Community organisations

The poor relations or an emerging market?

Carolyn Wait

Carolyn.wait@nzcoss.org.nz

The future is unknown, a place or time we have not yet visited. But every day we make complex choices about the future for our families, our communities and ourselves. We decide the way the future will be.

The future is unknown

My mother always told me that life is what you make it. “The world is your oyster” – I have since heard that it is your “kina or paua”. We make our own future, individually and collectively.

We can choose our future

I have always seen the infinite potential of working collaboratively. I was fortunate to have chosen the right family to grow up within. I was unaware of the power of a large, extended and happy family in a small and happy rural community. That was until I married at 19. At that age I had infinite knowledge and wisdom about every thing.

We do not always know what we don’t know

I made the wrong choice of partner and discovered that not all families worked well together. I also discovered that not all communities worked well together. This was a hard lesson, but like so many things in our lives we don’t always get them right the first time.

We don’t always get it right the first time

I am always on the lookout for “the things” that contribute to people working well together. I don’t know how other people recognise a “thing”, but for me one way I recognise them is when memories from my childhood jump into my mind. I see them through the stories read and told to me by my parents.

We don’t always know what we know

Over the last two decades I have been reminded on many occasions about the “Emperors New Clothes.” Especially during the market lead social and economic miracle. I wondered why people went along with it and how they could be so blind to the negative impacts on the people at the grassroots. Were they all afraid they would look foolish?

Don’t be afraid to speak out and challenge

Many of the stories I heard told of the benefits of working together and the consequences of not doing so. The little red hen who asks who will help prepare the ground to plant the wheat…… and no one helps her. But when the wheat is made into bread they all want to share with her.

There are mutual benefits in working together

When I grew up there was an emphasis on manners, my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends had many little sayings. I am sure that these saying were designed to reinforce desirable behaviour. I recognise a “thing” when memories flood back into my mind. Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you. Treat all people, as you would like to be treated.

We need a set of agreed rules

Our parents also taught us how to participate within our family and community. How to stand up for the things we believed in. How to question things we did not understand, or did not agree with.

Believe in what you are doing

We had to learn that not everybody appreciated having his or her belief challenged, and how to show respect even when you felt the person had not earned your respect.

Not everyone will agree with you

I can hear my mother “If you can’t say anything nice about someone don’t say anything at all. ” And my father “Don’t feed bad behaviour with your energy.”

Don’t spend time and energy on negative activities

As children we did not know that our parents did not have much money. Mum use to talk about the 200 pounds in the bank. When I asked her about it years latter she told me that she believed it was important for us kids to feel safe and secure. She laughed as she told me that they never managed to have 200 pounds in the bank until all six of us grew up and left home.

Create a supportive, safe and secure environment

I am sure you are all wondering what all this has to do with the topic of this workshop? Well it is a brief demonstration of the “things” we just know. The things we have learned from our experiences as we journey through life and by doing. We manage family budgets, we manage our family obligations and responsibilities, we manage our time. Each of us will have some shared or similar experiences. We will also have quite different experiences and each of us will have done many things.

The “things” we just know

If I were to ask you to list your experience and skills many of you would not even consider listing the skills you use in your everyday life. But I can tell you it is a real skill to get four children to four different locations at four different times for their Saturday morning sports. This task is often complicated because the times and venues change frequently and if the weather is inclement you also have to listen to the radio for cancellations. But parents all around the country meet this challenge week in and week out for a decade or more. Not to mention the fundraising, the coaching, car-pooling and practice during the week.

We meet the challenge week in and week out

Taking this example a little further, during this Saturday morning sports ritual you meet other parents, people you may not have met for any other reason and you talk. You get to hear lots of information, you get to know who does what, what resources and skills people have. You gather this information.

A lot of this information has no immediate value. But then you will meet up with someone who tells you about a need and you recover a memory of a previous conversation and you introduce the person with the resources to the person with the need. Quite ordinary every day stuff really. So what. Well this is networking. It is people networking. It is done without technology.

You do it without technology

These everyday networking skills are the tools of community workers. Community workers know there isn’t any value in trying to be an “E Type” worker. You know trying to be “every-thing to every-one” because common sense tells you that you can’t do it all. So you develop complex networking skills. It is not something you have consciously decided. Today I am going to develop networking skills. It is something you learn by doing. You accept that some information will date quickly. But you develop an extremely complex database and retrieval system. You share this information freely. You know that networking is an indispensable component of the work that you do.

You learn by doing

You may also feel totally frustrated that this critical part of your work receives little or no recognition. You may know people who have “computer” networking skills and see that their networking skills are recognised and seen as valuable. Why is this? Is it because the people themselves and other people recognise, understand and therefore value networking skills?

We don’t recognise, understand or value our networking skills

My husband is an information technology manager with IT alphabet soup after his name. He continuously challenges me to use IT as a catalyst to release the potential of ordinary people in ordinary communities. His challenge to me is not to think about what sort of computer or software to use, but to use the existing and well-developed networking and communications skills of the community sector. Skills he says that businesses can only dream about.

Skills businesses can only dream about.

The skills that we in the sector do not always know we have and therefore undervalue. We see these skills as ordinary, or as something we just do. People just know how to make the connections and to network. But if I asked any of you how you make connections and network, you may find that your eyes will glaze over, your head fills up with fuzzy fluff, your chest gets tight and there is a feeling like you would like to get up and run. I know that feeling too well. I am sure most of you will focus on the information and not on your networking skills. But focusing on the information won’t help because there is so much of it and a great deal is out of date before you can write it down. The real skill of ordinary people at the grassroots is not how much information they have but in the way it is collected, stored, used and disseminated.

The real skills are the way we collect store, use and disseminate information

I have accepted this challenge and during the last year I have:

• Talked to a lot of people, computer users, technology gurus, friends, family, business people, educators, teenagers, older persons, people who live in the city and people who live in small country towns.
• Read a lot articles, books, manuals.
• Watched sci-fi.
• Dreamed about the “knowledge wave” and surfed the net.

My smart community IT Strategy

I have come up with an idea about a smart community IT strategy, which is both simple and complex. I am going to talk a little about the complex bits of this plan. The simple bits are the technology parts. I can buy that advice.

My smart IT community – the simple bit

A community computer facility that has 24 hour access, top of the range hardware, a software library, printers, scanners, cameras, sound, in fact the best computer lab possible.

There would be:

• Planned purchase, maintenance and replacement: schedules and budgets.
• Support contracts.
• Training and development.
• Innovation and development.
• Back up solutions.

My smart IT community - the hard bit

But I cannot buy people willing to work together, people who are willing to create opportunities for themselves, their families and their community. I cannot buy the willingness to share resources. These precious things only develop and grow in an environment of mutual respect and trust.

I can’t by the most precious resources. These precious things only develop and grow in an environment of mutual respect and trust.

• In some communities these precious things are well-grown and creating a smart community IT strategy will be relatively simple but others will need a lot of nurturing before the seeds of mutual trust and respect blossom.
• Like every thing we do it depends on how well we prepare the foundations if we are to achieve our goals. We may not get it right the first time
• We may have to do a lot more preparation than we thought.

But the most important things about my smart IT community strategy vision are not the tools listed above but the opportunities my vision creates.

To be part of my smart IT community people have to participate, they have to be willing to learn new skills and use those skills to teach or support other people to learn new skills. This is a continuing process and requires a genuine commitment.

In my smart IT community people can:

• Follow their passions, music, arts, and writing.
• Use the facility to run their group, organisation or business.
• Publish newsletters, books, and manuals.
• Research.
• Develop economic opportunities.
• Become the trainers, programme and software developers and the support contractors.
• The opportunities are ongoing and the possibilities are infinite.

I know these things are all possible – Our grandparents knew about the power of working together and sharing resources, New Zealand has a history of co-operative ventures. The future is in our own hands.

Where would I start?

Not with the simple bit. I would start with people. My smart IT community strategy is just that my strategy. I own it. But it is a starting place a place to start the conversations, because almost every successful community activity is successful because of the commitment, skills and hard work of people.

People need to own their strategy - Success breeds success

Where would I start – I would start with a gathering around food. I would try what Brian Munanne did in Claymore. He set up a BBQ in the street. He talked to people and listened to the people’s conversations and stories. He listened carefully to people’s dreams and aspirations and he encouraged people to work towards and achieve their dreams.

Start by starting

I would not be in a hurry, but I would have project plan and time frame for the community development work. I would identify local leaders and I would find people to coach, mentor and encourage these people to share their skills and resources.

Support local leaders

At different points I would facilitate the introduction of new ideas this may be through supporting the local leaders to host social events, introduce new speakers at a dinner or award ceremony. I would facilitate workshops and training lead by local leader and encourage future visioning.

Introduce new ideas

All the time I would be taking an audit of the resources of the people and the greater community. I would be linking and facilitating connections between people who have similar dreams to those that have the resources.

Link people with resources

This is the way I work each one of you will have a different way and that is how it should be. Each of us has a pantry of ingredients and many skills. We manage our lives in different ways because we have learned through different experiences. We know within ourselves what will work for us. We need to acknowledge and value our skills, know our weaknesses and where possible turn them into strengths or find someone who has that skill to do the things you can not do.

Do it your own way and acknowledge your value and your skills

In my community IT strategy I would seek out partnerships. Not passive partnerships but active partnerships. Partnerships where the skills and resources of the community are valued in the same way as business and education skills are valued.

Seek active partnerships

The greater the number of people participating the greater the number of opportunities, not only within the community or New Zealand but internationally. There are no borders and we create the barriers.

There are no borders and we create the barriers

Why do I see the community sector as an emerging market? From the small amount of research which has been completed about the IT capacity and capability of the voluntary and community sector indicates that the sectors’ groups and organisations generally have few computers and spend very little money on staff training and development.

An untapped market with unlimited potential

This is true within our own membership and networks. This is an untapped market with unlimited potential. We don’t have to wait around for the cast offs and hand me downs. With our networking skills and resources we can be the leaders and this is why I see communities being an emerging market. A planned strategy offers greater opportunities for both for the community organisations and the very competitive IT industry.

A planned strategy offers greater opportunities for both for the community organisations and the very competitive IT industry.