How does one lead with confidence without solely pursuing one's own agenda? And how can one allow for the input of others while still maintaining a sense of direction and moving at a reasonable pace?
I have become increasingly involved in student organizing this year and it has led me to a lot of pondering about how to best organize a group of people in the most democratic, enthusiastic, organized and effective way possible. My involvement in several Temple organizations has given me the opportunity to witness a variety of approaches to leadership, and while I applaud all of the groups' leaders for their hard work and dedication, I almost always leave meetings thinking more would get done if things were done differently.
One major difficulty is maintaining focus. Without being a dictatorship, a leader or group of leaders must keep the larger group on topic. And in addition to staying within the reasonable realm of discussion, it is equally important not to focus too much on the small details. Having votes on trivial things, asking for everyone's opinion on tiny decisions, etc takes too much of everyone's time and really amounts to nothing more productive in the end.
That being said, great things are happening these days.
Student Peace Alliance is moving in a great direction, with increased new involvement and more active involvement from the older membership. Members are choosing which community organization they want to be involved with regularly. Some are organizing yoga and capoeira classes at the Penrose Recreation Center while others are planning a hip hop program for the kids at Treehouse Books. Another group member is planning a conference on nonviolent conflict resolution for next fall. Per usual, these projects are all led and almost solely carried out by executive board members, so my hope is that we can rouse up some enthusiasm from the regular membership to take their own initiative to help. Convincing people to take their own initiative: is that a contradiction? Oxymoron?
Temple Community Garden is also developing wonderful programs these days: vegetable gardens at Penrose Rec Center and Dunbar Elementary School. The Dunbar program is in conjunction with Students for Environmental Action and Project EDU's Philly Eco Kids, a group of student educators who present a science-oriented, environmental curriculum to students after school. The garden is on the roof of the school, which is visible from the top floors of many Temple campus buildings. I can't wait to see it in bloom in the spring! At Penrose, an awesome community center with extremely dedicated staff, there is less of a pre-existing structure for the garden. This is the one I am working with. So without further ado, time to do some research!
