After the Summit ...
Posted 12/17/2007 - 6:37pm
It’s exciting to be a part of a social network with a clear mission, like this one. I’m curious to know how many Purpose Prize Winners and Fellows who attended the Summit have reached out to those they met in Palo Alto, in a substantive way. How many plan to use this space to connect, share information, explore new ideas and possible collaborations, ask questions, and so on?
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- by Howard and Marika Stone
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Keeping the Faith
So glad that Marika brought up the issue of reaching out. Perhaps it is a generation thing that keeping in touch via the email feels strange. Much prefer the face to face. We had the opportunity to meet, Marika, Howard, Gordon and Delores, in St. Petersburg for the Positive Aging Conference. It felt like we have known each other for years. We did not have to explain ourselves. We were asked several times during our presentation how could others be enticed to follow our example. Gordon’s wife mentioned that there were 5 hungry years in which none was paying attention to his ideas, but one day he spoke at a meeting where an influential legislator was listening. That was the “end of the beginning”.
We must overcome any age barriers to keeping in touch. During the conference a woman that runs a NY radio offered me the opportunity to be heard. It is a good media to keeping in touch.
I often wonder if a small group of fellows could not work together on a small project, one that we all have a common interest. What would be the end result.
Yes Marika, I plan to visit this website and write some erratic messages like this one. It is a good beginning.
Contacts from the Purpose Prize Summit
I’ve had substantive discussions with three other Fellows, one of whom I knew in advance. The topics are pretty specific and practical, one involving confidential information and the others with little relevance to other Fellows, so we have been in touch “off line” rather than through the Encore site.
Presidents' Summit for America's Future
I was one of ten people to represent Chicago at the 1997 Presidents Summit for America’s Future, at which time a pledge was made to support the most at risk kids via a variety of supports. Over the years since then this has been diluted to be another effort to support all kids, which means kids in poverty are still left without the type of consistent support that the Summit promised.
Why? In my mind it is because the Generals who organized the Summit did not use the basic tool that they use in war….maps. With maps you can show where the enemy is located and plan how you distribute troops, and how you support those troops with weapons, ammunition, renforcements, food, training, etc.
If generals were using poverty maps to show where poverty is concentrated in big cities and rural areas, and to show indicators of need, such as violence, or poor schools, they could focus troops and reinforcements on those places rather than constantly reinvent the wheel. If someone maintains a database of youth serving organizations for the same areas, then generals can mobilize the infrastructure needed to support existing programs before they launch new ones in the same areas.
Visit the Program Locator and Tutor/Mentor Institute sections of http://www.tutormentorconnection.org and you can see how I’m applying these concepts to support more than 200 tutor/mentor locations in the Chicago region. This concept can apply in other cities, and other causes, and enables non profits and business to combine efforts for a common purpose. I hope you find it useful to your work.