In the excitement around Front Porch Forum‘s selection for the big national Make It Your Own Awards, I neglected to share our new video clip! You can see it below, on YouTube, on the contest site, and on local access TV (schedules below)…
Special thanks to CCTV Channel 17 (Meghan O’Rourke, Sam Mayfield and Lauren-Glenn Davitian) and the dozens of local folks who appear in the clip.
RETN Channel 16 (more times forthcoming)
CCTV Channel 17 (more times forthcoming)
Please vote for us! And help spread the word… one vote per email address.
It’s inspiring to moderate Front Porch Forum in Vermont. Here’s part of Alan S.’s posting to his Burlington neighbors today…
Hello Neighbors – I assume that the rest of you are as ready for flowers and grass as I am. Enough of this cold and dreariness already!! I had a tree topple on my house during the last ice storm. Fortunately, it did no damage to the house, but I had to remove it entirely… It still seems strange that I live on Birch Court, but there are almost no birch trees left on the street. I may correct that shortcoming by planting one to replace the one I removed. I have to save up some funds because lately the cost of living is becoming prohibitive.
Hard earned dollars do not go as far and being fiscally conservative has become a way of life. We boomers are in for some tough times, especially those of us who got a late start saving and investing money. It behooves us to stick together and maintain our community with its resources. We will need all the resources we can muster in the future.
One immediate way to be involved is to join and attend our Neighborhood Planning Assembly. We hold monthly meetings at the Heineberg Senior and Community Center. Look for postings here on the forum. In addition to NPA, I encourage that you speak with city councilors, Board of Health members, school board members, and any other appointed or elected servants of the city. Your input to the processes of governance and change is critical to successful outcomes. I have learned not to underestimate the power of my single voice and certainly not the collective power of our many voices together. Please write, call, post on the forum and blogs, do whatever you can to raise community consciousness.
I also want to mention our need to reach out in our immediate neighborhoods. There are some of us living alone and living poorly for lack of resources. I believe that it would benefit them greatly if we paid them a neighborly visit. I encourage us to find small, but effective ways, to help someone near us. I keep in my own mind, that someday it could be me waiting for someone to be friendly and loving. Please reach out to your neighbor next door and beyond. The rewards for doing so will be great!!!
Please help us continue and expand this work… vote today and spread the word!
Front Porch Forum is in tiny Vermont… we’re definitely the underdog in the Make It Your Own vote. But maybe we can pull off a miracle. We’re starting to hear from folks…
Please help us continue and expand this work… vote today and spread the word!
People use Front Porch Forum in lovely ways. The other day a proud mother shared the following with her neighbors…
“We are pleased to tell the community that [our son], an eight-year member of Huntington Troop 645, passed his Board of Review last week and is now an Eagle Scout.”
She provided some detail and showed great constraint in not bragging… just sharing really.
Well… she opened the flood gates and neighbors started flowing in with compliments about the Eagle Scout, as well as a sibling and the parents in general, e.g.,
“This is a wonderful accomplishment and one well deserved. I agree that [they] have done a wonderful job giving these great boys to our community. It gives me much hope for our future to know that there are boys like these in our world and contributing to our future generations. The welcoming smiles that these boys so readily share makes my day each time I cross paths with one of them. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The mother weighed in one more time, a bit embarrassed, but clearly appreciative of her kids AND her neighbors.
It’s a privilege to have Front Porch Forum used in this way.
Please help us continue and expand this work… vote today and spread the word!
Here’s a posting from a South Burlington FPF neighborhood forum from Deana that makes my day…
I just wanted to show my gratitude for the neighbors I have on [our street]. People on our street care about one another, watch out for each other, and help whenever you need it. I’ve walked out my door and my neighbor is chipping away at ice in my driveway for crying out loud!!
I’ve lived in southern Florida, San Diego, and now Vermont. Making a life on [our street] has been an experience of a lifetime. There’s nothing like it.
We are out of town right now and I feel very at ease as my neighbor, Susan, is taking care our dogs, the mail, and no doubt whatever weather inhabits our driveway. I love turning off of [the main road] and immediately begin to wave at anyone who is in their yard or walking on the street.
Thank you to everyone on [our street] for making our neighborhood feel like a real community. I am very proud to be part of it.
I’m excited about a panel that I’ll be part of at the annual conference of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. Here’s a draft of what to expect…
The World Wide Web Comes Home
How “Local Online” Is Changing Your BusinessRichard Donnelly, Burlington Telecom
Christopher Grotke and Lise LePage, iBrattleboro.com
Chris Middings, Seventh Generation and Champlain College
Paula Routly, Seven Days
moderator: Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch ForumThe fifth great wave of the Internet—after communication, commerce, search and social networking—may well be “local.” People increasingly look online for answers to local questions about shoe stores, plumber recommendations, meeting people, directions, crime reports and more. A vast array of tools and services are being developed in Vermont to meet this demand. Much of this activity is fueled by online ad sales, which grew nationally to $20 billion in 2007. The Internet is driving business change, and companies are increasingly learning how to use this medium to focus on local markets. This session will provide attendees with concepts and tips for keeping up and getting ahead.
The conference (always a hit), will be held May 14 at Champlain College in Burlington, VT. The panel is tentatively scheduled for 1:15 to 2:30 PM. Come join the conversation… bring your experiences, questions and comments!
For a list of local businesses that have advertised online recently via Front Porch Forum, click on our sponsor link.
INVITATION: If anyone wants to get the conversation started early, leave a comment below…
We’ve been the lucky recipients of some great feedback about Front Porch Forum recently. Just now a member wrote in after discovering that her new street address didn’t fall into one of our pre-existing neighborhood forums…
I just moved to Burlington and [my] street appears to not be part of a forum. I can’t imagine this is possible. If is is though how does one get started? I have been part of Westford’s forum and I love the information that is shared. I rely on it for local news, political info, resources, etc. and I will miss not having that in Burlington. I will look forward to you response. Thanks!
Good news for this subscriber… yes, her street does belong to a very active FPF neighborhood forum. Our registration process just hiccuped and misdirected her… all’s well.
Thanks to Elaine for this wonderful note today…
I just wanted to tell you that right after the announcement that I had started my business was posted on the Five Sisters Forum, I received an email from a prospective client. I’m happy to say that he is now an official client and I foresee a successful working relationship ahead. Many thanks to you and Front Porch Forum for making connections like these happen!
— Elaine Sopchak, Vermont Voices Marketing Services
I wonder how she’d do if she reached out across all 130 of our neighborhood forums in addition to the single one she tried the other day?
Congratulations to the Soup Mama, Lorraine Murray. Nice coverage in today’s newspaper…
The only thing better than a bowl of homemade soup in winter — at least for those of us who arrive home from work simultaneously with the family’s demands for food — is a bowl of homemade soup we didn’t actually have to make.
If that soup made in somebody else’s kitchen were actually delivered to our front door, why we might just fall down and kiss the hem of that cook’s garment.
And she exists, at least if you live in Burlington. Hooray for Lorraine Murray, the Soup Mama, who delivers her homemade concoctions door-to-door every Monday.
Murray, the 26-year-old mother of one, launched her business in October. It works like this: She posts her soup-of-the-week on the neighborhood e-mail newsletter, Front Porch Forum, and her Web site (http://thesoupmama.wordpress.com/) each week. Customers place orders by Saturday evening.
Lots of small and micro businesses use Front Porch Forum to get the word out about their offerings… another great use of this service.
I was talking to a marketing professional this week and he was asking me how big Front Porch Forum‘s marketing budget is considering the high level of local buzz about it. Well… what budget? We depend on happy members to spread the word… neighbor to neighbor… social “contagion.” So I was glad to read this posting from Perry in a Burlington neighborhood forum today…
I heard about [Front Porch Forum] some weeks ago, then yesterday, within about 12 hours, three different people mentioned it. I figured that’s the sign I need to become part. Looking forward to becoming more familiar and involved with the neighborhood.
8,000 local subscribers and counting… out of a base of 50,000 households.
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