Session 2

Topic:  Building Organizational Capacity

Convenor: Debra Herndon

Note Taker: LaReta Lowther

Participants: LaReta Lowther - Shinnston , Debra Herndon- Shinnston, Gretchen Cramer - Anstead, Mike Reid - St. Albans, Bruce Decker - Collective Impact, Larry Chapman - Gilmer, Vicki Lusk - Williamson, Mike Mitchem - McDowell

Key themes, outstanding questions, observations:

During one of the presentations someone talked about how to strengthen the partner organizations.  Shinnston reports that fighting between organizations has actually driven some people off.  They want to know how to make these organizations stronger and how to make them work together.  How do you facilitate these organizations to work together.  Frontier Days did start the process of bringing some people together for this event.

The activites director helped to bring some of the organizations together.  Question, is this common in small towns?  Is this part of living in the rural community.  Many of the communities are "aging out" and how do you get the younger people to step up and take on the leadership roles that the elders are currently leading.  How do you keep organizations from aging out and dying?  Members report that it is common in their small communities as well.  The common theme is how to get younger people involved? 

Is this a cause of the people in the organizations do not know how to "move over" and make room for the younger generation to step in.  Is this a control issue?  Use the paper to advertise for volunteers to recruit those in the community who may want to be part of the organization or the project who other wise may not know about the event or need for their time.

St. Albans reports that Economic Development Authority, The Chamber and the Ren group, the Board of Directors is made up of mostly the same people!  These three groups are the driving force in that community, and their is not a lot of diversity on the Boards.  Many communities report this is true for them as well, and the people on those Boards do not want to give up that spot or the power, so new people have no room to move into those positions.  Also, Blueprint may threaten those people because they are afraid BP may challenge their position or power.  BP in St. Albans is bringing those three organizations into one group.  Williamson reports that they are trying to do the same thing for a continuity of vision.  Many of the elders want to do things the way they have always been done, and convincing those people to look at things in new and different ways is scarey for them.

If you have good causes that can bring people together, and good communication.  St. Albans talked about if a new business comes into town their is no one to welcome them.  At this time no one is doing it.  You need to look at ways that organizations can combine, collaborate and stop duplication of services.  A strategy may be to look to the youth groups in leadership groups in high schools and middle schools and groom them for leadership if they stay in the community.

Williamson reports that the community college has a youth group that develops leaders.  They also applied for a Flexi Grant.  St. Albans reports that they are creating a "JR. Blueprint Communities Group".  Others report that they have high school students on their BluePrint teams.    Gilmer sent every organization a questionairre (70 organizations) to see what their goals were.  They found out many shared goals and had no idea that they did.  They then could connect those organizations that had similar goals so they could work together and share the load.  They went from 20 in the first meeting to 35 in the next meeting.  Common interest can bring people together.

Colapsing organizations together can be frighting,  look at KFC and Taco Bell, they now share building space, and retain their clientel.  Organizations in small communities need to think the same way to share office space, reduce cost, and stop duplication of services.  It is important to realize that sometimes people are not working in the same direction, and may need an opportunity to move on without the group.  Most will be grateful for the opportunity to be allowed out of the group.

Those that may want "off the bus" may get off and then want to "board the bus" again when they see success.  You also need to make sure that all in the group feel that they have an opportunity to be heard, and that ground rules are set in the beginning to make sure that conversations are solutions based and that the meetings do not become complaint sessions.  It is a fine line, to make sure you respect opinions, yet not shut people down. Sometimes negativity is reality, and you want to give people a voice but not bring down the whole group.  Sometimes people in the organizations feel extreme "ownership" of certain activites but the activities are not being done.  This is a difficult situation and sometimes you need to say we are doing this with or without the organization.  Many times rather than being left behind the organization will find a way to fit into the group.  Addressing these organiztions privately and not during the meeting can help move them forward.  Making people accountable, assigning tasks, can really move the meeting forward.  This also sometimes forces people out of the group because they are on a "different page".  Even the positive people can not always do what needs to be done.  Sometimes the consultants can help with the difficult conversations, but they do not always have the history to really address these issues or the individuals. 

Organizations may not have the capacity to deal with some of the issues, and you may need to revitalize the organization.  The Standards of Excellence through CDP can help to revitalize organizations.  Many of the "animal" clubs (Lion's, Elk) are losing membership.  Too many times younger people do not join these clubs due to time constraints, and this lack of new blood is killing off these clubs and organizations.  Many times young people do not join because of time (meeting times).  You may need to meet via computer, use IM to meet and grow membership.

Question:  How can we think as a county about quality of life if the health providers, colleges, and other large important organizations are not at the table to come to the table.  This will be critical for long term planning and going beyond this initial Blueprint timeline. 

Many are focusing on short term projects to build success to bring more people to the table.  People will come in and out of this process.  You have to overcome the "we already tried that"  "20 years ago".  How do you overcome that?  How do you address the passage of time and not shut down those people? 

There are many people in communities that want to volunteer who have never been asked.  Many times this is due to not wanting to give up power by bringing on new blood.  Also, some people need shorter meetings, or not to be "responsible" for the project.  They may be able to do smaller things, particularly when they are just starting to volunteer.  Being on the offical committee may scare them.  Also, are we recruiting enough singles?  They have more time than famiily traditioinally.  Are we targeting singles. 

First Friday Forums may be useful for organizations.

Lunch and Learn opportunities for organizations.  Chamber in St. Albans does that once every two.

This could help educate organizations about each other and help bring people to the table.

You could have a Business After Hours, and once a month a different business will host and have food.  St. Albans reports that having a theme really helped improve attendence.  You pay 10 dollars to come, and food and drink helps.  This give the business or organization the opportunity to be on the front page of the local newspaper the next week.

You could do an organizational assessment to see what they need to develop their capacity.  What to ask:  name, what you do, contact information, how many board members, goals and objectives, strengths and weaknesses, what is their mission, ask their vision for the communities.  Have the organization have five minutes to talk about their programs and goals.  Ask them how they think the county can be improved.  This is a great way to link for profit and non profits.  Knowing their mission and how it fits into building the community can be powerful.  Ask how you think that can be accomplished, and that is an important input and can help to break down walls and build bridges to each other.

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