The power of the ordinary citizen

Dear True,
Things are looking up in Grand Marais the past couple of days. We had good PARTICIPATION in the first public meetings about the visioning process, and that's what we need most. About 60 people gathered last night, after the facilitators had covered the walls with photos and drawings and comments collected during "charette" walking tours around town. These speedy guys also made a Power Point presentation showing street scenes from an architect's eye: lines drawn to illuminate connections linking buildings and landmarks.
People were fascinated by the photos and comments, and added their own post-it comments. Instead of the fractious meetings with polarization of the extreme developers and the do nothings, everybody was looking at specific buildings, streetscapes, signage, pedestrian pathways, and such like. Breaking down barriers, talking like the neighbors we are.
I still believe there needs to be a long process, much longer than the six months we have. But Rudy, Chuck and DL have made a great start.
Today I attended a different seminar, offered by the Center for Rural Planning, about Community Decision-Making and Conflict Resolution. I went because I am so intimidated by conflict and hoped there might be some learned skills to help me focus. Also because I am a firm believer in the CRP method of consensus-based decision-making, which has worked so well for Tofte township.
The presenters had all the skills I wish for, and more. I learned how to structure effective meetings and generate high-functioning steering committees and other community work groups. Even after 15 years working with city-chartered citizen participation organizations in Minneapolis, I badly needed this information.
But it was the conflict resolution part that resonates with the New Me, the ordinary citizen with lots of power! This epiphany did not descend while we learned about the subtexts that fuel conflict (individual perceptions, underlying assumptions or rules, and core values that shape our beliefs). But I did sense a gleam of light opening, aha! My value of the common good is not shared by champions of individual rights, and THEY feel just as passionately as I do. Before today I just dismissed these folks as selfish. While I haven't totally changed my mind I comprehend that selfishness may be perceived as GOOD (look at the Calvinists who believed that making money proved you were the elite destined for heaven). It's not about agreeing or disagreeing so much as just stepping back and saying, oh, yeah, now I see where you're coming from.
After this discussion, I was feeling glum. It's easier for me to deal with conflicts if I feel valued and respected, if I am a player. In Grand Marais, I have felt excluded by a city council that acts sometimes rudely to citizens, even at one point throwing them out of a meeting, and I have been told I have no right to speak out because I live two miles outside the city limits. Even when I make a little speech, I feel it is totally ignored while others, mainly downtown business and property owners, are kowtowed to.
SO, I asked my little question: "I am just an ordinary citizen without any power. Is there some way I can learn skills to act in this situation?"
Sue Lawson (CRP director) advised putting people receptive to shared power and consensus process into office. Other participants suggested going to meetings to keep abreast of issues (I do that), and forming networks of other ordinary citizens.
But when Maria, another of the facilitators, addressed me personally, she said that ordinary citizens are totally necessary to the elected officials and they have a lot of power. The RESOURCES afforded by one's job, and the INTERPERSONAL NETWORKS one brings to bear are needed by the Powers That Be. People with COMMUNICATION SKILLS are valued. Maria said I had listening skills and caring and warmth. Special knowledge or EXPERTISE brings power: I am a writer and an expert in evaluation and citizen participation models. These four attributes, RICE, are the currencies of power for Ordinary Citizens.
Everybody in our group was happy for me, and I was happy for me, because I suddenly felt different--a person who has the power to change things.
Our session ended with techniques for sharing power and regaining power balances. I especially liked the "power of calm persistence," like the water that wears down rocks. It seems that just showing up at meetings, sometimes even without speaking, but quietly reinforcing requests in a small and manageable way is something a shy ordinary citizen like me can do that WILL make a difference.
So, friends of Grand Marais, I hope you will take heart, as I have done today, and believe that we can preserve what we love for generations to come.
Nancye Belding
True North correspondent