As a journalist, one of my favourite beats was covering municipal politics. Mind you, small town councils made it very easy to learn about the intricacies about a wide range of issues, including municipal planning.
When I had the opportunity, I met with the town planner to learn about municipal development plans, land use bylaws and area structure plans. He instilled in me how important it was to map out a community’s future with these documents.
Many of us take our cultural heritage for granted. Growing up in Montreal, I certainly did. It was easy enough as I could bump into a Jew almost every corner that I turned.
Moving to Alberta, Jews were few and far between, especially in small towns. I lived in four small Alberta towns and I think I was the sole Jew in all those communities.
A discussion on Twitter this past week about book recommendations started me thinking what a powerful influence that can be.
Jennifer Banks was asking for new ideas for authors and novels to read. Then the discussion turned to creating a book exchange.
An observation from attending Edmonton networking events has been slowly festering in me for a while and it peaked after participating in Pecha Kucha Night 7 (PKN7) last Thursday.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the social aspect of these events such as tweetups and various camps. However, does any concrete action or change happen in our community as a result? There has been fundraisers, which many have supported, myself included.
Community leagues in Edmonton face many challenges such as volunteer recruitment, delivery of programs and services and promoting the organization to residents.
As a Terwillegar Community League (TCL) board member, I have experienced many of these challenges. The TCL board decided to partake in a strategic planning session this past weekend; the purpose of which was to set goals and priorities for the next few years.
I was asked tonight what is my passion and why am I involved in it by @KenChapman46. When I said community engagement, he responded by saying, “Don’t you think community engagement is a form of activism?”
I have never defined myself as an activist. But let me start by explaining why I love to connect with audiences or communities. When I worked as a journalist, I loved to write stories that would move people into acting or reacting around an issue. I use communication, even now as a volunteer and a full-time public relations practictioner, (if I may say so a bit politely) to get people off their butts and get involved.
Involvement means perhaps attending events that I may promote or swaying them to volunteer in the community league.
I’m not the type to be waving placards or jumping in with protesters to push an issue forward. If I am passionate about a cause or an issue, I will start by working on the communication strategies around it.
Ken’s comment also had me look up the definitions of an advocate and an activist. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary describes an advocate as “someone who recommends or supports by arguement a cause or a policy. Activism is a “vigourous action to support a cause”.
After looking at these definitions, I would say that how I am involved with community engagement is as an advocate. Ken would point out and say that I’m on my way to becoming an activist.
However, my passion still lies with overcoming the challenge of community engagement and pushing this engagement forward through communication. Define me as an advocate but I don’t think I’ll ever be an activist.
When I was out for a walk earlier this week on a path that overlooked warehouses, I couldn’t help but notice the increased graffiti or tagging in the area.
Many find tagging or graffiti is a way to express themselves or as a method to mark their territory. But it comes as an expense to others’ property. A 2007 Edmonton Journal article examines the opinions of street art. But for myself, graffiti is what it is – taking advantage of a blank wall without permission and spray painting it with terrible markings.
Art has a dual purpose in life. It’s meant to be admired, to be displayed and to be bought and sold. But art’s most important role is to gather people together.
I was fortunate to be part of a blogger’s tour of the new Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) yesterday. The building, which opens to the public on Sunday, is striking with its curves, its texture and its colours. What stayed in my mind is how the AGA will bind Edmontonians together because of art.
Do labels define us or limit who we are? I think both but it shouldn’t necessarily be that way. As a society, a community and as individuals we are constantly evolving.
Consider our province. Alberta is known as a Conservative redneck and oil rich province to Canadians across the country. But if you examine Alberta’s history, it has changed over the last 100 years. Immigrants came to farm and homestead and it was only the discovery of oil in 1947 in Leduc that our province’s focus shifted.
If you asked me a year ago what was a hashtag, a tweet or a retweet, I would have looked at you blankly.
As a member of the CPRS Edmonton chapter, I decided to attend a luncheon in December 2008 that focused on the topic of social media. Walter Schwabe of fusedlogic was the guest speaker. Schwabe said one line that sold me on Twitter – (to paraphrase) if you aren’t on it, you are out of the game.