Category Archives: Democracy
Good or bad, first read of the day
I just contributed to Front Porch Forum. Why? Because it has brought our communities together more than any other way I know.
I also contributed because when I posted a notice that my book had just been published, people read about it on FPF and bought my book!
Front Porch Forum is the first email I open every day to see what’s going on around me, good or bad. It has become a vital part of my day.
• Ted, Underhill FPF
Now is the time to support your Front Porch Forum
If Front Porch Forum is useful to you, please take a minute to contribute today. Every October we ask folks to become Supporting Members and today we kick off our 2015 campaign.
Contribute here (credit card or check)
More than 100,000 Vermont households participate on their local FPFs. As you’ve seen, lost pets are found, break-ins are reported to neighbors, electricians are recommended, block parties are organized and so much more. And each exchange among neighbors carries the promise of building community.
If you agree that FPF is something special, then please help keep it strong. We are a Vermont business, hosting FPF in each of the state’s 251 towns. Our staff of 12 work seven days a week to deliver our service. Most of our operating expenses are covered through ad sales to Vermont businesses. Your Supporting Member contributions help cover the rest.
Contributions are voluntary. Any amount you can give brings us closer to our 2015 goal, and makes FPF vibrant in your community. If you value FPF, become a supporting member now and help us reach our $100,000 goal: http://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members
Pay online, or mail a check to:
Front Porch Forum
PO Box 64781
Burlington, VT 05406-4781
Many thanks from the FPF team!
Michael, Nina, Linda, Lynn, Gisele, Suzie, Jonna, Carolyn, Natanya, Wendy, Jodi and Jan
Front Porch Forum
P.S. FPF is not a charity and contributions are not tax deductible.
How to reach a new segment of Vermonters
“We have used Front Porch Forum to reach beyond our traditional audience on a few occasions and I have been excited that people we’ve never heard from before have started contacting us after our FPF ads started running.”
100,000 Front Porch Forum members in Vermont!
We’re excited to announce that Front Porch Forum now has 100,000 members across Vermont. More than one-third of the households in the state participate in their local FPFs. Thanks to all who have helped achieve this milestone.
To share FPF with other Vermonters, please send them to FrontPorchForum.com to check it out and sign up.
FPF’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community. We do that by hosting a statewide network of online neighborhood forums where Vermonters post about lost pets, borrowing ladders, recommending plumbers, sighting moose, reporting break-ins, discussing school budgets, and much more.
Richmond officials communicate with public
Richmond Rescue posted a report to the citizens of Richmond, Vermont, on their local Front Porch Forum this week. It started…
Each quarter I will be posting a number of statistics about Richmond Rescue to help you stay more informed about our business.
In the first quarter of 2015 we went on 173 calls and transported 109 patients for a transport rate of 63%. Our average for this period in the last 3 years was 160 calls and 106 transports and a transport rate of 66%…
A Richmond FPF member responded today with…
I really liked seeing the Richmond Rescue statistics posted in Front Porch Forum. It gave me an even greater appreciation of the work these valuable volunteers provide our community.
With all of the talk about break-ins in town, I wonder if the police department could provide us with some up-to-date information in Front Porch Forum about what is going on. Are our crime statistics going up? Have any perpetrators been caught? What neighborhoods are being affected? What is the police department doing about the situation?
Front Porch Forum is a wonderful vehicle for getting out information to the community about current issues and concerns. The Town Clerk uses it frequently. The Rescue is now using it. I would like to see the police department use it as well to keep us informed and up to date.
Are Americans losing the concept of neighbors?
From Carol Coletta on the Knight Blog:
Are neighbors vanishing in America? Marc Dunkelman thinks so.
Marc is a fellow in public policy with the Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University and author of “The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community.”
Here are five things you should know from my conversation with Marc and from his book:
1. The General Social Survey reports that the percentage of Americans who say they have eaten a meal with their family and with people outside their neighborhood has risen. But the percentage of Americans who say they have eaten with someone in their neighborhood has plummeted.
2. Being “neighborly” today means that you should leave people alone, rather than engage.
3. Thanks to technology, the opportunity to invest in relationships has vastly expanded. However, we are using tech to invest in a limited set of relationships generally, with people who share our interests and our point of view.
4. The way you drive new ideas in the workplace is to force together people with different perspectives, fields of expertise and ideas. But we haven’t applied that concept to the way we view communities. We no longer have conversations with people with different points of view because we’ve lost “middle-ring” relationships.
5. The township has been the architecture of community throughout American history. People with different points of view couldn’t avoid each other. But we are moving to an architecture of networks where there are intense nodes of inner-ring relationships and that connect to a wider range of people who share our interests.
Listen to my conversation with Marc here. And sign up for the “Knight Cities” newsletter to get alerts as soon as new conversations are posted.
“Thanks for being a digital Town Meeting prep station”
It’s Town Meeting season. We get plenty of questions about how to use Front Porch Forum to address local issues this time of year, so we thought we’d share the following.
Postings about local Town Meeting topics, elections and ballot measures are welcome on each FPF. We ask that people who submit postings keep their tone civil one person’s witty remark is another’s cutting insult. Also, please focus on the topic rather than on specific neighbors. If you think someone is abusing this opportunity for open community dialogue, feel free to contact us with details.
Every single town in Vermont now has Front Porch Forum, and many of them become more lively this time of year as neighbors ask questions and share facts and opinions leading up to Town Meeting Day. We’re grateful to be able to make this contribution to Vermont’s centuries-long tradition of local and democratic decision making. We’ve heard repeatedly that people feel more informed and better able to participate and vote on Town Meeting Day thanks to their neighbors’ postings on their local FPFs. Please feel welcome to join in.
Of course the best way to participate is by showing up at Town Meeting and/or the ballot box!
P.S. From Susan in Montpelier today… “Thanks for being a digital Town Meeting prep station (ugh)… but you know what I mean, right?”
TechPresident and new book cover Vermont’s FPF
Front Porch Forum is featured in a new book by Allison Fine, as well as an article published on TechPresident today.
Allison’s book is called Matterness: Fearless Leadership For a Social World…
Many current and future leaders are locked inside their organizations afraid to venture out into the world. By doing so they are missing the true threat of avoiding the connected world. Here it is: Avoiders and their organizations become irrelevant literally don’t matter anymore and “age out” of their jobs and industries. Fear of losing control over every little detail prevents attention to details that do matter. Meanwhile precious energy is lost protecting yourself and your organization from change that’s not fully understood or appreciated. Exhaustion and inertia kick in. Bottom lines go red. Now that is the truly scary stuff.
Business owner offers $5,000 reward on FPF for info about fire
The Stowe Reporter used the Morrisville Front Porch Forum recently to learn…
A Morristown man is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for a fire that destroyed his business last year. But state fire investigators say the blaze wasn’t suspicious and there is no active investigation.
Most traditional media outlets in Vermont use their local FPFs for leads to stories that they investigate and report on. We’re glad to play this role… and others. Further, we appreciate when proper attribution is included in the piece, e.g….
He posted a notice on Front Porch Forum last week, offering a $5,000 reward in hope that someone would contact state police with information.
Stowe and the surround communities are fortunate to have the Reporter and the Record digging into local stories.
Vermont towns post public meetings to their local FPF
An increasing number of municipal boards and committees post their public meeting warnings and minutes on their local Front Porch Forums. Many have done this for years, but more have started doing it lately. For example, the New Haven Conservation Commission posted an invitation to the community to attend its upcoming meeting, followed by the agenda.
It started with this lovely invitation…
We welcome all who wish to express their ideas, thoughts and opportunities. As we continue the goals of this commission it is important that we hear from the townspeople that we will serve. Please come join us.
And ended with…
Posted December 27, 2014, Town Office, Village Green Market, Post Office, Website, Front Porch Forum.
About Blog
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
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