How do you tell what kind of winter is coming to Vermont? Check your cat’s coat? Read the pattern of fall foliage? Me? I read Front Porch Forum. Postings like this one in Huntington today tell me we’re headed for a long, cold one…
A friend of mine, on Texas Hill Road, had his tank of home heating fuel siphoned and stolen. This happened sometime last Thursday night. The state police were notified of the robbery… The tank was recently filled so there was about 275 gals of fuel, therefore a large truck would have been needed to transport the fuel. The owner heard a sound and the automatic flood lights went on but was unable to see anyone. If anyone has any information about this please contact the Williston State Police. It’s a shame that someone would steal fuel from a long-time neighbor of ours. Especially when the fuel was to keep him warm this winter!!
I hope they find the bums! Bundle up.
What a pleasure to announce this… Starting immediately, the good people of Alburgh, Grand Isle, Isle La Motte, North Hero and South Hero, Vermont may subscribe to Front Porch Forum! If you live (or summer) there, please sign up today! And please tell your friends and contacts on the Islands to join FPF too.
A core group of organizers, led by Ruth Wallman of the local Chamber, Frank Driscoll, and Darcy Coates, have labored long to line up sponsors to support FPF’s launch in Grand Isle County. This is exciting stuff! So thanks to them, and to the these great launch sponsors (below). In fact, please take a moment to thank them and send some business their way!
Premier Sponsors
Local Sponsors
If you’re new to Front Porch Forum and live (full or part-time) on the Islands, please sign up… it’s easy, free and won’t clog your inbox. Then go ahead and post a message to your neighbors. Want to know more? Take a tour or read what the local and national media have to say about FPF.
My family and I were happily surprised by the good folks at Burlington’s East Village Cohousing with their Award for National Neighborhood Day. The certificate reads in part…
for their creation of the Centennial Front Porch Forum, which has brought us together to lead creative and more peaceful lives with our neighbors [Centennial is the broader neighborhood in which East Village Cohousing resides)…
How flattering to be recognized by a group of thoughtful people already living in intentional community! Thanks to the cohousing folks!
P.S. I believe they have a couple of units open at this time for anyone looking for an incredible housing/community opportunity in Burlington. Details… click here.
I thought this comment to an earlier blog post deserved it’s own spotlight. From Hannah…
… Front Porch Forum is what people make of it. I belong to the Orchards forum in South Burlington and sometimes it seems like there is even too much conversation going on (in a good way!). Our forum is made up of an area that you could walk through on foot in 1/2 an hour or less, which allows us to have conversations that really affect us all, like a specific stop sign or dog-walking ettiquite in our neighborhood park. For us, the size of our forum is perfect, because there are few enough people that we recognize names when we see them but enough voices to keep a conversation going.
What an honor! Front Porch Forum is headed to Washington, DC on Sept. 9 to participate in an event called Engaging Citizen 2.0: From Obama to the “MyFaceTube” Revolution, How is Social Media Reshaping Civic Engagement? We’ll be in the Library of Congress with several luminaries of the “using social media for civic engagement” crowd, including…
They’ve capped the gathering at about 100 folks from around the country who are among the top in this quickly emerging field. Thanks to The Case Foundation for FPF’s special invitation. I’m looking forward to learning from the conversation and sharing FPF’s amazing story of actual civic engagement catalyzed through FPF’s virtual front porch (here’s a recent sample).
This event will be streamed online live at www.ncoc.net and will be live on Twitter– follow @ncoc and #ncoc.
FPF will also swing by the Gov 2.0 Summit… again thanks to The Case Foundation.
From Dawn in Burlington’s Old North End…
I am 39 and spent the better portion of my childhood in the ONE. While it had it’s concerns even then, it’s much worse today. However, the core of ONE was good. It seems to be hidden today, but it became clear to me after I found Front Porch Forum that the “core” is still present. It shows in FPF with the support and compassion that is here. I found it comforting to read. I was kind of shocked and a bit saddened upon my return to the neighborhood, but in looking around at the wonderful community building underway on FPF, I’m coming around!!
NewGeography published Pete Peterson’s piece about Front Porch Forum the other day.
Beth’s comment to an earlier blog post here deserves to be featured… wow…
I am on the Westford Front Porch Forum and look at it as the best way to keep up with neighbors, get community information, form new community connections, and have healthy, respectful debates about local issues. In the year and a half I have been on the Forum I have found it helpful in the following ways (this is just off the top of my head):
1. Started a singing group
2.Found a new home for a friend’s dog
3. Debated the merits of town meeting vs. australian ballot
4. Debated the merits gay marriage
5. Been reminded of events at the library such as Women’s Game Night and speakers and then attended these events.
6. Started a local neighborhood watch program
7. learned about musicians coming to the town green
8. Learned what booths will be at the farmer’s market each week.
9. Joined a Westford CSA for local produce
10. Found a neighbor to help carpool to high school with our foreign exchange student.That is just how I have personally been able to use the Forum. I also get to have an ongoing conversation about everything with my neighbors. I am not a major community organizer. I am just feeling like an active member of my community with this important tool. What is even more telling is that much of Westford does not have high speed internet access. While I know the FPF works fine on dial up, there are people who skip connecting altogether at home because they do not have a high speed option. I only see the FPF expanding as the options for connecting expand.
I talk about the forum at work (which is in Franklin County) and they are intrigued and would like FPF to expand beyond Chittenden.
It actually pains me to read that Brennan Woods is not making good use of the FPF when they have such high participation. It is an opportunity to connect that looks like it is being squandered.
And many others commented about the odd editorial in the Free Press on FPF itself (below), on Twitter, on Facebook, on Free Press online, on this blog, in letters to the editor (we’ll see if the Freeps will run any of them… not yet), and to me directly. From Patricia in Burlington’s Old North End…
I, too, thank City Councilor Marrissa Caldwell for prompt and continued attention regarding the Battery and Pearl crossing. Although I am not in Marrissa’s voting ward, she responded quickly to my first Front Porch Forum posting and continued with the second… The FPF postings also revealed that the whole design of Battery Park at its multiple points of pedestrian entry and exiting needs further attention from the city. Signs stating the Vermont law that cars must yield to pedestrians, speed bumps, and other car traffic calming initiatives were all offered by FPF readers as means to end the thruway mentality.
UPDATES: Good for the Freeps… they published two letters to the editor on Sept. 4 about this. And here’s one FPF member’s response, as posted via FPF to her neighbors…
Today’s Burlington Free Press, in Letters to the Editor, praises the Front Porch Forum for helping us to be informed in a democracy. I second this! Thank you Front Porch Forum, for helping us all, in our media-connected, busy work a day lives, for giving a sense of community.
UPDATE 2: The Free Press just published another piece about this… a My Turn by James Sullivan of Burlington.
More than one-third of Starksboro, VT, households have signed up with Front Porch Forum in our first six months of service there. Here’s one resident’s experience, as she shared it today with her neighbors…
Wanted you to know I had seven offers in response to my request to borrow a kayak for a day. FPF is a great service and I hope everyone already a part of FPF will spread the word to other friends and neighbors in Starksboro to join.
Let’s see, we’ve done favorite view and creemees. What’s next- favorite walk/run/hike/bike in Starksboro?
Kerry posted on Front Porch Forum today in Burlington…
Dear Neighbors – Thank you so much for all the wonderful recommendations that we received for painters. There is nothing like having a recommendation from a neighbor. We thank you and our house thanks you!
That’s lovely. And just now I see that Jeanne followed up with one of her own…
About those house painter recommendations…
Front Porch Forum works well as a community/neighborhood information system. If you are responding to someone’s request for a recommendation, please post the recommendation on Front Porch Forum rather than emailing the recommendation directly to the private email address of the initial query. If the recommendation is openly posted we all can benefit from the advice and it will be in the archives for all to search.
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
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