Category: ramblings

Going door to door

Today I spent some time with a few campaign volunteers going door to door in a neighborhood in Richmond to talk about my candidacy and to listen to what's on the minds of Richmond residents.

So far, this has been one of my favorite parts of running for office! It's easy to get caught up in the immediate (and sometimes misleading) feedback that comes with various kinds of digital promotion to groups of online contacts, so there's something grounding and balancing about being face to face with one person at a time, with only a few feet and maybe a screen door between you.  There's something very real about looking a stranger in the eyes while hearing about what really matters to them in an election.

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Put another white man in office?

As someone campaigning under the banner of bringing a fresh perspective and new voice to Richmond's City Council, it feels important to acknowledge one key way in which I would not be bringing anything voters haven't seen before: I'd be yet another privileged white male in a position of influence.
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47374.info: scanning for local news so you don't have to

As a fun project a few weekends ago, I created the website 47374.info.  It automatically pulls together news and headlines from a variety of different news sources in the Richmond/Wayne County Indiana area.

The site has a simple display of those headlines that's automatically updated as they're made available throughout the day, and you can click on them to go read the original content on the source site - that's about it. There's a mobile-friendly version at http://m.47374.info/ and you can also easily see some recent local tweets from Twitter.  The site's still officially in beta but I've gotten some great feedback from test users so far.

I created 47374.info because I was tired of looking in a lot of different places to see what's making news in my community, or wondering if I'd missed something that was only announced on the very transient Twitter.  Some news sources have lots of content but make getting to it hard or leave certain key things out.  Other sources have a few juicy nuggets of relevant content once in a while but don't make updates available via RSS feeds, so you never quite know how often to check back.

So with the magic of WordPress plus some custom Perl scripts, I've restored some sanity to my news-reading time.  For the first time in a long time, I've set a website (instead of a blank page) as the default "Home" page that opens when I launch my browser.  Over the last few weeks, it's meant I'm more aware of community news, and I spend less time per day getting there.

Thanks to all of the local news/headline/event publishers that work to keep our community informed!

If you try out 47374.info and have feedback, drop me a line.

Moving from Passive to Active

Luminaria Gone WrongAs a part of preparing to train and orient some new folks joining us at Summersault in the coming weeks, I've thought a lot about the different phases of engagement that I expect staff members to experience as a part of their integration into the life of the company.  The path looks something like this:

  • Understand: learn about what we do and why we do it
  • Observe: encounter what we do and how we do it in a hands on way
  • Contribute: join in to what we do and become a part of the process
  • Facilitate/Lead: take ownership of what we do and help make it happen well
  • Change/Improve: challenge the way we do things and try to make them better, or look for entirely new things to do

(It isn't always a linear progression; challenging and improving something often leads to resetting our engagement with it, returning to stages of trying to understand and observe.)

Another way to look at this journey is as one from being a passive participant to an active participant in the life of the company.  Businesses and organizations thrive when the people feel they are empowered, active agents of success.  Businesses and organizations stagnate or fail when the people are just passively waiting for things to happen, or don't know how to contribute.

I realized that movement from passive to active is not just something we do as a part of learning a new job.

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Demystifying running for office

One aspect of deciding to run for City Council that took the most research was understanding just what the filing process looks like.  One might raise the question of whether the process is intentionally engineered to be a little mysterious and intimidating, if we didn't know that there are many parts of the government that are a little mysterious and intimidating.  🙂

So although I am myself very new to the process of running for office, I thought I'd share along the way what I've learned about how it works, in hopes that anyone who might want to join me or who might later follow in my footsteps can do so a little bit more efficiently.

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I'm running for office

I've blogged before about my political aspirations, and now I'm happy to announce that I'm running for a political office.  Earlier today, I filed for candidacy for an At-Large seat on Richmond, Indiana's Common Council.

I've spent much of my time and energy over the last decade of my life investing myself in Richmond in one form or another.  I've written many words in this space about what I see as Richmond's opportunities and challenges, and I've always enjoyed observing the local political scene.  Now, I'm taking my involvement to what I think is the next logical step given my talents and passions.

I don't expect to write much about the campaign here; this blog will continue to be for my personal and unofficial musings on a variety of topics.  I have a campaign website setup, and I've got the twitters and the youtubes and the facebooks all ready for you to liketweet if that's your thing.  If you're interested in the campaign, my positions on various issues affecting the community, and how you can help move Richmond forward, please check it out.  Even a few words of support will mean a lot!

The dance of newcomer and incumbent

It's no secret that I'm a "newcomer to running for office" in this political race, and that this label lines me up to be one half of a long-running dance that newcomers and incumbents do as a part of political campaigns.

The newcomer says, "I'm here with fresh ideas and a different way of doing things, out with the old and in with the new, vote for me, change you can believe in!" and so on.

The incumbent says, "Why would you want to bring in someone who doesn't have any experience in this position, when you've got me?  I've been doing this for a while, I know how it works, I'm the best bang for your buck."

The reality, of course, is that both perspectives can be right.

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Chris Hardie Announces Council Candidacy

RICHMOND - Today local business owner and community volunteer Chris Hardie announced his candidacy for Richmond's Common Council At-Large.  Hardie, 33, has extensive experience in community building and a positive vision for the work of the Council.

"I believe that Richmond is capable of great things," Hardie said, "and I'm excited to be a part of a new generation of community leadership that can help make those things happen.  We can no longer afford to be paralyzed by the past and old ways of thinking.  It's time to move forward and I want to lead and join progressive thinking that will make us a more vibrant community."

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Would you like to own Tom's New York Deli?

Tom Amyx is giving away the business he spent the last 20 years of his life building.

This morning when I spoke with Tom, the owner of Tom's New York Deli here in Richmond, he talked of troubling health issues and financial factors in his decision, but he seemed as energetic and excited as ever.  He opened the restaurant in December of 1991 and it's been a fixture on Main Street in the downtown business district ever since.  Professionals, passers-through, families and sports teams alike frequent the establishment, which is known for its great sandwiches, corny jokes and extensive collection of local and national memorabilia.

But as he looks toward the next phase of his own life, instead of trying to sell the small restaurant to the highest bidder, or close it down altogether, he's ready to give it away to the person who would bring the best vision for its future.

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