jane again.

June Renzulli, whom I will sorely miss working with at Danbury’s United Way as she ventures into the land she is tentatively calling “retirement.” For the past four years, I just need to hear June’s voice on the phone and I am smiling.

Jenny Hansell, at the Northeast Community Center in the small town of Millerton, NY, whom I have known for years from Charity Channel and have now had the opportunity to meet twice in person.

Elaine Mintz, who, along with a cast of dedicated community members, is creating in record time one of the most dynamic management support organizations we have seen - the Greater Danbury Nonprofit Resource Center.

Karen Chase from the The Brasher-Northrop Museum in tiny, picturesque Kent, CT; Dana Treacy at Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Institute for Non-Profits in Rockland County, N.Y.; Sara Anderson at the Albany Chapter of AAGP; Suzanne Smith Jablonski, at Ithaca’s Tompkins County Public Library Foundation; and Michelle Baldwin at Pillar Nonprofit Network in London, Ontario - who all spent hours on the phone with me, preparing for the sessions we did in their communities. Each of them is becoming a friend - isn’t that a great feeling? When you know just from those few encounters that friendship is beginning to happen?

And then there is Gayle Valeriote, at the Volunteer Centre of Guelph / Wellington, who instantly became a friend and then single-handedly made our trip to Canada possible. After reading my books, and after sharing our work with the Volunteer Centre’s Executive Director, Cathy Taylor, the two of them began putting wheels in motion. Gayle gathered funders from across the county to meet with us and to sponsor our visit. She called Nathan and then Michelle Baldwin in London, to be sure our reach would extend beyond Guelph. At every point where something was possible, Gayle made it happen.

And the result in Guelph was the largest crowd we have addressed so far during this journey - 75 enthusiastic people showed up for a 90 minute workshop first thing in the morning, in a town of just over 100,000 people. They came from as far as Niagara Falls - 125 km away.

And that brings me to the Inukshuk. At the end of my talk in Guelph, Gayle and Cathy presented me and Dimitri with one of the most meaningful gifts we have received from anyone, ever. It was a glass figure, connoting a man made of rocks. An Inukshuk.

Here is the story they told us:

“In northern Canada, these stone figures can be seen across the landscape. The figures would mark hunting grounds, connecting people in their journey from place to place. Throughout the north, the Inukshuk has become a symbol of connectedness, of friendship and cooperation. That is what you have done for us today. That is the gift you have given us.”

I hear their words in my head as I type this, and tears well up.

And so to you, my friends who are reading of our journey, that is what I want to share with you in this post. The joys of this trip have already been far too numerous to describe in one post (or even a dozen posts). Amazing work, connecting the dots between individuals who are creating amazing community benefit. Amazing scenery (autumn in the northeast US and southern Canada - red and gold and breathtaking). Amazing terrain. Niagara Falls. The gorges and waterfalls of Ithaca and the Finger Lakes. The vast, almost endless corn and sunflower fields of Kansas on the trip across.

But the most amazing thing of all, without question, has been that sense of connection - connection of spirit, of purpose. Friendship, love, warmth.

As I have taught in every workshop I have done so far and will continue to share throughout this tour, that is what sustains us, as organizations and as individuals. Friendship and FriendRaising are not about asking people for money. They are about asking for that connection, and the joy that comes from that engaged sense that we are far more effective together than apart.

There is nothing better in the whole world. That connection is, quite simply, all there is.

Photo Credit -  Inukshuk at top of page: On Campus News, University of Saskatchewan

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We are driving right now, heading west on I-90 from Ithaca, NY to Toronto. It is 7:30 - the sky is almost dark. We will likely arrive at our hotel around midnight, as we intend to stop to see Niagara Falls. Life is good.

It has been an amazing journey so far. It is far too much to share all in one post, so I will promise to be better about posting more often. It has not been easy to do so - there has been so much going on, every hour of every day. One thing is for certain, as we schlep our bags and files and computers from hotel to car, from car to hotel - we need Roadies!!!!

We started the trip on September 12. We drove from Tucson to Albuquerque, from Albuquerque to Colorado Springs, from Colorado Springs across the breadth of Kansas to St. Louis, from St. Louis to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We left surrounded by summer monsoon clouds. Four days later, we were surrounded by autumn in the midwest.

From there, it is hard to fathom all we have done, and all that has transpired.

I keynoted the annual Governance conference for the Dorothy Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.

We presented a workshop on Governing for What Matters in Danbury, Connecticut, for the Greater Danbury Nonprofit Resource Center and the United Way of Western Connnecticut.

We facilitated a Community Engagement Plan for the United Way’s Stamford, Connecticut office, focused on Family Financial Stability.

We presented workshops titled Building Engaged Support for Your Mission in Kent (CT) and in Millerton, Albany and Ithaca (NY). In Nyack, NY, we presented two workshops - Building Engaged Support for Your Mission and Building an Energized Board.

In every community, we tell audiences that we left Tucson on September 12, and we will be home the last week of November.  And then we tell the assembled group that we are sharing one message as we travel from community to community across the U.S. and Canada, regardless of whether we are teaching governance or sustainability. That message is simple:

Creating visionary change in our communities is not only possible, it is practical and doable.

In the remainder of the workshops and keynotes, we show how practical it is to do that work - whether we are teaching boards to hold themselves accountable for creating visionary community change, or teaching  practical strategies for generating resources by linking arms rather than by competing.

In every community, audiences walk in skeptical. And in every community, they leave inspired, energized, excited to get back to work and begin making a more significant difference in their communities.

We are having a blast!

Add to that blast that it is autumn, and we are traveling in the most beautiful countryside, watching the leaves change. We have been through the most picturesque villages, driven along hours of winding roads filled with old barn after old barn. And we have had the privilege of spending 5 days in Ithaca, NY, where the Finger Lakes meet gorges and waterfalls, and there is something extraordinarily beautiful at every turn.

The highs of the work have been balanced, unfortunately, by the lows of - well - just life. Some of you know that Dimitri has been his dad’s primary caregiver for the past five years, as his dad has become more and more infirmed. Just a few days after we arrived in Connecticut, Papou was hospitalized for the umpteenth time. Only this time, after almost a week, his body just gave out.

It has been difficult for Dimitri, knowing that after all this time, visiting Papou 3 - 4 times a week and often more, accompanying him to doctor’s appointments, advocating on his behalf - it has been hard to know that in Papou’s last hours, Dimitri was not with him.

The rest of Dimitri’s family was there, however. And in the 24 hours before he passed, old friends from far away came to visit as well. Papou left this earth knowing that he was loved.

So it has been a mixed trip, for certain. The work has been incredible, as has the scenery. The ability to spend time with people we love and do not often get to see - oh that has been a treat! And yet it is all bittersweet, as Dimitri feels the absence of his dad, who had become so very very present in all our lives these past few years.

Tonight we are heading into Canada. We will visit with friends, and Dimitri will get to spend Thanksgiving weekend with his family, most of whom live in Toronto. This is where we were supposed to be, for certain - who could have known? We have workshops scheduled in Guelph and London, where we will get to spend time with friends both new and old. And then we are back on the road, to the city of Monroe, just south of Detroit, and the journey continues from there.

That’s it for this post. I promise to share more about the work, the scenery, the visiting with friends and the rest of this incredible journey in the coming days and weeks. With one very glaring, important and saddening exception, this has been a more extraordinary month than even we could have imagined.

For those who have asked what they can do to support Dimitri and his family during this time, he has asked that you make a donation to the Southern Arizona Community Diaper Bank. There was not a week that went by, in Papou’s last years, that Dimitri’s family was not thankful that he could afford the incontinence supplies he needed. In his memory, we ask that you help the Diaper Bank help someone who is not as fortunate.

Interested in following the 2+ month Community-Driven Tour 2008?  Just follow the link!

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Throughout the morning, we focused on the need to change the way we see things, before we can change the things we do. The “doing” part is easy if we have transformed the way we think and be as participants in this sector.

When we change the way we see things, things change. But as we have been exploring in the posts about the arts, “seeing” is not just about the images that touch the eyes of our flesh; seeing is just as much (if not more) about the eyes of our spirit.

In Grand Rapids, the assembled board members in Grand Valley State’s Loosemore Auditorium were encouraged to see what would be possible if they focused their vision - their seeing - on making a difference. As that way of seeing sunk in, moment by moment, I watched as board member after board member felt empowered. That vision is why we join boards!

And so, as you head into your week, that is what I wish for you. Encourage your eyes to see all they have the potential to see. The Little Prince reminds us that “One cannot see well except with the heart; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Change the way you see things. And things will change.

Have a great Monday, and a great week, all!

If you are new to the Monday Morning Rock Out, you can find previous Rock Outs here - enjoy!

(And if you or someone you know is considering getting your Masters degree, the mission of the Masters of Science in Community Leadership program at Duquesne is nothing less than providing a change-the-world, leave-a-legacy, make-a-difference experience for its students. We know because we helped the department recraft its strategy to do just that, and because we teach a course, “Creating the Future of Your Community,” as adjunct faculty in that new curriculum!)

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“Only slightly more than 1 in 10 donors (13 percent) say their experience as a donor exceeded expectations, according to a new survey. While 83 percent of donors said their experience met expectations, it leaves “more room for improvement for nonprofits to wow their donors,” said Dirk Rinker, president and CEO of Campbell Rinker, a marketing research firm.”

When will we see surveys that ask the only people who matter - the communities we serve?  When will we begin getting a real read on what we should be accomplishing, and for whom?

As long as we continue to see ourselves primarily accountable to donors, we will continue to disappoint BOTH our communities AND our DONORS.

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