It’s Giving Tuesday. Please Give Today, Tomorrow, Whenever You Can.

Photo by Kat Yukawa on Unsplash

GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, #GivingTuesdayNow has been launched as a global day of unity TODAY, May 5th 2020.

Before this all happened, Long Island was already suffering increasing holes in the fabric of philanthropy that makes our local nonprofit organizations possible.

Special events had become hugely important stopgaps for organizations. They’ve all been cancelled. These groups now REQUIRE our direct support. You can check our newsletter archives to find 100s of great local organizations that could REALLY use our help right now!!!

Some Guidance on Giving Wisely

A few months ago, we sat down with Marian Conway of the New York Community Bank Foundation. She offered her highly educated, deeply experienced view on better ways to evaluate non-profit effectiveness and the problems inherent in simplistic, hard line methods focused on budget percentages, especially for human service organizations and local organizations that are run by neighbors who know and care about the unique needs of our communities.

“Foundations for the Common Good — A Call to Action” written with Executive Director David Okorn touches on similar themes, while explaining how the LI Community Foundation that he serves helps givers make the best use of their philanthropic dollars.

A Few Good Places to Give

Recently, The Long Island Community Foundation launched a COVID-19 Philanthropic response fund to aid nonprofit service providers meeting emergent and critical needs affecting our local region. Thanks to their generous donors, as of yesterday they had granted out $777,000 to struggling nonprofits.

The United Way of LI is collaborating with Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (LIVOAD) and their network of nonprofit organizations in the region on a Response Fund For COVID-19. This fund helps financially-strained LI families during the current health and economic crisis.

Housing Help is providing a wealth of information for folks in financial crisis and with other human service needs — as well as some inspiring stories of folks stepping up to help!

Regarding major local food banks, Long Island Cares has information about mobile food services. Here’s news from The INN, which does a lot for hunger and homelessness. Here’s Island Harvest.

The Safe Center website and Facebook Page offers free, confidential resources for those suffering abuse.

The Family & Children’s Association serves those in need of human services in Nassau County. The Family Service League similarly serves Suffolk. Many smaller organizations, like the Tri-CYA do incredible work on a very local level, while the Health & Welfare Council of LI is busting it’s butt to get LI Counted AND deal with the massive human services crisis!

Of course, human service organizations get a lot of attention right now — rightfully so! Still, if you are passionate about the environment, the arts, science, animal rescue, preservation, good governance, anything else — including your favorite mom & pop shop! — PLEASE FOCUS YOUR GIVING THERE, especially on LOCAL organizations that are focused right here on Long Island.

Like Veterans: We are grateful to all the VSOs who are giving it their best to stay connected and keep serving both fellow veterans and the broader community. We continue to follow Patchogue VFW Commander Dave Rogers, who is providing all sorts of information. Here’s a great interview with him on USA Warrior Stories, talking about local community work, their COVID-free, fun, online “Coffee with a Veteran” program and more. Thank you for all you do, Dave. We appreciate it..

This interview includes a note that organizations like these are often terrible at asking for money at times like now because they are worried about taking from other groups. DON’T WAIT FOR A GROUP YOU VALUE TO ASK, ESPECIALLY IF YOU VALUE THEIR HUMILITY.

Case in point that will hate us for saying this: Vision Long Island (which, in full-disclosure, Trudy is proud to serve as a Co-Chair of). These guys have been working day and night. We doubt they’ve spent much, if any, time soliciting sponsors to do so, and they usually have a highly-educational 1000-person event in June.

In fact, if you reach out to them, they’ll probably be the first to tell you who else to give to!

Main Street News is a Must-Read

We’ve said it before, we’re going to keep saying it:

THIS IS VALUABLE AND IMPORTANT.

Vision Long Island and the Long Island Main Street Alliance continue to release daily issues of their new Main Street News.

This is a grounded, productive, community-oriented force for those who care about the economic aspects of this crisis. It’s sobering, comprehensive and helpful.

There’s news about what’s happening, what’s open, resources, proposed legislation and whatever else they can find to help folks weather the storm. They have also added a “Good News” component that highlights folks doing the right thing.

Check out their website. Follow their Facebook.

Vision is one of our strongest advocates for Long Island downtowns, and has been generally connecting diverse local stakeholders to learn and work together for the betterment of our communities for over 20 years. We strongly believe they are a huge reason why there’s as much healthy communication and collaboration in the name of true public service and community development on Long Island as there is today. We are grateful.

Reflecting on the Helpers, Calling to the Dreamers: If You Had a Magic Wand…

Photo: Still the Flowers Bloom by Katheryn Laible

 

We are grateful to the friend who shared this YouTube video by Probably Tomfoolery, “The Great Realisation.” It echoes a dream that we believe more than a few of us have been reflecting on…

Katie was thinking about such things a lot when she wrote How Shall We Rise? A Holiday Reflection. A few days later, she was moved again to offer In Gratitude for the Good News Makers, when the launching of Some Good News made her smile. She was glad, both that this kind of thing was taking off Nationally, and that there are so many, right here at home, whom she knows are giving it their best to create such stories.

While many of us are very occupied with the needs of the moment, many others are in a unique position to make adjustments that may help us all.

So, maybe now is a good time to do some visioning: If you had a Magic Wand — or maybe even just a few listening ears, some helping hands, thoughtful minds and a bit of faith — How would you shape our future?

Same Storm. Different Boats

“Start where you are; use what you have; do what you can.”

~ Arthur Ashe

 

There have been a number of memes going around that offer an important metaphor: “We are in the same storm. We are not in the same boat”

Nor are we positioned the same in relation to the storm.. For some it is a sprinkle. They get to simply be still, For others it is catastrophic — physically, emotionally, economically, perhaps all of the above.

Day to day, our experiences range from reflective solitude to utter exhaustion and multi-faceted trauma.

We believe it’s like this all the time. We pray that this storm, while blindingly, cataclysmically destructive to way too many, will help us all to better understand what folks experience, and to find new ways to do things that are healthier for us all.

To realize that truth matters, and so does compassion.

To know that, while those who are suffering mightily and have never felt anything but exploited make take issue with this idea, it’s really important for those who have some control over what happens next — and we all have some control — to realize that we are indeed all in this together; to realize that social, economic and environmental health go hand in hand; to understand that the well being of the individual is intrinsically connected to the well-being of the whole..

We’ve spent a great deal of time lately counting our blessings, sharing what good we can find, and praying for so many who require so much more.

Among those blessings is knowing that, in the face of extraordinary pain and loss, there are so many stepping up to serve others, to be some kind of hero and to even dare to dream up how we might transform our current crisis into a brighter future for all. There are more than we could ever count, much less keep track of.

This is good news.

As always, this is but a sampling of people and organizations that we are blessed to have some personal familiarity with. We invite you to use it as a resource and an inspiration to seek out others.

Let us know what’s going on and of other items worth sharing. We look forward to the day we can all catch up in person again. Meanwhile, we will regularly update our Facebook Page

We are grateful for all the good you do.

It matters. Deeply.

Thank you.

 

 

Katie and Trudy

If you’d like to support the Synchronicity Network Newsletter, you may do so here. This publication serves and celebrates folks who care for art, science and the common good on LI and beyond, aiming to increase the quantity and quality of community engagement. As always, we love to hear from you, and welcome your submissions and feedback.

Adventures of Craig & Trudy in Community Leadership, Chapter 2: Touching on Temperament.

Some notes on a few of the temperament styles. Photo by Trudy Fitzsimmons

What would you do with an extra $300? Pat and Craig Rider used it to make a dream come true. During their honeymoon on a sailboat they discussed starting a business. Within a year they had established a consulting company with $300 bucks Craig earned teaching an extra college course. The Riders’ personal and professional journey now spans more than three decades.
Craig and Pat Rider are co-founders of The Rider Group, Inc. which specializes in team building, leadership development and retreat facilitation for organizations throughout North America. Their work with city, county and state-wide community leadership programs has earned state and international awards of excellence.  

Craig holds an MS in Counseling and Guidance and a BA in Psychology. Pat has a BS in Political Science. Active community advocates, both have chaired major fundraisers. Pat’s extensive volunteer work earned her recognition as a YWCA Woman of Influence and as one of Dayton’s Top Ten Women. What a dynamic duo. The preceding excerpt was taken from the book they wrote entitled “300 bucks and a dream,” which you can purchase online. Permission was given.

Thank you Craig. 

Remembering Where we Started

“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are.”   ~ The Talmud

By 2014, both the Rider Group and I had been involved in Huntington’s Leadership program for almost 20 years. I thought the history should be told, or at least recorded somewhere. In my desire to capture the history of Leadership Huntington, I arranged a dinner to include Ken Christensen, Libby Hubbard, Dianne Parker, Lou Giordano, Craig Rider, Kate Laible and myself.
During the course of the dinner Ken piped up saying “This needs to be on the record.” So this story goes: 

Craig was hired to conduct the first class retreat for Leadership Huntington in 1994. Everyone was nervous and wanted to make sure the retreat would go smoothly. Ken, feeling responsible for the program asked Craig, “What are you going to do?” 

Craig replied, “Stuff.”

Ken immediately became concerned and exclaimed “STUFF!?!” He then said, “I am not a stuff guy. I don’t do stuff! I want to know what you are going to do in detail. I am not going to trust you to do ‘STUFF.’”

Craig calmly replied, “As I evaluate the class and see what they are doing I will adapt. I need to know who the class is, what their collective personality is and their situation. I will accommodate whatever it is they are doing.” 

Ken said that didn’t make him feel much better but he did go to all the retreats because, “Craig’s STUFF WAS GOOD STUFF!”

At those retreats, Ken learned that he is a Beaver. To understand what that means, keep reading.

The Chairman of Leadership Huntington, the unflappable Lou Giordano also spent time speaking with Craig at the retreat. Craig commented “I don’t know if you knew I was a native, but it means so much to be in my hometown working with Leadership”

Lou replied, “Don’t you think I checked your references?” 

Craig replies, “You mean my Aunt Neeta and Cousin John?” 

Lou’s eyes opened wide. That was a gotcha moment. Craig has a keen sense of humor and, fortunately, so does Lou. 

Lou is an Owl. If you have been through the program with either of them you may get the humor of the situation. 

The main purpose to these little pieces of information is to introduce you to some examples of Temperament. When Craig evaluated the class, he used an instrument called the “Myers- Briggs” assessment tool.* Later, he replaced this with something he felt was simpler for folks to understand, called “Temperament.”    

Temperament

“Temperament identifies the basic needs and core values that drive our behavior and our choices. It is an interdependent, self-supporting system”     ~Linda Berens

The class would take the assessment to bring them to an understanding of how different each of us is, and what our learning styles are according to the Temperament Summary. I will share just the basics with you.**

Understanding temperament patterns is a crucial part of developing key leadership skills. Having an awareness of why and how you and others communicate and perceive information opens the door to more effective relationships and productivity.
 
During the retreats, Craig would offer many exercises — “STUFF” — to help understand how all this works. The following short descriptions, while not complete, provide an initial understanding of the patterns of behaviors, values, talents and needs. We are each a mix of temperament types, typically with one type as our preferred, or dominant type. Temperament is a language of how we are wired; the “deck of cards” we have been dealt.

Basic Characteristics of the 4 Temperaments:

“No one temperament can be said to be better than another. Each one contains strengths and richness, yet each one is fraught with its own weakness and dangers.”  ~ Tim LayHaye

The Beaver values being part of a group; having membership. Beavers are the cornerstone of society, establishing and maintaining standard operating procedures. They tend to protect, serve, stand guard and warn. Looking to the past and tradition, they may focus on the conventional. They pride themselves on being dependable and hardworking. They are generally serious, concerned and often fatalistic. Often they are skilled at getting everything in the right place- information, people and objects. 

Time Orientation: Past 

For those familiar with Meyers-Briggs, Beavers fall under ESTJ ISTJ ESFJ ISFJ

The Owl exhibits knowledge and competency. As the problem solvers, they tend to focus on complex systems of the world. They analyze how something works and then how to make it better. Seeing everything as conditional and relative, they trust logic and reason. Driven to accomplish their goals, they work tirelessly to complete projects. They are often fiercely independent leading some to think they are cold or distant. However, they are more likely simply immersed in the problems they are currently solving. 

Time Orientation: Infinite 

Meyers-Briggs Profiles: ENTJ, INTJ, ENTP, INTP

The Dolphin tends to be authentic, kind and empathetic. This is the self-improvement temperament. As a visionary and idealist, the Dolphin wants to make the world a better place, searching for identity, meaning and significance. They focus on similarities as a way to find integration. In whatever field they are in, they work well with people and groups of people. Their drive for self-knowledge, along with their general loving demeanor is inspiring to those around them.  

Time Orientation: Future

Associated Meyers-Briggs profiles: ENFJ INFJ ENFP INFP 

The Fox has an innate ability to excel in the art of their choice, whether it is business, athletics, military, or industrial. They trust their impulses, and seek to have an impact and get results. They are optimistic yet realistic, unconventional yet focused on the here and now, often getting absorbed in the action of the moment. They want freedom to move, seeking adventure and stimulation, and seizing opportunities that come to them. They will often take the road others feel is too risky, doing whatever it takes rules or no rules. 

Time Orientation: Present

Associated Meyers-Briggs Profiles: ESTP ISTP ESFP ISFP

* Myers–Briggs typology as categorized by David Keirsey. This document is a summary of the four temperaments based upon the following sources: Berens, Linda V.,”Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction 4.0” Radiance House, West Hollywood, Ca., 2010; Keirsey, David, Please Understand  Me II, Temperament Character Intelligence, Prometheus Book Company, Del Mar, CA, 1998.

** Please understand Myers-Briggs is a complicated instrument. It is not intended in this short writing to evaluate anyone, only to produce an awareness and understanding that people have many ways of processing information.     

Next month:  Leadership and Community Trusteeship

In Gratitude for the Good News Makers

Thank you, John Krasinski and all involved in “Some Good News”!

We are even more grateful that, while there are very special aspects unique to SGN’s own scale (say…that Hamilton thing a few weeks back, or more recently those amazing commencement conversations), these bits shared from across the country are but a small sampling of what’s happening right here, right now in our own backyards.

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Gus Scutari: Syosset’s Humble Champion of Americanism

We read this over and over and learn something new each time — WWII Veteran, Memorial Day Parade Organizer, and ardent booster of continuing to endeavor to be a good American in all sorts of ways, Gus Scutari reflects on life.

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