Front Porch Forum | Ghost of Midnight

Caring about neighbors…

Posted on Monday, January 10, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

#BTV #VT — Many local online efforts focus on making information available to people… that’s a great start. But it’s just a start if your goal is building community and helping people get involved locally.

Burlington City Councilor David Berezniak posted this thoughtful message to his neighbors on Front Porch Forum yesterday…

There are many aspects to living in the ONE [Old North End] that are positive and it is nice to have the ability to share them with each other. Front Porch Forum makes this possible. This is a great service and well deserves our continued support. But please remember, this is not a substitute for meeting, talking with, or getting to know your actual next door neighbors. Ask them if they have joined FPF, let them know you read it and how easy it is to join. Begin to put real faces to some of the postings on here. Start using FPF with a core group of your neighbors as an icebreaker. You may find sharing a genuine feeling of caring about what happens to your neighbors and their stuff also gives them a reason to feel the same way about you.

FPF available in 60 #VT towns

Posted on Monday, January 10, 2011 by Michael • 4 comments

Don’t miss this Vermont-original community-building opportunity.
Another dozen Vermont towns can now benefit from Front Porch Forum thanks to e-Vermont, the Community Broadband Project, and the Knight News Challenge.

Front Porch Forum (FPF) was created in 2006 in Burlington and now more than 23,000 households subscribe across 60 Vermont towns.

If you live in one of the towns listed below, SIGN UP for your community Front Porch Forum today at: http://frontporchforum.com. Join in the conversations that are already happening in your community.

Also, please let friends and family in these Vermont towns know that Front Porch Forum is available, and encourage them to sign up! Only through more participation, will these towns realize the full community-building benefits of FPF. To sign up go to: http://frontporchforum.com

Why join Front Porch Forum?
FPF hosts online neighborhood/town forums where nearby neighbors connect and get involved in their local community. In this era of busyness and individual isolation, where it’s hard to find volunteers for local committees and people increasingly don’t know their neighbors, Front Porch Forum helps people meet those around them and talk about issues. And it’s free to residents in any of the Vermont communities below.

What if your town is not on the list?
Interested in bringing FPF to your community? Please add your town to the waitlist at http://frontporchforum.com/join

– Alburgh
– Arlington
– Averill
– Avery’s Gore
– Bloomfield
– Bolton
– Bridgewater*
– Brighton/Village of Island Pond
– Bristol
– Brunswick

– Buells Gore
– Burlington
– Calais*
– Cambridge
– Canaan/Village of Beecher Falls
– Castleton*
– Charlotte
– Colchester
– Dover*
– Essex Junction Village

– Essex Town
– Fairfield*
– Ferdinand
– Grand Isle
– Hardwick*
– Hinesburg
– Huntington
– Isle La Motte
– Jay*
– Jericho

– Lemington
– Lewis
– Ludlow
– Middlesex
– Middletown Springs*
– Milton
– Moretown*
– Morristown*
– Newport City
– North Hero

– Norton
– Poultney
– Pownal
– Richford*
– Richmond
– Sandgate
– Shelburne
– South Burlington
– South Hero
– St. George

– Starksboro
– Stewartstown, NH
– Sunderland
– Underhill
– Vergennes*
– Warner’s Grant
– Warren Gore
– West Rutland
– Westfield*
– Westford

– Williston
– Winooski

* e-Vermont communities newly participating in FPF

Neighborhoods much less important as social units

Posted on Sunday, January 9, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Economist Juliet B. Schor writes in her new book, Plentitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, about the decline of social capital in the United States during the past few decades…

Neighborhoods have become much less important as social units, with people much less likely to interact with, or even know, their neighbors… Online community is growing and filling in some of the gap. But it doesn’t replicate all the functions of face-to-face interaction. (Full quote here… see “Economies of Reciprocity.”)

Schor discusses competing theories that may explain this… and looks at people, projects and places pushing back on this troubling trend. A compelling read.

Me vs. Us: Can Social Media Prioritize Groups Over Individuals?

Posted on Sunday, January 9, 2011 by Michael • 1 comment

I just revisited a blog post by Dan Schultz titled In Search of a Community That Takes ‘Me’ Out of Social Media. I came to it after a fan of Front Porch Forum pointed out to me why she likes FPF so much… its design puts neighborhood before individual. Many of the giants of social media these days go the opposite way… they’re all about optimizing the experience for the individual. Here’s Dan’s chart…

#VT’s new Lt. Gov. pushes Civic Engagement

Posted on Friday, January 7, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

New Vermont Lt. Governor Phil Scott (Rep.) was sworn in yesterday and gave a speech centered on civic engagement. I invite our new Lt. Gov. to see how Front Porch Forum is helping Vermont neighbors connect and get involved locally… e-Vermont too. Some choice quotes…

… as many of you know, 46 percent of registered voters didn’t vote in November. That’s 209,000 Vermonters whose only choice on November 2 was not to show up. They decided it wasn’t worth it, or it didn’t matter, or it wouldn’t do any good, to make their voice heard. My experience shows that’s just not the case… I don’t think any of us fully realized until November 2 what that frustration had turned into; it turned into 209,000 people who had apparently given up… Civic involvement isn’t something that’s only relevant on even-numbered years.

All of us here in the Legislature need to reach out to those folks and welcome them in, even when we might not agree with their views. We need to open our doors. In order to live up to the intentions and the expectations of our accessible government, we ourselves need to be more accessible. That will mean different things for each of us. For me, that means literally opening my office door downstairs a morning or two a week and inviting you in for coffee and conversation. It means opening my virtual doors…

When I challenge Vermonters to get involved, I’m not just talking about the work we do in Montpelier. Because I really believe we all want to help each other; sometimes we just need to know how… one theme that I’ve stressed… is self-reliance, and its partner, volunteerism. In my mind, those are two sides of the same coin. Being self-reliant doesn’t just mean looking after yourself, although that’s important… But self-reliance also means looking after our neighbors, and giving them the support they may need to get to the next step in their lives.

That has a lot of implications.

That means buying local, and supporting the merchants on Main Street instead of the website in California.

That means helping Vermont’s manufacturers to identify suppliers and trading partners who are here within our borders or close by in our region.

That means making it easier and more affordable for more of us to eat local food, supporting our farmers, reducing transportation costs, and getting fresher and healthier things to eat.

That means investing in energy policies that help us become more independent.

Personally, I suspect that a great deal of the collective frustration that caused those 209,000 people to stay home on November 2 was the sense that our elected officials and candidates kept talking about the goals — creating jobs, jump-starting the economy, and helping our most vulnerable — but didn’t talk enough about how we would get there. Buying local and encouraging innovative local partnerships are part of my vision for how we do it…

Our challenge in Montpelier is to come up with solutions that will strengthen Vermont. Your challenge is to come up with solutions that will help your neighbor and strengthen your community. If we all work together, we will strengthen the legacy of the state that we love to call home.

Zumba, Beer and Neighbors in Huntington, #VT

Posted on Thursday, January 6, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Oh… this makes my heart sing. Enid Wonnacott shows what FPF can do. Love it! Posted today on FPF…

I just want to express my gratitude for Front Porch Forum in Huntington. There were 67 very diverse participants at Zumba class last night (little kids, teenagers, new residents, old residents, people I haven’t seen in a long time, neighbors and people I didn’t even know live in our community).

You could never do that kind of organizing, that quickly, and that successfully without the kind of networking tool provided by FPF.

It was so fulfilling to look at all of those faces in the gym at Brewster Pierce having fun dancing together on a snowy winter night.

My next organizing feat? A pub in Huntington, so we can go and have a beer together to replenish the calories! Zumba will be held Wednesdays in January from 7-8pm at Brewster Pierce. There is a lot of interest in starting a second class a week, so I will keep you posted (because I can…).

This kind of experience plays out time and again across FPF’s service area. We provide the platform and it’s wonderful to watch what people build on it. Go Enid!

Bristolites Rally Around Neighbor in Need

Posted on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Just before Christmas, Bruce posted the following to his Bristol, #VT neighbors via Front Porch Forum…

Action needed now! I recently became aware of a neighbor in need of wood to heat his home. Like many of us who are just a paycheck away from financial hardship, this person suffered a loss of income due to illness and now is facing winter with a soon to be gone woodpile. I have a line on a free wood that needs to be split and is in downtown Bristol. Here’s my plan, I will spend my from 12noon – 4pm this Friday (Christmas eve), splitting, loading and delivering wood to this neighbor in need. I have a small pickup truck. I need 6 volunteers, a wood splitter and three more trucks to pull this off. If this post gets out there by tomorrow, you can just call my cell if you want to help.

No one in this area should be worrying about heat as Winter begins with such a bounty of natural fuel all around us. This year let’s say we care with wood 🙂

And now today, ten days later, he followed up with this…

Wow. What a heart warming response to my last minute request to help a Bristol neighbor who needed wood to keep his homefires burning!

Thanks so much to all the people who spent 3 hours of their Christmas eve making a difference. Especially to Phyllis, you saved the day with your splitter and expertise.

We had probably 10 people come by Park Place and three hours later we had split and delivered 3 cords of wood. Also special thanks to Chris for donating some of his already dry and split wood and trailer to the cause.

The rest of you made this a labor of fun, with three trucks and many hands.

I wish I could post a picture on FPF (not allowed) but for now just picture a wide grin and happy neighbor. Happy New Year!

An amazing 30% of Bristol has signed up for FPF in the first several months of service there. As of this week, FPF is available in 60 Vermont towns. Please encourage your neighbors to join and put it to work! Special thanks to e-Vermont.

Helping Vermonters Help Each Other

Posted on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

It’s such an honor to provide a platform for people to be their amazing selves. From a woman in central #VT today…

I just recently helped to move an 80 yr old homeless man into an apartment in Montpelier. When I was first presented with this opportunity, I wondered how are we going to furnish an apartment for someone who has nothing. My brain was working that day, and I immediately logged into Front Porch Forum and WOW! I managed to find the furnishings for an apartment just by using the archives on FPF. Needless to say, this gentleman was moved beyond words and is just so appreciative of what has been given to him. Thanks again, I love FPF.

Is your neighborhood a community?

Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

What a delightful portrait of a neighborhood living in community, by Laura Grace Weldon in Ohio…

What makes a neighborhood? Sometimes that’s hard to figure out.

I’ve lived in a number of places. Not all of them seemed like neighborhoods. When I was first on my own I used to bemoan that my fellow renters could hardly be bothered to return a wave but someone kept stealing my newspaper…

Then we moved to a little house. It was silly how hard it was to meet the neighbors. They’d wave but that’s about it. It took nearly a year to meet the older couple across the street… Finally I baked a loaf of bread, knocked on their door and said I was sorry we hadn’t gotten a chance to meet. They turned out to be lovely people. They still write long chatty updates to me years after we moved away.

I began to understand that it takes effort to make a neighborhood. So I greeted everyone who moved onto our street with homemade goodies. I shared produce from my garden and offered to help others in any way I could. I also started inviting people over. In the fall we had bike parades where the kids spent a happy hour or so decorating their tricycles, scooters, and bikes to ride around the neighborhood in a grand procession before coming back to our house for a picnic. We had cookouts, Halloween parties, and Christmas caroling parties. We met up for working get-togethers such as picking apples and making applesauce.

The major neighborhood bonding events were our summer pig pen parties… [read the full post]

This jibes with what we see in dozens of neighborhoods where Front Porch Forum is used. It takes effort to breathe community into a neighborhood. FPF can help make it easier… and can help sustain those connections over time.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Posted on Monday, December 27, 2010 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Vermont Public Radio commentator Andrea Learned chimed in today with a piece called “Sustainable Waldo.”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to nudge more people toward sustainable living practices. While switching out light bulbs and recycling as much as possible are both easy ways to start that process, what comes next? … we may now need to focus on places where sustainability is hidden in plain sight… Remember the “Where’s Waldo” books? Darned if he wasn’t right in front of your nose and you didn’t see him. So where are some sustainability Waldos?

One great example might lie in urban density and community transportation planning issues… Gardening is another activity where sustainability may be hiding in plain sight.

And what about neighborhood involvement, as supported by services like Vermont’s own Front Porch Forum, which host networks of online neighbor-to-neighbor help and information. Communities built on stronger interpersonal relationships and citizen interconnections help build more long-term, sustainable views on big, challenging issues. Whether or not citizens see this as sustainability doesn’t really matter. They are responding to powerful, sustainability-promoting, shared values.

She’s got a point! Sometimes we talk about FPF’s larger community benefits… but most of the time when chatting with folks, we focus on the direct and obvious benefits… use FPF to find an affordable plumber or ride to Boston, to report a car break-in to neighbors, to sell a bike or give away a stroller.

Category Archives: Front Porch Forum

About Blog

Yearly Archives

Post Categories

Category Archives: Front Porch Forum

Search the Blog

Yearly Archives

Post Categories