Move The Mountain -

The Gates-Buffet Great Giving Challenge

Scott C. MIller, CEO — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Gates-Buffet Great Giving Challenge

As you may know, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are asking hundreds of the richest people in America to give away half of their wealth. If the top 400 gave away half of their wealth, giving would rise from $300B a year in the US to $900B a year!

In the July 5th, 2010 Fortune magazine, Warren Buffet reiterates his thinking behind giving away more than 99% of his wealth. It’s a wonderfully hopeful and inspiring message. Here is a snippet: “…Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.”
Circles® is an invitation to be generous as we build relationships across class lines. When we come to know the pain of poverty through these new relationships, that very proximity challenges any rationalizations that we may have that there are good and just reasons for our nation’s growing economic disparity. Another quote from Buffet illuminates how much luck he assigns to his success: “…I have worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards great teachers with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.”
Buffet defends our economic system as serving the country well, despite its flaws. But he does acknowledge how being a white male (like me) “…removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced…” I, too, know the instant privilege I was given by being raised a white male in the United States. No effort on my part was required to have these initial advantages.

The best estimate that Fortune magazine can make about how much the top 400 are giving is about 11% of their wealth. After donations they have a total adjusted income of $138B a year, that amount adds up to $345,000,000 for each of the top 400 per year. The bottom 20% of US earners average $19,128 a year, before adjustments. People in the top 400 earn over 18,000 times more than people in the bottom 20%. It would take over 7,500,000 Americans from the bottom 20% to match the total income of the top 400.

When we reflect on the widening gap between the rich and poor in our nation, we do and should feel very uncomfortable. Our justifications for this discrepancy only protect us from discomfort for so long before we wither stop thinking about it or do something about it. Buffet and Gates have obviously chosen to release their wealth into the world to relieve suffering and build up the capacity of more Americans to succeed.

The timing of “The Great Giving Challenge,” as Buffet and Gates refer to their campaign is happening just as Circles® is scaling up. People want to invest in strategies that 1) make sense, 2) empower rather enable people, 3) have a proven track record, and 4) feel good. Circles® has all of this going for it.

I believe that the next decade will be exciting for those of us promoting Circles® and for the nation as we move towards a commitment to end poverty. We obviously have vast, untapped individual resources that can be put to the good. Better policies will come as individuals and communities insist that we level of the playing field so that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can become economically stable and even thrive. Many thanks to Gates and Buffet for their leadership! May we all reflect on our own giving and challenge ourselves to be even more generous. Not just because we should, but because it feels so good to give.

Let’s put this disparity into some context:

You can fit 400 billionaires into the grand ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City and still have 2600 seats left over. It would take 7,500,000 Americans in the bottom 20% to match the annual adjusted income of these 400—roughly most of the population in New York City. The top 400 are earning 17,406 times the bottom 20%. And there are 23,000,000 in the bottom 20%, earning an average of $19,128 a year.

We forget all of the policies that created the middle class dating back to the Homestead Act of the 1850s.

An Ending Poverty Revolution

Scott Miller, CEO — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

On this Fourth of July I am thinking about the revolution that we need to have in order for today’s children to have a sustainable future when they reach 50. Freeing ourselves from England’s rule will look like child’s play compared to the revolution we need now. We have 6.8B people on earth and no viable game plan for sustainable living. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University professor and author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time and, most recently, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet identified six areas that he thinks are crucial to ending extreme poverty—agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, business development, and environmental conservation. Sachs contends that even if we solve these problems quickly and relieve the planet of its extreme poverty, we will still have problems. “…putting aside the billion to a billion and a half poorest people—the five and a half billion others on the planet are already using resources at such a level, and are tending to increase their resource use at such a rate, that the trajectory of global society is unsustainable.”

We simply cannot continue to spend our money on more “stuff” and get away it with for much longer. How do we responsibly spend our vast US discretionary income? How about first eliminating the extreme poverty that Sachs states in his Stanford Social Innovation Review article, http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/qa_jeffrey_sachs/, is killing perhaps 10-20M people a year? Where extreme poverty exists, we find danger such as wars, chaos, and eventually the deployment of US military strategies that cannot fix the underlying problems of poverty. Spending money on solving the world’s biggest problems is a much more rewarding and satisfying experience than increasing our carbon footprint with a second home, more toys, and joy riding across the planet.

Here in the US we have a functional poverty rate of about 30%--people who live under 200% of poverty guidelines and for the most part aren’t choosing this lifestyle voluntarily. Much of this poverty is avoidable if we could get on top of two vital educational issues: sex and money. The quickest way for a woman to get into poverty is to become pregnant from a father who does not take responsibility for providing for his new family. And the easiest way to stay stuck in poverty, even with two breadwinning parents, is to never learn the ABC’s of money.

US poverty costs us more than $500B a year in fallout according to the Center for American Progress. There is both a moral and economic incentive to solve it. We naively assume that children are going to learn all they need to know from their parents when it comes to the most important issues that affect whether or not you live in poverty, such as choosing responsibly when you will become a parent and with whom, and becoming financial literate. Having just been dragged into the latest Twilight film last night and witnessing how many very young (as in 5 through 12 year olds) were inappropriately allowed to watch Hollywood’s dysfunctional depiction of love (as in she feels more empowered by her fantasies of becoming a vampire than having a more normal relationship with the werewolf), I can tell you that millions of children are not going to learn from either their parents or the movies how to have a functional family and experience economic stability. Society, and specifically the community, has to step in and teach our children how to do well.

Circles is a tool for bringing economically stable adults into safe and productive relationships with children who need help learning the basics of money, relationships, and communications. For middle and upper income people, Circles is a tool and a reminder to redirect their discretionary money and time to help eliminate both extreme world poverty and our own domestic poverty. If we let our selves stop denying the problems of poverty we will see that there is no time to waste. A sustainable future for our children means that we as adults must step up and create the revolution of our lifetime.

We can and should end poverty!

Trip to Washington, DC

Scott Miller, CEO — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The door to the plane closed in Albuquerque and I bit into my favorite natural licorice stick that my wife Jan had secretly packed into my briefcase when suddenly I noticed that the licorice had popped off a temporary crown and I had inadvertently broke it into 3 pieces with my next bite. Oops… This was an intricate set of DC meetings that had taken a lot of time and energy to arrange.

Well, it didn’t hurt and I called the dentist during my layover in Denver who gave me some safety measures (like chew on the other side until I get back). All was well.

Craig Roberston, Executive Director of Spiritual Leadership, Inc. out of Lexington, KY met with me for breakfast in DC and we continued our ongoing plans for preparing faith organizations to engage with Circles. Craig’s organization is working with faith organizations across the nation to help them form sustainable teams that both enrich the church and turn their goodwill, faith, and love more fully towards the community. Circles is now the main model he is encouraging churches to pursue once they have gone through his “incubator” program. Craig was already responsible for seeding Circles with Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson, MS.

Craig and I were then greeted by Cynthia George (VP of Governmental Affairs for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital) from Albany, GA and a personal car service that she arranged to take us to our meetings that day. Now, this was the way to navigate Washington! Cynthia, Craig and I headed over to Health and Human Services Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships office to meet with Director Alexia Kelley and Deputy Director Acacia Bamberg Salatti. They had heard a presentation on Circles from UMC Global Ministries Associate General Secretary Jeri McKie last month and were happy to meet with us. The purpose of this office is to convene and support faith-based initiatives with government efforts. It was a positive briefing and immediately led to several important new contacts at the Center for American Progress, The Office of Community Services, and Catholic Charities, USA.

Our next stop was the Community Action Partnership’s National Office to meet with President and CEO, Don Mathis, and Director of Training Lindley Dupree. CAP holds an annual conference each year at which we have presented Circles for several of the past six or seven years. We were encouraged to present again this year and if CAP receives a training and technical assistance grant from the Office of Community Services, they said they would be pursuing us to help train more CAPs. There are currently 25 of our 60 sites led and/or funded through CAPs.

After lunch Cynthia went to meet with her business associates and Craig and I headed across the river to Alexandria to meet with Catholic Charities USA for a briefing with: Jane Stenson, Sr. Director of Poverty Reduction Strategies; Jean Beil, Sr. Vice President of Programs and Services; Desmond Brown, Sr. Director of Government Affairs; and Lucreda Cobbs, Sr Director of Advocacy and Civic Engagement. What was clear to Craig and me is that Circles represents an important bridge from the community to policy makers in our nation’s capital. Our stories, data, barrier reports, and insights are critical for advocates like Catholic Charities in order to be effective at their job of keeping Washington urgent about poverty issues. Catholic Charities is currently active in nine of our 60 sites. The national office will discuss Circles with President, Rev Larry Snyder (who was out of town) about developing a formal partnership with us and helping to in spread the word through their network.

Craig headed back to the airport and I joined up with Cynthia to have dinner with her close friends Kiki McLean and husband Joe McLean. Kiki heads up the Washington DC office for Porter Novelli Public Services, a communications and media firm specializing in social marketing. (Novelli started AARP and the firm now has 100 offices around the globe). Kiki is a frequent political commentator on TV news shows and has been a senior advisor and spokesperson for several national presidential campaigns. Joe has been on the campaign trail for 25 years, managing statewide political campaigns races and was on the founding leadership team for Senator Barack Obama’s Illinois race. Both Kiki and Joe are accessible, warm, and enjoyable people who know everyone anyone would ever need to know to be effective in DC.

The next morning Cynthia and I met with Kiki at her office where 60 or her employees work in a variety of domains from research to marketing, to event planning, to social marketing campaigns aimed at getting kids to quit smoking, etc. She had guest offices set up for both Cynthia and me with our names posted by the doors—nice welcoming touch. Kiki listened carefully to us about the Circles Campaign and suggested the following: get your 1000 Circles enrolled, continue collecting data and switch the story from infrastructure to the 1000 families and how their lives are changing. She can then help us develop a feature and begin to bring more national awareness. Kiki also suggested that we recast this work as economic development and work closely with our Governor’s offices, especially the economic development directors. Kiki asked Adam Burns and Carrie Schum who are senior vice presidents in Strategic Planning and Research for Porter Novelli to join our conversation. They had fresh perspectives on how to market the expansion of Circles.

I then met with Jennifer Johnson, Senior Legislative Counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) who had recently been in Mississippi and was referred to me by our MS Circles Director, Kitty Cook Ramsey. CRL pays attention to how states are managing predatory lending practices and works to bring in new state policies to protect people. We discussed the possibility of becoming national partners through our Big View agenda. I asked Karin VanZant, our Senior Circles Trainer from Springfield, OH to join into the conversation by speakerphone so that we could develop some immediate next steps. I was excited about their work and I felt even more motivated to get involved with this issue when I saw how much low income people are paying to be in perpetual debt to predatory lenders. CRL is actively pursuing relief in the following states (with their Payday Interest Rates calculated on an average loan): CO (443%), MO (469%), MS (574%), KY (460%), VA (386%), and CA (426%). Let’s help out on this one!

My final briefing was arranged by Alexia Kelley (HHS Faith Based …) with John Noonan, Senior Advisor for the HHS Office of Community Services. Joan Kuriansky, Executive Director of Wider Opportunities for Women and board member for Move the Mountain joined me in this exciting meeting. John encouraged us to continue collecting data and bringing it to Washington. He commented that everyone else is bringing in units of service but one of the unique features of Circles is that we are committed to helping people all the way out of poverty. He mentioned the Social Innovation Fund and hoped that our network would do what it could to advocate for this fund to grow and be available in all federal agencies. We also discussed OCS opportunities, and the possibility of presenting to the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Again, thanks to Alexia Kelley, I have a phone meeting on Monday with Melissa Boteach who is the Half in Ten Manager at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. In this capacity she coordinates “Half in Ten: The Campaign to Cut Poverty in Half in Ten Years,” a project designed to build the political and public will to reduce poverty by promoting decent work, providing opportunity for all, building wealth, and increasing economic security. Check out her article in the Washington Post: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/01/what_obama_can_learn_from_mose.html

It was a successful trip of seeding our Circles Campaign with the advocates, building new allies in DC, and getting clarity about our strategic direction: ENROLL CIRCLE LEADERS AND GET RESULTS.

And I am happy to report that my permanent cap was finally placed on my tooth this morning.

Note On Fundraising For Circles

Scott Miller, CEO — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

May 4, 2010 NOTE ON FUNDRAISING FOR CIRCLES

I was in Costa Mesa, CA earlier this month learning from two masters of fundraising: Jerry Panas and Bill Sturtevant. These two have hundreds of millions of dollars in their long and significant careers, specializing in major gifts and campaigns. Our own fundraising consultant, Dr. Alan Rice, suggested I attend one of their two-day seminars. It was well worth the time and money!

Here are the major “take-aways” for me:

1. People give money because they are emotionally engaged in your mission

2. Communicating with people frequently over time is more important than the image you are projecting and even the performance of your organization

3. Feelings, not analytical thinking, drive giving

4. Everything happens in relationships. As you cultivate your most important relationships, values, enthusiasm and eventually funds can transfer to your cause

5. Relationships are built through story-telling

6. People care much more about the stories of those you serve than the nuts and bolts needs of the organization

7. One photo and story of one person or family has a more powerful impact than the telling of numerous stories—attention gets easily diverted

8. The future of your organization is in the board. Your board must be willing to raise funds and it is worth the time to develop a board that makes your organization his or her top organization.

9. In tough times, people will actually increase the size of their gifts to their top 3 charities, but decrease or eliminate gifts to their lower priority charities

10. Since 1974 giving in the US has gone up every year with only one exception

11. 10% of your donor base will give 90% of the funds

12. For each potential major gift donor you should have a primary partner that you have identified who will help get the meeting. The meeting is 85% of the challenge and is more difficult to obtain than getting the gift

13. Major fundraising entities have “move managers” who pay attention to how relationships are cultivated. They are planning and keeping track of each move that will lead to a solicitation and a gift

14. People go through three life stages: survival, accumulation, and distribution. Follow people along their life journey and ask for larger and larger donations as people live into their distribution years

15. You have to be very clear about what you want the money for and how it is going to help the people you serve

16. Your passion and enthusiasm is critical, far more important than your brochure

There was a great deal of “how- to” mechanics including phrases to use, materials to use or not use, etc that is best learned directly from the seminar. I encourage anyone interested in sustaining and growing Circles to attend one of their seminars. http://www.panaslinzy.com

Bartlesville, OK

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

April 23, 2010 Bartlesville, OK

Bartlesville graduated their first 11 investigators last night in front of an audience of more than 125 people in a well done, moving, thoughtful, and inspirational ceremony. Earlier in the day I was able to attend their first formal Circles™ Resource team meeting. What stood out for me was the quality of leadership that joined the team. Their chairperson was articulate, on task, and effective. Each member had experience with fundraising and several were plugged into the banking community. Two officers of the new ‘Building Bridges” initiative are presidents of the credit union and local Arvest Bank.

Today we met for five hours with Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director Howard Hendrick in a group of about twenty leaders, five of them were new Circle Leaders who had just completed Getting Ahead. Also in the meeting were State Senator Ford and House Representative Sears. Local DHS top management, Community Action Executive Director, Health Department head and members of the Building Bridges planning team were in attendance. We covered a wide range of topics related to the central question; “What would increase the capacity of Bartlesville to reduce and eventually end poverty?”

Here were some of my favorite insights, ideas, and program strategies from the dialogue:

1.       Change=Dissatisfaction x Vision x Specificity. People have to be dissatisfied with their situation, have a vision for what life might be like (future story), and have a specific plan to achieve it. You can be unhappy and have a plan but without vision the plan will probably not be implemented. You can be unhappy, have a vision but without a specific plan, you will unlikely change anything. Director Hendricks challenged me on “why create a buzz of dissatisfaction about our national poverty” without a specific plan to address it?” (that is a great argument against 90% of the noise that the media makes on any issue.)

2.       What is the plan to end poverty? Communities need to reinvent themselves and generate new jobs. The system of health, human service, education, and workforce agencies must hold themselves accountable to helping people achieve economic stability and weed out the low-impact strategies that discourage and disenable people. Also the power of community allies needs to be harnessed so that enough social capital is available to assist people to build the mindsets and networks that allow them financially succeed.

3.       Family Expectations is a massive control group study being conducted in Oklahoma City by MRDC and Mathematica in which married and unmarried couples receive various supports.   Director Hendrick stated that marriages longevity can be correlated to levels of “Cash, Commitment, and Communication”. Strategies fall into 4 quadrants below:

One-night stand, father supportive

Strategy: give father reality checks—PREP program and Family Expectations intervention with child support lawyer—can lead to conclusion “better to stay together”

Going to get married, father supportive

Strategy: marriage support to ensure longevity through healthy communication skills, enough cash, and maintaining commitment.

One-night stand, father unsupportive

Strategy: institute child support, hold father accountable to pay and interrupt irresponsible child-making behavior

Going to get married, father unsupportive

Strategy: Reality check which will lead to top right or bottom left quadrants

4.       There are about 50 births per month in Washington County (Bartlesville). There are 4 OBGYNs in the county. One intervention is to sit down with each one of these four critical points of contact and ask them to encourage newly pregnant couples to attend a class and be invited into the Circles Campaign if they anticipate financial challenges.

5.       There are over 2800 households on food stamps at any given time in Washington County. What would it take to reach out to all of them through a Circles Campaign? How many potential allies are there in the top five churches the county (participants in the room estimated about 9000). What new configurations of Circles would allow the initial 3 to 1 ratio of allies to Circle leaders become streamlined? Can 2 new Circle leaders be matched with 2 allies and eventually make the ratio 1 to 1? How can Circles leaders support each other as allies to one another more quickly? Can Circle Leaders be mobilized to reach out to those on food stamps in ways that effectively support this group of households?

6.       Vaughn Grisham, author of “Tupelo, Evolution of a Community” provides communities with a potential blueprint for how to reinvent themselves and build a more robust, current, and diverse economy. I recommended that a study group read and discuss this book and if a task force for new jobs is developed, bring Grisham in for a consultation.

A follow-up meeting between Building Bridges staff and Director Hendricks has been set in two weeks to move forward on several of the ideas that were agreed upon as next steps.

Congrats to Bartlesville! This was an exciting and productive two days!

Financing Circles by Building Affordable Housing

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

April 15, 2010
Financing Circles by Building Affordable Housing

Housing Visions in Syracuse, NY has developed 786 affordable units using low income housing tax credits and they are funding the Circles Initiative into the future with the proceeds. Here is how it works:

In a typical example, an investor or group of investors puts $8M upfront and then receives $1M a year for the next ten years in tax savings. It’s an attractive return and allows a housing organization like Housing Visions to tear down and/or rehab blighted neighborhood housing stock in order to bring neighborhoods back to life. Housing Visions is nonprofit and is able to utilize money that would otherwise go to income taxes and owner’s profits to instead support the local Circles Initiative and related services.

Founder Ken Craig has taken Housing Visions from a one-man show in 1989 to a thriving organization with 103 full-time employees. They are building or rehabilitating homes in cities throughout New York State including Syracuse. And now Ken and his team are ready to take their model to the nation. Move the Mountain is partnering with Housing Visions to identify one pilot site in 2010, and two more in 2011. Their criteria for selection include the ability of a project to:
1. revitalize and sustain a neighborhood and include the Circles Initiative;
2. be within 600 miles of Syracuse NY (as far west as Indiana, as far south as the Carolinas and anywhere in the Northeast);
3. secure low income housing tax credits and supplemental funding —in other words you are not competing against yourself or close partners in a manner that inhibits securing necessary tax credits.

Housing Visions is also developing a system to train others in pursuing their own affordable housing/neighborhood revitalization initiative in the use of its model. In a short time they expect to be able to go anywhere in the country with this training.

Housing Visions’ approach provides a reliable source of revenue for local Circles Initiatives while building a more sustainable community through revitalized neighborhoods.

Visit them at: www.HousingVisions.org

Let us know if you want to apply for one of the pilot sites.

The Clean Sweep

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Clean Sweep

If you read my blog on clearing clutter and liked it, then you will like this resource: http://coachingjourneys.com/pdf/cleansweep.pdf

If you decide to take the test, it pays to be brutally honest. I found several things to consider that would create more energy, efficiency, happiness, and peace of mind. Perhaps you will to. Here is a summary of what I found in my own life. The maximum score is 25 per area.

Environment—scored 22. I would like more natural light in my office where I spend a lot of time when I am at home. I am going to talk with our friend and builder about putting in glass block which would make it easier for me to be in there for 8 hours a day.

My wife, Jan, and I are great at getting rid of clutter and keeping things maintained in our home. But there are some storage places that have not been “decluttered” for over a year that I plan to get at next month when our friend and colleague Mary Sigmann comes to town. She is a professional organizer and a tremendous inspiration! http://www.organizer-coach.com/

Money—scored 22. We need to update our will, put another month of living expenses into cash, and fine tune our long-term financial plan. Jan and I have always been good with credit, planning out our expenses year to year and developing future plans that are manageable and reasonable to us.

Emotional and Physical Health—scored 18. Much more work can be done in this area. I have been trying to lose weight for years and have come to the realization that it is going to involve eating less food. What else to do when I am restless or bored?? I have been much more consistent this year with the exercise. I have a new circle of friends since moving out to New Mexico and some of them are very conscious about eating. I hope it rubs off.

Relations—scored 20. Why do we have the most difficulty being loving to the people we most love? I know I am not alone in this challenge. I am learning to let go of criticism, increase my compassion, accept what I can’t change, and learn how to state my requirements of others rather than complain.

The Clean Sweep is a nice tool to use when one has the time to reflect on what could be better. Hope you find it useful. Could be a great exercise to do in Circles meetings--good for allies and Circle leaders.

Building Circles and Teams that last

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Building Circles and Teams that Last

We are learning in our partnership with the United Methodist about the nature of teams—how they function and what makes them successful over a long enough period of time to transform organizations and communities. There are three types of teams that do different kinds of work:
Directional teams do governance work and they are typically large bodies of stakeholders that come together every so often to help us understand what direction we should be going. Big View meetings and large Guiding Coalition meetings do this kind of work.
Operational teams are comprised of three to twelve people who are going to work together over a long period of time to solve ongoing challenges. They do adaptive work and need to spend at least 8 hours a month in contact with each other. These are our leadership teams that set and support Circles initiatives. It can be any one of the five Guiding Coalition teams that take up the responsibilities of customizing Circles for their community.
Task teams typically do ongoing routine tasks, or short-term assignments. Weekly meetings teams will have sub-teams that are assigned the tasks of holding meetings, overseeing childcare, ensuring good meals, and facilitating Getting Ahead classes.
It is important to not mix these teams up. Giving a directional team adaptive or task work won’t work, because there are too many people whose purpose is to give input and direction. Recruiting people who want to do tasks onto an operational team will frustrate them because they are not looking for adaptive work. And people who want the challenge of adaptive work should not be underemployed by a task assignment.
In most communities you will find most people wanting to join either a directional team or task team. We find that those who are good at adaptive work gravitate towards the leadership team that ensures a healthy guiding coalition is in place making Circles run as smoothly as possible.
Last week in Jackson, Mississippi we built a statewide operational team comprised of Circles coordinators from the three Circles pilots, two state-wide staff and a team of national and state consultants who are going to help build out 1000 Circles throughout the state.
Our national consultant, Craig Robertson, Executive Director of Spiritual Leadership, Inc. helped us build a covenant that would allow us to have an effective, high-trust team. Below are examples of the covenant principles that we developed. We each signed 12 copies that were circulated around the table so that everyone had a copy with everyone else’s signatures.
– We all are responsible for our own behavior/intent/feelings and each others
– Eliminate poverty, not mitigate – not satisfied with less
– Loyal, faithful, Loving, - Live Love – this is the spirit of our work
– We desire to be inclusive
– We start meetings with good news and end with appreciation
– We treat deadlines seriously and renegotiate when needed
– We don’t use this environment to convert people to our belief system
– Communication responses by email within 48 hours
– Attendance / Participation is critically important
– We have an obligation to present possible conflicts with our covenant
– To speak directly and honestly to people not behind their back
– Find language to express when we are hurt

The light bulbs went off in my head as I thought back on my most difficult times with our work. Each memory led me to moments when unspoken expectations went unmet. We did not develop a covenant, nor did we have an agreement about what we would do if one were broken. Instead we assumed are expectations were “obvious” only to be disappointed when people did not live up to these hidden rules.
Life is one big classroom. Rather than ask myself, “why did you not know this already?” I am grateful for the learning experience. The new tools and information strengthen our work at every level of the circles Campaign, from the Circle leader and his or her team of allies, to our local Guiding Coalition team building, to state and national leadership teams.

Humanity and its Priorities

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Humanity and its Priorities

The current media coverage of the tragic devastation in Haiti is bringing the unimaginable suffering of an already downtrodden people into our living rooms each and every day. What strikes a deep sadness in me is the reminder that prior to the earthquake Haitian parents had been feeding their children mud cakes to alleviate the pangs of starvation. Meanwhile, middle and upper income Americans like me fall easily into our incessant world of consumerism, worrying about our shrinking portfolios, our high cost of living, as well as which new electronic gadget to purchase next. If we connect with our humanity and take stock of our priorities, here is how it would look:

1. Ensure all human beings in the world have enough clean water, food, and adequate shelter
2. Ensure that those are ill or injured have access to decent medical care
3. Nurture our children with love, guidance, and education
4. Build a happy and meaningful community life
5. Pursue personal transformation to become the high-level beings we are capable of being

Notice what is not on the list:

1. Rack up my credit card to fill the vacuum of friends and meaning missing in my life;
2. Watch and listen to hours of hate-filled TV and radio pundits endlessly spin political events;
3. Work 50 plus hours a week in order to create a superficial lifestyle that leads to family stress, disconnection from loved ones, and personal isolation.
4. Spend hours in front of a computer screen or texting friends.
5. Fill in your favorite distractions _________.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a personal commitment to the top five priorities? Such a purpose is so right that the full joy of being alive would well up in each one of us!
All American citizens wield enormous global power because of our privileged position as the world’s only superpower. Each and every one of us has instant entitlement to this power. Do not underestimate the personal power that you have been given by the good fortune of being an American citizen.

Let’s use our political and financial resources to change the priorities of the human race. Haiti deserves help in rebuilding its infrastructure and it deserves a 30 year partnership from the US to rebuild its society in ways that ensure that children are never fed another mud cake in order to keep the feelings of starvation away. The 1 in 6 children living in abject poverty worldwide deserve this commitment from the US as well. We can do this! We can make this kind of commitment. We don’t need earthquakes and tsunamis to remind us of the horrible disparity that we have allowed to grow on our watch. Americans have good hearts and generous spirits when crisis strikes. Let’s build on these qualities and commit to ending poverty.

Get Organized for the New Year

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Get Organized for the New Year

Creative chaos seems a misnomer. Clarity is our friend and confusion is not. Chaos in one’s office seems especially counterproductive. It can contribute to feelings of overwhelm and “dropping the ball.” If we can’t find things, it takes extra time and energy to look for them.

I have been working with a personal organizer for the past 6 years and she has made a huge difference in my life. We do much of our work now over the phone since I have moved from Iowa to New Mexico. My office space is uncluttered and a joy to come into each day. Everything in my environment supports me in staying focused, organized, and effective with my work.

Here are the tips I have learned from my Certified Professional Organizer®, Mary Sigmann, www.organizer-coach.com.

Start with subtraction. Only have in your office what you need for your work. Get rid of the junk that is cluttering up your space.
The first step is creating an office environment that is clutter-free and organized.
The next step is cleaning up electronic and hard files.
Finally, take a fresh look at your calendar and how you are managing your time. Only have activities that will move your agenda forward.

Clutter is like a screaming child demanding your attention. Do yourself a favor this year and get organized. Even if you are really organized, there is always a next level.

Scott

Trip to D.C.

Carlos Guajardo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Trip to D.C.

The trip to D.C. was awesome. It started off with me in the office till three in the morning getting all the last touches on things that we, the Think Tank team, had been preparing. I ended up staying the night at the office on the couch and that was actually a good idea due to the fact that we were leaving from the office at five in the morning.

I had this idea that I would fall fast asleep on the ride to D.C. and get plenty of rest before we got there. That plan didn’t work out the way I thought that it would. I did however, get a little bit of rest which Tim, the VISTA from Dayton, so kindly took a picture of and posted on Face book! I have to admit that I had a great time riding with all the people that went and getting to know them and just spending time with them. I believe that road trips gives people a chance to really get to know each other.

So when we got to D.C. it was a lot of what I thought it would be like and at the same time, some things were a lot different than I expected. I mean I had a good feeling that the sightseeing was going to be a blast, and it was. The monuments were defiantly a sight to see. I really enjoyed the Lincoln Monument. We got to stand where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I have a dream speech’ and if anyone knows me well enough, they know that besides Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most respected historical leaders ever to me. It was awesome! I was a little shocked when I saw the White House though. I mean after years of seeing it on television, I somehow thought that it was all back somewhere on its own. It was literally right off the side of the road. Of course there were guards and the road that it was off of didn’t look like it was used too often but it was just kind of surprising to me.

Also something that I got a chance to do was visit the Holocaust Museum. Now before I say anything about this at all I want to say that I believe that everyone, I really mean it, everyone should see this place. I have heard lots of stories, read books, and have seen lots of movies but nothing has come close to comparison to being at this museum. Four of us went into the museum but we all quickly kind of went our own way. I had a lump in my throat from the very beginning. The top floor was dedicated to the time to when Hitler came to power. As I went through I saw so many things that I didn’t know about. I learned about the burning of the books, about all the raping that took place there and how women were treated like dogs. I don’t say that as a metaphor either, I really mean that. I learned that some of the women that lived through that period were walked through the streets naked and the men that were walking them would hold them by their hair. I also learned that when the men would stop to talk to someone, the woman would have to sit on the street while the man held her by the hair. I learned about what a ‘ghetto’ really is and where that word came from and if that wasn’t enough I went into a room where there were shoes everywhere. These were the real shoes of the people that were in the prison camps. I wish I could remember the exact words on the wall but it said something to the effect like “My shoes were made of leather so they kept them, but my body that was made of flesh and bones were thrown into hellfire.” I couldn’t believe it. I looked down and saw the shoe of a little girl and totally lost it for like ten minutes. I am really glad that I went into the museum but I really don’t think I will ever go into there again.

I don’t want to end this on a sad note so the last thing that I would like to add is the part that we were there for to begin with. The set up was nice and I think that most of the people that were expected to show up did. I had the opportunity to facilitate the simulation and I feel really good about it. I am hard on myself when it comes to these kinds of things because I want to do a good job, but I really feel as if I did well on this one. The people that participated in the simulation seemed to have had a good time with it as well and I feel that they all get something out of it.

After the simulation Senator Rockefeller came and gave a speech. There were people from all over and from the looks of the room, there were elected officials and other people with important jobs and titles. When Senator Rockefeller got to the podium the first thing that he said was “Where are the VISTA volunteers?” We raised our hands and then he said to us right there in front of everyone “That’s where I started, it all started at VISTA for me.” I was, and still am, very inspired by that!!

I have no idea where all this is going to lead me but I do know this and believe it with all of my heart. As long as I keep doing the next right thing and stay connected with God, he will put me right where I am suppose to be. I kind of think about it like this. There is no way that I will be able to reach everyone, but at the same time, there will be people that I will come across that only I will be able to reach.

Thank you all for the opportunity and chances that you have given me. I have years of experience of living in poverty and I know what it’s like. I feel a feeling that I can’t explain every time I get a chance to teach someone or help someone about something that I have experienced and that’s because there are people like you that have dedicated your lives to making change possible. Never think that your work is not paying off because I am living proof that it is!! ?

Our D.C.Trip

Shelly Greathouse — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Our D.C. Trip

WOW would have to be the first word I use to describe our trip to D.C. First, let me say that I have never experienced anything like it in the 30 years I have been on this Earth. A road trip, through mountainside and colorful bliss and I got to share the experience with an amazing group of men and women. There was rarely a dull moment in the entire trip. I got to know everyone a bit more than I had before which was interesting in the least.

When we arrived in D.C. one of the first things that we saw was Union Station and the food there was great. I had the juiciest hamburger ever if you’ve seen the pictures you are well aware of that! The sites that we saw are enough reason to say WOW, but of course there was much more to it. The preparation for the poverty simulation in that very nice ballroom, the continental breakfast the morning of the simulation and the bang up performance of our team during the simulation were all very heartwarming and at times even breathtaking.

Then to top it all off I was standing within steps of the Senator of West Virginia, Rockefeller was tall and not just in height! He also started out as an AmeriCorps VISTA if that isn’t a hope shot for us all. The Horizon’s are limitless! I would have to say that this trip is one that will be everlasting in my mind. To anyone who hasn’t been to D.C. I would say that this should be one of those family vacations that you plan. Yeah Disney Land is flashy, and Sea World is fishy, but D.C. from my experience is one of those heart and soul tapping places that will touch you in a way beyond belief.

I am truly thankful to Carlos, Karin, Tim, Tracy, Sonya, Sherry, and Danielle for sharing this experience with me. I am also speechless in thanks to CareSource and Roll Call because without their commitment to each other, and the people and their faith in Think Tank this opportunity would have never been possible. Most of all the sparkle in my little girl’s eyes when I showed her the pictures and told her of my adventure made it all well worth it.

Someday I hope to be able to take my children to D.C. and share with them the history of our nation the way it was so freely shared with me. THANK YOU again to all who made this possible.

Washington D.C. was amazing!

Sonia Holycross — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Washington D.C. was amazing!

Washington D.C. was amazing, to say the least. I felt like I was a child who had found the North Pole. To think of all the great people who dedicated their lives to making this country, a place where people of all races and backgrounds can come together based on one commonality, the desire of Freedom. Freedom has a lot of definitions but I believe freedom starts with an opportunity to be heard. We waged wars for our right to be heard despite our differences. From anti-Semitism, slavery, women’s rights, we have proven that we are a country of diversity and everyone despite our differences will be heard.

It was the courage of people like Abrahram Lincoln; who showed not every white man wanted a slave, or when we heard a neighboring country was exterminating others due to indifference we fought back, because we wanted the world to hear that it’s not okay to do. Even with respect to women rights, someone had to go against the grain and say we (women) deserve more! D.C. to me was a wonderful reminder that we have the strength, capability, and a history to change our world when it is necessary.

We were given a chance to be heard that day. People in poverty. You and me. The different ones in the crowd, for that I have to say my deepest thank you to Care Source who in case you didn’t know, was founded by Pam Morris, one of those” different” people who heard the voice of the under/un-insured. She has not only produced more than adequate health care; she continues to provide opportunities for the people she insures to be heard. Another “different” person, Senator Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia, a former VISTA who stood up and very emotionally spoke out for Health Care Reform attributing a lot to his experience in working with the poor and hearing their voices, made me so proud to be a VISTA.

I must say it feels good to be heard!

The D.C. Experience

Tim Zecchini — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The D.C. Experience

Me in Washington D.C. for a couple of days, who’d’ a thunk it… It was absolutely awesome to see the nation’s capitol… I could have skipped the eight hour drive there and back though… Maybe next time we can get one of those private jets we saw coming and going the entire time non-stop to and from the airport… I got to see some really cool stuff like the actual flag that was the inspiration for “The Star Spangled Banner”, Dale Earnhardt’s racing helmet, Kermit the frog, and Archie Bunkers chair… The Poverty Simulation went off without a hitch and all those involved ran it like professionals… We even got to meet Senator Jay Rockefeller…

Besides all of the stuff I got to see in The Smithsonian I got to see more monuments in one day than I have seen in my entire lifetime… Even got to meet a news anchor from CNN at one of the monuments, but I still have absolutely no idea who he was… Don’t watch the news much it is too depressing… Now if it was John Stewart or Steven Colbert them I know… I swear we did so much walking that I believe I’m an inch shorter now from grinding off the bottoms of my feet… I saw White Houses, Capitol Buildings, and all sorts of other historical buildings but my favorite would have to be the NY Deli… They make the most incredible Coney I have had to date and the Brooklyn Lager wasn’t too shabby either…

Thanks to Care Source for bringing us out with them to run our Poverty Simulation… They jumped right in and helped us out with participation like they had done these for years… By the way when do you want to go back and do another one… Every one who was involved was awesome… We even had someone crying by the end of it… Either they were moved or Sonia is one mean employer… Carlos gave directions and spoke from the heart like he has been doing this since birth… I know this made an impact…

It was really inspiring to meet Senator Jay Rockefeller… He started out as a VISTA just like me and now he is a US Senator… That’s when it hit me that in this country I really can be and do anything… It was an epiphany (oooh fancy word)… Suddenly I realized with God there really are no limits on what I can be in this country… Now I’m not saying I could get the job because I don’t have the money or connections it takes “YET”, but I realized I can do the job… He also taught me that lobbyist’s are mostly evil, you know like Emperor Palpatine darkside evil (sorry for the Star Wars reference, but I got to see C3-PO too)… He also talked about how it took him 30 years to get running water to the town he started in… That kind of passion to improve peoples lives is awesome and makes me want to improve Dayton no matter how long it takes because I now know it can be done… I can’t wait to go to Washington D.C. again…

MTM Update

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

MTM Update

•Please go to www.movethemountain.org and see the new video produced by Think Tank in Springfield, OH. You can circulate this throughout your community to get the word out about Circles. If you want your own website promoted at end of this clip to use locally, let us know.

•A new group of trainers was certified by Michelle last week in Phoenix. Here is one quote I received: The Train the Trainer in Phoenix was great last week. There are some great people involved in this work around the country.

•We have hired Dr. Alan Rice from NC to coach communities on individual donor fundraising, Carol Erickson from Wash DC (who was one of the first staff hired by Gates Foundation and now a private consultant) to help us build national foundation partnerships, and Julie Rice from San Diego to help write grants and streamline materials. Let us know what you need.

•I spent the week in Mississippi to begin working out five-year plans to organize for 1000 Circles using the full partnership of the statewide United Methodist Church office. Both Indiana and Mississippi now have a formal commitment to 1000 Circles. I believe this might be a useful model for all states.

•In partnership with MS UMC we are developing a Circles kit which will be delivered on jump drives. It will be packaged so that any organization in your community can participate in Circles and will include powerpoints, Getting Ahead scholarship -sponsorship materials, recommended weekly meeting agendas, and sample job descriptions for all guiding coalition team members.

•This week’s planning led us to think it could be possible for any church of any size to provide 3 allies, $50/month, and meals for one month in partnership with 11 other churches that would do the same. That would sponsor 12 GA investigators a year and provide allies for their subsequent Circles.

•Dr. Alan Rice from Rural Faith Development and I meet with heads of churches in Texas next week that have up to 10,000 members and can create large Circles initiatives within their own world.

•We have been planning with a private sector and education training company that has 1M end users to develop a web-based training and support system for allies, GC members, and Circles coordinators and coaches. I meet with them in Austin this coming week.

•I began conversations with Shorebank www.sbk.com to provide us with banking kits that we can use in our communities to encourage banks to be friendly to helping people out of poverty.

•Check out www.CFED.org to see how your state is doing with policy related to building assets and income for people struggling to get out of poverty. This is a new partner that provides great Big View frameworks.

New Blog

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Statewide Guiding Coalitions for Circles and Bridges: Ohio and Indiana Precedents

I am excited about the precedents that Ohio and Indiana have established by creating statewide coalitions to approach funders as a collective and to learn and support each other in this pioneering work.

Ohio formed a coalition of Circles communities and approached the Community and Faith Based Office of the Governor for funding last year. They have succeeded in securing an initial $750,000 from the Governor to provide funding to 6 communities over the next 18 months.

I just returned from Indiana last night. About fifteen organizations in Indiana have formed the Indiana Bridges and Circles Alliance, a statewide coalition committed to helping 1000 households out of poverty. The ten lead organizations are:
• The John H. Boner Center (Indianapolis)
• Citizens’ Energy Group (Indianapolis)
• Clarian Health (Indianapolis)
• Dress for Success (Indianapolis)
• Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana (Indianapolis)
• Scott County Partnership (Scottsburg/Austin)
• South Central Community Action Program (Bloomington)
• St. Joseph County Bridges Out of Poverty (SJCBOP) (South Bend)
• TEAMwork for Quality Living (TQL) (Muncie)
• Bridges Collaborative Group of Southern Indiana (BCGSI) (Evansville)

This is a formidable collaboration of partners who are well connected and able to bring things to scale. I came in for two days for a series of meetings with potential funders including: the Secretary of Indiana Family Social Services, the Director of Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, the Director of Medicaid, representatives from the Lilly Endowment Fund, The Indiana Grantmakers Association, The Lumina Foundation, the Nina Mason Pulliam Foundation, Clarian Health Organization top management, the CEO of Cook Pharmica and the group of 25 leaders from our Alliance partners and potential partners including central Indiana’s United Way and Community Action Partnership.

Molly Flodder from Teamwork, acting as the training director for Circles, pulled together the logistics and prepared a document outlining our Alliance members, resources, and overall approach to helping 1000 families. The round of introductions with funders will be followed up with more back and forth about our approach and available funding opportunities. MTM is providing follow-up grantwriting support through our national fundraising team with matching support from Alliance members.

The Indiana Bridges and Circles Alliance is here to stay. The announcement of their presence and purpose resonated loudly with all funders. You can follow this precedent and link with other communities in your state to build a more compelling presence for Bridges and Circles with your legislative bodies, state agencies, college networks, businesses, and foundations. Call us if you want to discuss this further. I am really excited by the possibilities and opportunities that these alliances can yield.

Let’s end poverty!
-Scott

Report from the Worldwide Opportunity Collaboration on Ending Poverty

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Report from the Worldwide Opportunity Collaboration on Ending Poverty

What an amazing experience! Over 200 very bright and able people working throughout the world gathered in Ixtapa, Mexico for five days to help each other increase the world’s capacity to end poverty. I am grateful to our sponsor for encouraging me to attend and covering the registration fee for the Opportunity Collaboration conference. Well worth the time and effort! Here are some of the highlights for me:

Big View

Whatever national Big View issues emerge, they can be framed as policy and program planks for a real bridge from poverty to self sufficiency. Because we are using “Bridges out of Poverty” and focused on helping people achieve self-sufficiency, the bridge imagery is a good one. We are building an educated constituency of allies from all income levels who can help remove policy disincentives that make it scary and unnecessarily difficult to go from welfare to self sufficiency. For example, asset disregards for public assistance are too low.
Bob Friedman is the founder of CFED and the one responsible for bringing the nation matched savings programs (individual Development Accounts). CFED can provide the Circles™ Campaign with its state- by- state scorecards on assets building, as well as policy analysis regarding the bridge from poverty to self-sufficiency. Big View teams can access not only their reports, but the extensive research and analysis provided by CFED. This is a bi-partisan resource committed to increasing wealth among those in poverty.

Microfinance

Helping people develop their own businesses is an important strategy to bring incomes up to self sufficiency levels. I met with the directors of both Accion USA and Accion Texas, the largest micro-financers in the nation. Follow-up conversations are underway to form partnerships that will provide Circle leaders who want to start their own business with the opportunity for necessary training and loans.
I also met an amazing entrepreneur in Austin, Texas who wants to help people start a business (I assume anywhere in the country) teaching Yoga. He has classes in Austin attended by 7000 people and wants to talk about how they can become allies. Let us know if this interests you.

Going to Scale

Criterion Ventures consults large national systems like AARP and Lutheran Social Services on scaling tasks. The founder, Dr Joy Anderson, is very competent and creative about how models expand to new places. The key is “ease.” By its nature, both Bridges and Circles involve hundreds of organizations that are connected to national networks. I have already written a small grant to a family foundation I met at the conference to hire Criterion Ventures to help us build a new business model that can analyze how to scale within various faith-based networks, as well as other systems over time. This will be necessary to reach critical mass of commitment in this nation to really begin the end of poverty.

Banking Partnerships

What would it look like to have a national banking partner with a bank dedicated to empowering people out of poverty? A big community-minded bank that we could consider placing investments in and knowing that those deposits were being used to make loans to low income people everywhere? And what if this bank also had an incubator to help communities develop this kind of bank model elsewhere? Welcome to Northshore Bank. I think we have a partner who can also help us develop ending poverty kits for our banking partners. I have follow-up meetings underway to structure this opportunity.
I also met with the founder and board member of Calvert Social Investment Fund. Great guy, as in one of the warmest people I have ever met. He also sits on Ben and Jerry’s Board. I think this relationship can also be continued towards some future partnership.

Foundations

I met several more people who work in foundations, or who sit on boards of foundations, or know people on foundations. It became clear to me that raising money from these foundations is a much longer-term development proposition than it used to be, and best done in a partnership with someone who already gets funded from them. We provide a social capital garden for their ideas and services. They are going to get better results with us. I was told by a former staff person from the Gates Foundation that it might take 10 years to get in the door with them. I did collect names and will follow up. Given all of this, we are going to develop a couple of direct foundation relationships but put most of our attention on building effective national partnerships with those who are already connected to national foundations.

Circle Leaders being Allies to women in Africa

I sat in on two workshops regarding worldwide women’s empowerment and support programs. A magazine known as World Pulse provides a beautiful magazine for women to share their stories and set the stage for the full emergence of women (which we desperately need if we are going to have a sustainable world). They have a website for women to communicate across nations which is a terrific idea for a Circle leader and her allies to consider doing. If you are interested in organizing a US circle of support to someone in another part of the world, let us know and we will begin the discussions.
Along these same lines, I sat in on Adventures in Giving which helps women in the US visit women overseas, e.g Africa, Haiti, Dominican Republic to better understand what is happening there and how they can help. I suggested that women interested in these trips could join a domestic US Circle as an ally and then the entire Circle could become allies to a family or village overseas. This idea got exciting for all of us and we met again to advance the idea forward. Let me know if this interests you!

Other good ideas

FeelGood is a one grilled cheese sandwich at a time campaign to end world hunger—chapters are set up in universities. They are fun, inspiring, and maybe just the right idea for someone(s) in your Circles initiative.
Downtown Streets Team Someone has figured out how to pay homeless people food and shelter for their efforts in cleaning up the streets. T-shirts, brooms, and dustpans are giving people a sense of purpose and belonging. It is very positive, respectful, and a great idea for first step work in ending homelessness.
Everyone Counts works on the election process, designing online and elections that are inclusive to the poor, blind, and others who are often disenfranchised from the election process.

A different perspective on the value of Bridges and Circles

There were a number of people more adept at geek-speak than me. The word “platform” was used regularly in conversations and workshops. What if we saw ourselves as a platform that could support best practices from anywhere and everywhere that could help people out of poverty? As a national platform, we can bring a number of compatible and complementary organizations who have ideas that simply need picked up and done locally. I approached all of the above examples with that mindset. We have a unique asset. Circle and Bridges communities are organized to do something about poverty. No one I met had this kind of wonderful social capital network to tap into. This may be a big part of our new business model for expansion and sustainability both locally and nationally.

Next Year

I think Opportunity Collaboration is a good partner for us and we should figure out how to have a team from our Bridges-Circles network participate next year, if they decide to do it again. Let me know if you want to figure out together how that can happen.

It is possible to end poverty if we all get serious about doing it. That was reinforced by all of the young, middle-age, and elders at the conference.
-Scott

Managing overwhelm

Scott C. Miller, CEO — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Managing overwhelm

Due to the economy, many of us are experiencing more overwhelm than usual. Working with people struggling in poverty we are putting ourselves in the midst of our community’s overwhelm. It’s good to take a look at what we do when we begin to feel like life is all of the sudden too much. Do we ask for perspective from our own Circle of Support or do we isolate?

Sunday I came home to find my bicycle, the one I purchased to participate in triathlons, gone and a much cheaper version in its place. That’s right, someone rode up to our home on this quiet Albuquerque cul-de-sac, saw our garage door opened and upgraded their bike for mine. This isn’t Kansas (or Iowa) anymore Dorothy. No. We are in the wild west where stealing is just a way to say, “Hey, you left your garage door open!”

While the police and I filled out the report, my neighbor’s daughter came over and said her mother, whom my wife and I have grown to love in the short time that we have been here, wants to call it quits! What? She doesn’t feel good, the economy still stinks, and the politics are more vicious than ever. What’s the point of hanging on? After the police left I went inside to catch up on emails and there was a disturbing story from a friend about their financial crisis.

I was facing a decision: to give into the feelings of overwhelm that were building and indulge in complaints, worry, drama-making; or to simply manage the overwhelming feelings. It’s a matter of perspective and since I have a circle of friends, I asked them for perspective. Isolating is not good for most of us, myself included. After getting some helpful support, here is what I did:

I chalked up the bike episode as a lesson in being less naïve of my surroundings. I went on line and ordered our own personal tank to park on the lawn. (Just kidding… it’s really just a Civil War cannon… ) Still kidding. We did, however, order a security system to sound an alarm if our windows are broken. One of our neighbors suggested that the homeowners association invest in three video cameras that would monitor our street. We are doing some research.
I then took the bike that our thief had left behind and rode it to the most visible corner near us to see how long it would take for that bike to be stolen. Somewhere between 1 and 5 hours. I have to admit, that was fun and I was glad to be rid of it.
We extended our support to our neighbor, involved four other neighbors in an immediate circle of support, helped her get to the doctor and thankfully she is feeling much better now. My wife Jan is organizing regular game nights as a way to keep all of us better connected.

The skills we use in our Circles work are there to be used by all of us. I have appreciated over and over again how well they work. I hope you are finding the same to be true for you in your life.