Community Center idea: Clean Out Your Computer Day

I have had this suggestion for a few years and casually made it, but perhaps it is going to take putting it on paper to convince a few folks.  I've never seen it done as a community event.

Clean Out Your Computer Day
Monday February 10th

I am sure lots of LGBT community centers are searching for each programming. I envision folks bringing their laptops for a morning/afternoon/evening. Move the day to Saturday if you normally have an open house/hours that day.

Materials:
*electronic duster (canned air!)
*screen and keyboard cleaner
*special screen wipes
*tiny tools/screw drivers (I know that I have 2 screws that fell out of my laptop
*your Center's STICKERS or your state LGBT group's STICKERS

Reasons why I think this is great programming
*almost every laptop could use a good cleaning
*almost every laptop could use a good virus scan
*shared resources....rather than buying that bottle of cleaner then never using the whole bottle
*cross generational (youngins can help the less savvy do things like virus scan, etc)

This could be extended to cell phones as well I guess.....someone might donate a stack of iPhone sticky/plastic protectors. The phones need cleaned before those get stuck on as well! Perhaps existing programs like computer education could be moved to this day as well.

I'm fully aware that only a portion of community members have such electronics.

Keeping busy

Usually I do an amazing job of keeping myself busy worrying about things I can't change. More recently I have been keeping busy worrying about stuff I CAN change. This has resulted in a little more satisfaction from a sense of achievement, but there is still an element of worrying that is probably not useful. Not just not useful, but wasteful actually.

I have been doing way too much work for my organization, the NWA Center for Equality. With two very hardworking board members checking out two months before the end of their terms and with the new board members not yet contributing at full speed, there was a lot of work to do. Much of it is the day-to-day "busy" work that makes organizations, especially successful ones, run. I don't much like small detail work. I tend to stay lost in the big picture, looking at everything from a bird's eye view. I notice details...and know a bunch of the small steps it takes for things to succeed...I just don't like doing them. I think my mind is already jumping ahead while I need to be focusing on getting the next little piece of something done. Sometimes you are needed for your great, brilliant, strategic ideas. And sometimes you are needed for thankless grunt work. It's another one of the humbling experiences that we all need to engage in more often. A life of service should be filled with those kinds of moments. Even if you think you are SO amazing and that you have SO much to give the world. Get over yourself and pick up a shovel. Your big ideas will have their day. Sandbags need filled 24/7 during a flood. Shovel.

That little email newsletter that has never been sent out on a regular interval? Well, gathering the relevant info, writing it, getting the appropriate links, testing it, fighting piss poor online email software.....probably 2.5 hours a week or more. Helping keep the Facebook posts and status fresh so that people get the info they need? That takes some time too. Opening the office for a volunteer who needs to do some work? A drive across town doesn't take that long, but it breaks up your day and your plans. A board member or volunteer needs this or that contact info for that one person? Yes, the other board members technically have access to our HORRIBLE online email database, but really it's useless unless you have already wasted hours in it learning. So there is a little more time. Of course with our All OUT June (pride month), there was more planning and organizing than we have EVER had as an organization and it comes just as those retiring board members mentally check out and as the newbies get elected. This means the existing folks have to pull extra hard.

That kind of transition is very normal and to be expected. Those headed out will pull away from duties (though hopefully gracefully by empowering their replacements) and the new folks will have a learning curve as they realize what they actually signed on for. This is the flow of organizations. And yes the natural evolution of organizations includes controversy and disagreement and making some people mad. If you seek to make 100% of people happy 100% of the time you will end up achieving your mission 0% of the time. I have far too often heard people, especially in the LGBT rights movement, say that groups and associations don't last because of some quality of those people involved. I disagree. Those failures are more about the qualities of the people who quit or who never get involved. And I don't mean positive qualities.

The measure of a good organizer is that they organize themselves out of a job. Recruiting, training, empowering, and motivating others to get stuff done is the essence of organizing. I appreciate the volume of work done by the folks that have gone before as I am now doing much of it. However, I don't feel proud because I am doing it. I actually feel like I have failed because I have not figured out away to delegate some of this work to the other board members so that there is a equitable sharing of burden. Though not everything thing can go to volunteers outside of the board, what can must identified and distributed to others. After all, people WANT to help...they just don't know how or aren't asked to. Doing all the work yourself is not a sign of leadership at all. And congratulating yourself and doing the whole martyr thing is not productive.

Many people can get a job done. Far fewer can multiply their effort through the work of others. Even fewer can get that work from people for free. Those who can are called organizers.

Keeping with the idea that I should be worrying about things you have some control over, I guess I should end with the simple, common, and well-known serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Finally, the Messiah arrives!

No, not Jesus or any other deity for whom we have been waiting. No, the Messiah...as in Handel's Messiah. As in "Hallelujah Chorus" Messiah. There we go...about 5o% of you just said "Ah" in your heads. The other half may need some learnin'.

Though I just got my hands on it, we performed it way back in December. "We" are the members of the University of Arkansas Master Chorale, an ensemble of community members and UofA students, faculty, and staff. I sang with them last fall and it was a great experience. No audition necessary, but it is still a very good group, especially after the University's audition choir (Schola Cantorum) is added in for concerts. Most people sing one or two choruses. That had been my experience as well through Concert Choir at the UofA and in high school. This time was different. We learned and sang every single chorus.

It took a little longer to produce than they had anticipated. I haven't the foggiest idea about recording technology, but they produced an okay product. Several of the audience members said it was the best they had ever heard a live performance. Having the orchestra surely helped this. Having listened to it I can say the vocalists are drowned out by the instrumentalists a bit, but it does sound nice. As always, too many sopranos ruins the balance and a few squeakers hurt the blend, but it is still an enjoyable listen.

I even got all dressed up for it. How nice...a tux..during the holiday season. I clean up alright, don't I?