Getting off the Sidelines

Getting off the Sidelines April 19, 2016

Last month I participated in a strategic planning session for the Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation (PAIDC). PAIDC markets and manages the Platteville Industrial Park. As part of the strategic planning process, the facilitator had us divide into small groups to complete an “asset map”. We each had to answer questions related to the organizations we belonged to both personally and professionally, then share our responses with our group members.

My team consisted of Kathy Kopp, Chamber of Commerce Director and Dan Rohrbach, CEO of Southwest Health. Let me tell you, these two folks had some pretty impressive lists! They both displayed a tremendous commitment to their community and their respective professions. They were the definition of movers and shakers.  I was clearly the underachiever.

I’ve been fortunate to have met with several of the civic groups in town and I know that Dan and Kathy are not alone. One of the things that impressed me about Platteville was the commitment of its residents to the community. There are a core group of volunteers that donate a tremendous amount of time, talent, energy and money towards making our home a better place.

Movers and shakers come in all forms –they don’t necessarily have big job titles. Juan, my favorite waiter at Los Amigos, just told me that he joined Platteville’s Fire Department. Juan is a young guy, new to the community, and he is already stepping up to make a difference.

On the other side, there are the armchair quarterbacks. We all know some of those folks. The people that are quick to criticize the efforts of others but give little of themselves. They believe the community exists to serve them, instead of vice versa.

Somewhere in between, are people like me. They may appreciate the efforts of the movers and shakers but they aren’t investing much of their own time to support our community institutions – our government (we’ve got a bunch of board and commission openings BTW), schools, churches, civic organizations, cultural organizations etc. I’ll call them sideliners.

Before I started this job, I told myself I would wait 6 months before making significant commitments outside of work. Unfortunately, some challenges in finding housing necessitated a second move in November (two moves in six months – not fun) which pushed my schedule back a little bit. So my goal for 2016, is to move from a sideliner (with respect to my volunteer time) to the mover and shaker group. Image the things we could do as a community, if everyone made a similar commitment?