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Chattanooga Stand: Another Successful Weekend Monday, July 20, 2009
Chattanooga Stand received another huge boost this weekend at Nightfall, Movies in the Park, and the Chattanooga Market. Over a thousand surveys in 48 hours! Thanks to everyone who took a stand for our cool little city.
The four questions that compose the Stand survey are unique and powerful for their ability to inspire sincere contemplation from anyone that earnestly considers his/her own personal answers. Conversation, vision, thought, and passion are exuded from many of those willing citizens, and such dedication to an idea of ‘home’ is exciting to witness for everyone working for Stand.
What’s important to you? The answers vary… The citizens are diverse in mindset and background… But from the many different opinions within this region come common themes for collective growth and progress.
Collective? Progress? To the skeptic, these words represent the vocabulary of the idealist ‘do-gooder,’ the hippie activist, the philanthropic posers… But for anyone that has taken a Stand, it is clear that conversations amongst many, for the well-being of a common neighborhood, city, or region, can produce a citizenry that is deeply vested in the well-being of that community. This is the mission of Stand—to provide a means by which citizens take collective ownership and responsibility. Chattanooga’s future will be determined by anyone and everyone who believes that the common person can positively influence this place—our place. Participation is key! To have a voice in the direction of something, one must always be willing to get involved.
Take a Stand! Share your thoughts about this region that we all call home.
By Fynn Glover, Stand Field Organizer
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When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Portable
Monday began like a normal day at CreateHere—if you can call any day normal. Got in around 8:30 and began work on my various projects. Fellows strolled in and we greeted each other after the long weekend apart. At our weekly team meeting, Helen commissioned the purchase of some fuel for the fellows (snacks, fruit, and such) and so I knew this was going to be a great day.
Then the unthinkable happened: my laptop died. Power just shut off. Tried many a thing to get it working, but to no avail. There was a sense of urgency as well, seeing as I had a conference call in 30 minutes, and notes for it were on that laptop. Urgency, but not panic, for I had planned for such a contingency. I borrowed a laptop, and utilizing a few free tools and services that I will detail in a moment, I was able to access those notes and continue on as if nothing had happened. (The shock over the death of my laptop had yet to really sink in.)
First, Dropbox. This handy online service performs an instantaneous backup with an online server—they give you 2 GB of free storage—and, consequently, syncing with another computer. Everything saved in your “dropbox” is uploaded to the hosting server, which means you have all of your files safe in the “cloud.” I store any document I could want to access from another computer in dropbox, and it’s come in handy. Using it with OneNote—my preferred note taking and organizational tool—is simple: just make the default save location in your dropbox; then your OneNote notebooks are synced across computers, and accessible even if your computer crashes.
Second, PortableApps. This website has a huge collection of programs that can run from a flash drive. The main one that is handy in this case is Portable FireFox with Xmarks extension. This will backup your favorites—and passwords if you choose—and sync them across computers, so that you only need to plug it in to the borrowed computer and your bookmarks will be available as if it were your very own.
Third, Skype on a stick. If the borrowed computer doesn’t have Skype, you can still use this to access your contacts and make those important calls.
Google Docs is also a helpful app in these situations; as any word docs, pdfs, etc. are accessible online anywhere. Also great for collaboration.
By Ben Johnson, CreateHere Economy Fellow
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July 18: Sundown in St. Elmo Friday, July 17, 2009
The St. Elmo Merchants Association presents the second Sundown In St. Elmo, a Saturday evening monthly event series that coincides with the popular World Music Summer program at the Incline Railway Lower Station. The Sundown In St Elmo series features working artist receptions, poetry readings, live music and giveaways and promotions from participating merchants.
The next Sundown in St. Elmo event will kick off Saturday, July 18th at 6pm. Participating businesses include Umbra Essence Candles and Gifts, Pasha Coffee and Tea, Body Wisdom Therapeutic Massage, Mojo Burrito, Blacksmiths Bistro and Collective Clothing. Each of the businesses will offer in-store specials as well as a variety of activities between 6pm-9pm on the third Saturday of each month. All events are free and open to the public.
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Lessons Learned Editing a Blog
This is a voice, calling to you from the ether. Hello, friend. How’d you do?
Frankly, it’s just the voice of the very same person who, for nearly a year now, has been working as CreateHere’s resident blogger. Say what you will about distant Wizard-of-Oz-esque floating heads and puppet-string ad writers, most of Chattanooga’s writers are lucky enough to have viable, celebrated creative outlets. Why hide from the work we do, when so often that work is engaging and significant? I’ve always been very upfront about what I do here, and I’ve never shied away from writing in much the same way I would in other venues. No ether, no fog, no special effects, no special accents. No need, really.
I’ve had the great privilege to write on behalf of an organization I care for deeply, and that’s made all the difference. This week, I’ve matched that privilege with the epic honor of editing blog posts from my colleagues, the CreateHere fellows—the people who make this place what it is.
I’m gonna join the crew today and write a little post of my own, because it’s been an enlightening week. Editing, as it turns out, is very different than writing (surprise). Where writing takes research and planning and coffee and big-picture and guidance, editing takes awe, pure and simple.
Earlier this week, we heard from TJ Bowman, a man obsessed with the meaning of beauty; Thomas Perry, a cheeky curator; and Fynn Glover, an earnest community organizer, just to name a few. It should go without saying: their voices are very different, but equally valuable.
How, then, to put them together, to bring some order to the chaos, some vision to the many, many voices? That’s a question I’ve heard a lot lately, working closely with Chattanooga Stand.
And what I’ve concluded, after editing and canvassing and copywriting and phone banking (all very much related), is that you don’t force order on that chaos. You celebrate entropy, and you stand in stunned awe of diversity in thought. The ticks, the nuances, the soaring heights: they are all indispensable in this mission to be better writers, better Chattanoogans, better global citizens.
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Chattanooga, You Amaze Me.
Hey there, Chattanooga. I answered four questions for the future. Have you?
Please, take your stand now.Nearly 10,000 people have spoken up about what they want for Chattanooga’s future. Already, Chattanooga’s participation is an astounding success! The Stand campaign is raising the bar across the country, even the world, for survey-based community visioning efforts.
How high is the bar being raised? Really, really high: our goal is to get 25,000 responses to a four-question survey by August 31.
The numbers speak for themselves:
ImagineCALGARY*
City: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Population: 956,000
Total Participants: over 18,000
Campaign Length: estimated 12 months
Participation Rate:1.88%*ImagineCALGARY maintains “the largest community visioning process of its kind anywhere in the world!”
VisionPDX
City: Portland, Oregon
Population: 568,000
Total Participants: over 17,000
Campaign Length: 24 months
Participation Rate: 2.99%And now….
Stand
City: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Population: 170,880
Total Participants: nearly 10,000
Campaign Length: 2.5 months
Participation Rate: 5.7%
Proud to be a Chattanoogan,Sarah Lester
Campaign Coordinator for StandPosted by
