Building Social Capital

I love this list. It comes from a terrific site at http://www.bettertogether.org. These are things you can do to engage in your community and build "social capital".

what to do: 150 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL Social capital is built through hundreds of little and big actions we take every day. We've gotten you started with a list of nearly 150 ideas, drawn from suggestions made by many people and groups. Try some of these or try your own. We need to grow this list. If you have other ideas, email us. [A printer-friendly version is available here.]
1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor 2. Attend town meetings 3. Register to vote and vote 4. Support local merchants 5. Volunteer your special skills to an organization 6. Donate blood (with a friend!) 7. Start a front-yard/community garden 8. Mentor someone of a different ethnic or religious group 9. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner–and include the recipe 10. Tape record your parents' earliest recollections and share them with your children 11. Plan a vacation with friends or family 12. Avoid gossip 13. Help fix someone's flat tire 14. Organize or participate in a sports league 15. Join a gardening club 16. Attend home parties when invited 17. Become an organ donor or blood marrow donor. 18. Attend your children's athletic contests, plays and recitals 19. Get to know your children's teachers 20. Join the local Elks, Kiwanis, or Knights of Columbus 21. Get involved with Brownies or Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts 22. Start a monthly tea group 23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library 24. Sing in a choir 25. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores 26. Attend PTA meetings 27. Audition for community theater or volunteer to usher 28. Give your park a weatherproof chess/checkers board 29. Play cards with friends or neighbors 30. Give to your local food bank 31. Walk or bike to support a cause and meet others 32. Employers: encourage volunteer/community groups to hold meetings on your site 33. Volunteer in your child's classroom or chaperone a field trip 34. Join or start a babysitting cooperative 35. Attend school plays 36. Answer surveys when asked 37. Businesses: invite local government officials to speak at your workplace 38. Attend Memorial Day parades and express appreciation for others 39. Form a local outdoor activity group 40. Participate in political campaigns 41. Attend a local budget committee meeting 42. Form a computer group for local senior citizens 43. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don't have a kid playing 44. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field 45. Form a tool lending library with neighbors and share ladders, snow blowers, etc. 46. Start a lunch gathering or a discussion group with co-workers 47. Offer to rake a neighbor's yard or shovel his/her walk 48. Start or join a carpool 49. Employers: give employees time (e.g., 3 days per year to work on civic projects) 50. Plan a "Walking Tour" of a local historic area 51. Eat breakfast at a local gathering spot on Saturdays 52. Have family dinners and read to your children 53. Run for public office 54. Stop and make sure the person on the side of the highway is OK 55. Host a block party or a holiday open house 56. Start a fix-it group–friends willing to help each other clean, paint, garden, etc. 57. Offer to serve on a town committee 58. Join the volunteer fire department 59. Go to church...or temple...or walk outside with your children–talk to them about why its important 60. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for an lonely elder neighbor – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others how to can the extras 61. Ask a single diner to share your table for lunch 62. Stand at a major intersection holding a sign for your favorite candidate 63. Persuade a local restaurant to have a designated “meet people” table 64. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting 65. Take dance lessons with a friend 66. Say "thanks" to public servants – police, firefighters, town clerk… 67. Fight to keep essential local services in the downtown area–your post office, police station, school, etc. 68. Join a nonprofit board of directors 69. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery 70. When somebody says "government stinks," suggest they help fix it 71. Turn off the TV and talk with friends or family 72. Hold a neighborhood barbecue 73. Bake cookies for new neighbors or work colleagues 74. Plant tree seedlings along your street with neighbors and rotate care for them		75. Volunteer at the library 76. Form or join a bowling team 77. Return a lost wallet or appointment book 78. Use public transportation and start talking with those you regularly see 79. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate 80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival 81. Call an old friend 82. Sign up for a class and meet your classmates 83. Accept or extend an invitation 84. Talk to your kids or parents about their day 85. Say hello to strangers 86. Log off and go to the park 87. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening 88. Host a pot luck meal or participate in them 89. Volunteer to drive someone 90. Say hello when you spot an acquaintance in a store 91. Host a movie night 92. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family 93. Assist with or create your town or neighborhood's newsletter 94. Organize a neighborhood pick-up – with lawn games afterwards 95. Collect oral histories from older town residents 96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues 97. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels in your neighborhood 98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library 99. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others' self-worth 100. Tell friends and family about social capital and why it matters 101. Greet people 102. Cut back on television 103. Join in to help carry something heavy 104. Plan a reunion of family, friends, or those with whom you had a special connection 105. Take in the programs at your local library 106. Read the local news faithfully 107. Buy a grill and invite others over for a meal 108. Fix it even if you didn’t break it 109. Pick it up even if you didn’t drop it 110. Attend a public meeting 111. Go with friends or colleagues to a ball game (and root, root, root for the home team!) 112. Help scrape ice off a neighbor’s car, put chains on the tires or shovel it out 113. Hire young people for odd jobs 114. Start a tradition 115. Share your snow blower 116. Help jump-start someone’s car 117. Join a project that includes people from all walks of life 118. Sit on your stoop 119. Be nice when you drive 120. Make gifts of time 121. Buy a big hot tub 122. Volunteer at your local neighborhood school 123. Offer to help out at your local recycling center 124. Send a “thank you” letter to the Editor about a person or event that helped build community 125. Raise funds for a new town clock or new town library 126. When inspired, write personal notes to friends and neighbors 127. Attend gallery openings 128. Organize a town-wide yard sale 129. Invite friends or colleagues to help with a home renovation or home building project 130. Join or start a local mall-walking group and have coffee together afterwards 131. Build a neighborhood playground 132. Become a story-reader or baby-rocker at a local childcare center or neighborhood pre-school 133. Contra dance or two-step 134. Help kids on your street construct a lemonade stand 135. Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full 136. Say hi to those in elevators 137. Invite friends to go snowshoeing, hiking, or cross-country skiing 138. Offer to watch your neighbor’s home or apartment while they are away 139. Organize a fitness/health group with your friends or co-workers 140. Hang out at the town dump and chat with your neighbors as you sort your trash at the Recycling Center 141. Take pottery classes with your children or parent(s) 142. See if your neighbor needs anything when you run to the store 143. Ask to see a friend’s family photos 144. Join groups (e.g., arts, sports, religion) likely to lead to making new friends of different race or ethnicity, different social class or bridging across other dimensions

Snowing again...

It's snowing again. Hurray, dammit. I love snow. I hate moving it.

There's nothing like being up high in the mountains, in steep trees, with nothing but the near noiseless peace of a heavy snow. Heart pounding, thighs burning. Facies as I make turn after turn down the steeps.

So many incredible winter memories. Falling in love with my wife in Utah. Helicopter skiing in British Columbia. Waist deep skiing in Whistler, and Snowbird, and Alta, and Brighton and Solitude. Stuck in the canyon. Incredible Jackson Hole.

Canyon roads carved, not plowed. Cars completely buried. Windshield wipers can't keep up.

So much snow I can't breathe when I ski because so much is in my face.

But somehow, there's nothing like a snow day when I was a kid. Bliss. Insta-vacation. King of the mountain. Heaven. Snow Day!

Inspiration

Regardless of your political foundation and regardless of where your vote will fall, I encourage you to watch this video.

We are in the midst of an election cycle unlike any we’ve ever seen. We have diverse candidates, and are down to clear two-person races in each party. What I find most interesting is that the candidates really are different from each other.

We have technology we’ve never had before. Candidates have myspace pages. They use youtube. Information is now.

I found this video compelling for a number of reasons. Above all, it’s just different. This is a new political expression. This wasn’t funded by a campaign. These are talented and committed people getting together for a compelling reason: they are positively INSPIRED.

For the last several election cycles, I’ve found myself negatively inspired. That is to say, I voted against someone. Politics are tainted for me. No candidate inspired me. No candidate was my leader. No candidate excited my sensibilities and my passion.

Obama may not be your guy. But that’s not why I’m posting this. Regardless of your vote, I hope you can feel inspired by the process and by your candidate. As a community, Americans should take back politics. We should demand that our candidates inspire us. At the very least, we must demand that they be inspired.

http://www.dipdive.com/