If your class is like mine, at least a portion now regularly connects on Facebook. To engage our Facebook class group page, we organized a few happy hours. Happy hour attendees spanned cliques and social circles. Each gathering was filled fresh conversation and new points of commonality. We weren’t hashing over old stories as much as we were talked about our lives today.

We’re taking a shot at planning the 30th reunion and these are some web-based tools we use to reach out, listen and plan. Like any sound effort in 2012, we drafted a brief mission, and sets of values and success metrics.

Google searching classmates is a huge task. With a list of names with scant or very old information and a 30 year old yearbook photo, we’ve attempted it as individuals and a group. Sure there will be people who never surface, but we intend to give it our best shot.

Our Facebook community consists of about 150 out of a graduating class of 560+. This is our most direct and free way to share reunion information and ideas. It will be interesting to see how the new degree of familiarity, built through Facebook friendships, accelerates ice-breaking at our reunion events this summer.

Our Facebook community, through individual networks, encourages classmates to join Facebook and the group, and posts updates on the passing of classmates.

E-mails are important and these databases lay dormant for years at a time. We issued a “Here’s the Date and Tell Us Your Preferences” questionnaire via SurveyMonkey and are pleased with our list’s accuracy and number of responses. A majority of respondents told us that they prefer e-mail for their reunion information. We are a class that, for many reasons, has not totally bought in to the social network.

So our webpage will get built and our PayPal account created. We will proudly list a planning committee that represents names previously associated with cliques. We’ve grown up, we are parents and grandparents. We have pets and careers. Our school experience binds us. Jam-packed elementary and junior high schools fed our high school. Neighborhood families stayed put and they relied on one another.

Our planning committee believes those bonds are real and form the basis of a great experience and network. We are at a time in our lives when things to dread are real and unavoidable. A class reunion should not appear on that list.

Maybe this theory draws from sociology or anthropology, but they use the phrase “unfortress” to describe social media’s potential in the world of non-profits –and the millions of missions it serves. It is the power to connect over geographic and political boundaries, across social justice causes and knows no hierarchy of title, position or celebrity.

I assert that the word “unfortress” describes the larger change taking place within industries and institutions across America.  It’s an approach that is rooted in understanding the generations, recognizing the power of technology and the sense of urgency behind the calls for transparency, efficiency and collaboration.

Healthcare was stuck in the “urgent care” model of flexible but fortressed service delivery until clinics popped up in retail settings, the electronic medical record was implemented and it fueled the functionality to connect with a practitioner online.

Availability of information housed within government, museums and libraries is being formatted for wide and open dissemination.  By breaking down walls that used to house knowledge (which as we all know is power), information takes on new and unexpected value. We have so many tools to disseminate or share information at our disposal.  Those dissatisfied with the ways and traditions of the past are using data and cost/benefit scenarios to drive change and yield results. The adage “time is money” holds true with major social issues that threaten the future of our economy.  So, there is a new sense of urgency that society cannot wait for the Baby Boom’s set ways of posturing and competitive nature to solve our problems.

As we look at our own communities, it is plausible to envision a time when the non-profits, government entities and major employers rally around shared goals and contribute in their own ways to collaborative efforts.  Imagine local declaration of shared ownership of matters around public health and community safety and then tackling them with new enthusiasm and motivation for success.  Led by a non-profit that has served the area for 40 years, this is being done in Dakota County.

Where will it happen next?

I like to go home.  It keeps me grounded.  It’s where I learned some of my earliest lessons about living in community.  What I didn’t expect this time was how much talking to my former classmates would surface stories about purpose.  Perhaps unintentional, to me many of their stories reflected a sense of calling.  In some cases, it was a vocation.  In others, it was as a parent, friend, son or daughter.  And in the midst of a disaster, it was certainly as a volunteer or engaged citizen.

Purpose can seem elusive.  When we find ourselves juggling many priorities, we can lose sight of what’s most important to us.  At times, we can also feel as if we’re working at cross-purposes.  While our role or responsibilities may change in the moment, for example when a parenting role may need to trump a professional role, our purpose remains.  Stepping back from our day to day to reflect on our values and intentions is a way to stay connected to our purpose.  As community members and leaders, I believe this is fundamental to our success.

On a final note, finding and following other community leaders who are grounded in their own purpose is another way to stay connected ourselves.  Deborah Torraine, a local artist and activist who passed away this weekend exemplified how to live with purpose.  I had the privilege of working with Deborah at LISC as she explored the field of community development through her year in the Careership.  Her warmth, curiosity, creativity, and sense of social justice will be truly missed.  Her incredible story and work in action can be found at Saint Paul Almanac among many other places in this community.

I thought applying to college was difficult.

I can appreciate the challenges school districts state and country-wide are facing.  St. Paul Superintendent Valeria Silva and her colleagues have tough choices ahead as well: constrained budgets, heightened standards, persistent achievement gaps, and changing demographics (aging, empty-nesting voter base included).  At the same time, there will be ongoing competition from private options and charter schools and even home schooling.

Opportunities to innovate in education also abound.  For example, the St. Paul Public Schools were one of 21 successful applications to the Obama Administration’s Promise Neighborhoods initiative at the Department of Education.  Two St. Paul elementary schools, Jackson and Maxfield, and their surrounding communities are the target of concentrated and collaborative planning efforts to improve educational achievement for students attending these schools.  (Full disclosure: I participate on the Advisory Board for the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood).

As I look at the choices ahead of me with respect to education for my own family and for the community where I live and work, I can’t help but think there has got to be some fundamental shifting in the ways we educate our children if we are going to truly innovate and meet the challenges of achievement across the board.  I know I’m not alone in this thinking and there are countless resources and brain-cells currently (and historically) devoted to this question.  Yet, I’m reminded every day of the many community and personal assets to draw from to transform educational experiences and outcomes for kids and adults, but we have to manage our way out of the “silos” to effectively utilize those assets.

I’m encouraged that the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood planning process is one step toward greater collaboration among the schools and community and breaking down those silos.  As for making a choice for kindergarten…like winter in Minnesota, I’ll attempt to enjoy the season.

“Less congeniality, less interaction of members with one another” he said. “… The collegiality has diminished in the House, and along with it so has respect, bipartisanship and a sense of the greater public good.”

Members of Congress used to live in DC during session. They would go out for drinks together at the end of the day. They knew each other’s families. They understood that while they may represent different parties, at the end of the day they shared a common goal: improving the lives of the American people.

Today the atmosphere is different. Members fly home to their districts as early and often as possible. When they are in DC, they don’t interact much. Rules that eliminated political gifts actually had the unintended consequence of eliminating popular happy hours and cocktail parties that gave people a chance to interact socially.

There is no sense of community on Capitol Hill. And that isolation leads to mistrust.

Compare that to what we’ve seen in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood in the wake of a horrific sexual assault of a mother as she was cross-country skiing with her young son and daughter.

Rather than give into fear, anger, and mistrust (which would be perfectly understandable), the Powderhorn neighborhood pulled together in a show of unity and strength.

The tone was set by the mother herself in a remarkable letter that she wrote after the incident (http://ht.ly/3h5AK). In the letter, the mother expressed sympathy for her attackers, lamenting the failures that led them to this point in their lives and hoping there is a way for them to reconnect to their “essential goodness.”

She expressed a love for her neighborhood, and Powderhorn Park residents have rallied in the wake of the incident with a candlelight vigil and a re-commitment to “community.” This is a neighborhood that has been pioneering in its approach to conflict resolution, including a program focused on “restorative justice,” requiring people who commit crimes to meet face to face with their victims.

If a woman who has been sexually assaulted can look for the good in her attackers, and a neighborhood can find ways to bridge conflicts and encourage common good, why can’t lawmaker’s find common ground on the Bush Tax Cuts? And how can Congress bring back the collegiality and respect that Rep. Oberstar has seen disappear to an institution that can’t afford to give in to mistrust?

What lessons do YOU hope the new Congress will learn? And what needs to happen for those lessons sink in??

Our journey has given us a deep appreciation for the people in our lives, and for organizations that helped us in a time of need. We live in a community that is rich with a diversity of innovative non-profits. Unfortunately, it took a cancer diagnosis to expose us to some of these amazing organizations.

I have heard cancer survivors say their illness was, in a way, a “gift” in their lives, in that it helped them gain important perspective and exposed them to the goodness of the community. I don’t really subscribe to this perspective. There’s nothing to be gained from cancer that can’t be obtained in a much easier way. Still, as long as you have to go through the battle, it’s important to open yourself up the positive things that can come from the fight.

For us, one of the positives has been an increased connection to our community. We have been exposed to the amazing work that is done in Minnesota by the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS) (http://lls.org) and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) (http://www.marrow.org), and we have tried to do our part to support their work. I serve on the LLS board and participate in their Light the Night walk and the Team in Training program. My wife is on the leadership council for the NMDP and has helped organize their annual fundraising event.

Our fifth birthday party exposed us unexpectedly to another non-profit doing great things in our community. We decided to throw our party at Old Arizona, a venue we remembered from a party we attended long before Betsy’s diagnosis. (http://www.oldarizona.com)

When we reached out to them for this occasion, we were surprised to learn that they are more than a venue. They are a multi-faceted business, running event space, a café and wine bar, and a chocolate lounge, all to fund a non-profit entity. The Arizona Bridge Project serves inner city, teenage girls who have an interest in the arts, helping them learn to make positive life choices. The more we learned about Old Arizona, the more sure we were that this was a perfect venue for our celebration. We were right.

My wife and I had been anticipating this party for five years, and it more than lived up to every expectation. Knowing we were supporting an innovative program that is making a difference in the lives of girls was icing on the five-year birthday cake. I heard more than one party guest comment about the Old Arizona space after learning about their mission. Hopefully this “hidden gem” in the Twin Cities will start to get the attention it deserves.

It’s a great reminder that there are people and organizations throughout our community doing wonderful, innovative things to make this a better place for all residents. You don’t need a brush with cancer to uncover these stories. In many cases you simply need to pay attention. The first time I went to Old Arizona for a party I didn’t bother to ask about the space and its mission. This time around I was happy I did.

What are other examples of hidden treasures in our community? What groups should we be paying attention to for the work that they do?

Please take a few moments to help shine a light on your favorite “hidden gem” that is making a big impact in our community.

Austin always tops the lists of great places to live for young/creative people. The city markets itself with “Keep Austin Weird” or “Live Music Capital of the World”. What is Minnesota’s brand?

A few weeks ago the Star Tribune published an editorial urging Minnesota to tell our story more effectively. The article was written after national site selectors visited Minneapolis-Saint Paul and praised several civic efforts.

How can we connect our community to Austin, Texas? The Minneapolis Regional and Saint Paul Area Chambers of Commerce intend to find out. They will host the 9th annual InterCity Leadership Visit in November. By invitation only, the civic leadership of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, will travel to Austin with a delegation of 75 community/regional representatives. The first trip was to Denver in 2001 and the ICLV has since traveled to Seattle, Boston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Atlanta and Charlotte to learn about city and regional best practices.

This trip has two objectives. First is to introduce the delegation to Austin’s innovative ideas, programs and initiatives. The second, though initially less tangible, is far reaching. Relationships will develop during this shared educational experience. We will return with a more cohesive team of civic leaders working on behalf of our community. The ICLV enhances the dynamics of community vision and problem solving.

Who knows, come December, you may see some “Texas swagger” right here in Minnesota.

Learn more about Austin’s very cool brand at http://www.downtownaustintv.org.  What would be a cool brand for the Twin Cities?

There are the obvious consequences:  uncertainty for current students (about 600) and loss of jobs for faculty and staff (130).  In a town of approximately 7,500 people, this has some significance—fiscally to the tune of about $27 million annually.  There are the physical assets now vacant.

But what about all of the personal connections people had to the college and thereby to the community?  My own connections.  It was my parents’ alma mater.  It was where I took swimming lessons, used the reference library, and saw plays on a thrust-stage (modeled after the Guthrie, of course).  As a child, I saw the Queen of Denmark on her 1976 visit and Victor Borge—in person doing his “punctuation” that most kids only saw on Sesame Street.  These memories reminded me of how a place was a powerful part of what made me who I am.

I don’t live there anymore, but I can grieve for the community and the uncertainty the loss of the college will create.  I now find myself living in a neighborhood where issues of place are also uncertain.  A new pending light rail line will determine the future of this place for years to come, and yes, it will change this place.  Exactly how remains unclear, but I do know that some will celebrate, some will fight, and some will grieve because there is, and always will be, power in place.

But in my opinion, no time of year brings this out more than tax time. My husband and I are a case in point. While I do everything in my power not to overpay taxes, I do believe that we as citizens should pay for the public good and that the most fair way is through income taxes. He, on the other hand, rants throughout the process thinking that taxes are something done to us vs. our responsibility. Unlike the shouting, placard-bearing protesters, he and I can ultimately have civil discussions about what makes for the public good and are we getting what we pay for. We rarely agree.

What’s troubling to me is not that my husband and I run the risk of perpetually canceling out each others’ votes (or can’t get our taxes done on time) but that I see fewer and fewer situations or places where people can actually engage in civil conversation bringing different points of view. “Groupthink” abounds on both sides of the aisle. “You’re either with us or against us” mentality reduces very complex issues into platitudes and sound-bytes. Increasing political polarization in Washington DC is also influencing how we view each other: particularly as voters first, citizens second.

This does not bode well for us either as a country or within our communities. Increasing political polarization is also a reflection of increasing disconnect between diverse people—whether its demographic, economic, geographic diversity and so on. Leadership in this current reality, and certainly into the future, will need focus on building or becoming the bridge among our diversity.

And, yes we will still need to pay taxes.

A little over a year ago I started my journey of creating this blog.  Long story short – my idea was to create a collaborative blog focused on our community and leadership.  I believe it takes strong leaders to make this the community we can all be proud of.  Our community faces many complex issues.  Together, we can make a difference.

I am very proud of the regular and guest contributors who have contributed to the blog.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning from each post.  I believe the blog is becoming a credible source.  The topics have been interesting and relevant.  We are hoping that we have inspired discussion and action.  We have some exciting guest contributors lined up for the coming months.

With that being said, please do me a favor.  Please do the other contributors a favor.  We would like your feedback.  It will only take a few minutes of your time.  Demonstrate your leadership skills by engaging in this discussion.  Share with us why you like the blog and any suggestions you have that would make the blog better.  Nothing would inspire us more than to hear your feedback.  Please.  Pretty please!