Mission-driven nonprofit organizations form the backbone of the support system for educational and social services across the state. They are the grassroots activists that energize and inspire citizens in communities large and small. The Meyer Memorial Trust has been wise to invest in these agents of change and the citizens of Oregon have reaped the benefits. Most are skilled in traditional ways of building community to achieve their missions and engage their constituents. Yet shifts in demographics, and new ways that citizens interact and communicate, add a challenge that many non-profits are struggling to address. Citizens are increasingly using social media and electronic communication technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter. While many nonprofits are dabbling in these media, it is difficult to know it’s hard to know how to make the best use of the potential of these technologies, and even more difficult to know how to measure impact and return on investment. The Meyer Memorial Trust could facilitate a transformational change by investing critical seed money in the research and development of new technologies and the use of those technologies, beyond networking, to affect social change.

OMSI would use the funds to develop and test model programs that could be broadly adopted across the sector and leverage the capacity of nonprofits to reach audiences in new ways. OMSI has proven competency for using web-based technologies to reach communities across the state, enlist partners, and engage diverse audiences in science learning. For example, we are currently developing community-based science exhibits with cell phone tags in English and Spanish that allow learners to participate using mobile devices. We also have more Facebook fans than any science museum in the country. We are a leading partner in national collaboratives to educate the public on topics such as nanoscience and health and fitness and have the capacity to manage innovative and complex projects. OMSI is leveraging the strengths of Oregon's business and non-profit leaders to create a greater good, not just for Oregon, but for all communities to advance the disciplines of science, math, engineering and technology. As an organization that has been leading science and math education for 65 years, OMSI has the knowledge, resources and partners to successfully implement this big idea.

With MMT funds we would invite partners that have a demonstrated commitment to web-based technology and education, such as Intel, Mentor Graphics, Knowledge Learning Corporation, Regence, Open Sourcery and community-based organizations such as Libraries of Eastern Oregon, Verde, and museums, and develop and evaluate prototype projects that create measurable impact. The initial investment would demonstrate proof of concept that web-based technologies can be an effective way to facilitate community-based learning. Tested models could be adapted by others for their use and demonstrated success would generate additional private sector funding.

Fund the planning, permitting and initial operating expenses for the Muslim Community Center of Portland. The MCCP is an award-winning public outreach project unlike any other in the world. The new Community Center is designed to bridge the gap of understanding between Muslims and those of differing beliefs. It is a Public Forum with meeting halls, classrooms and community kitchen -- a place for people of all walks of life to meet, share ideas, debate and learn to respect one another. Peace can only be achieved through dialogue. Oregon can demonstrate to the world how this can be achieved. Please visit these two sites to learn more about the project: http://portlandobserver.com/?p=449 and http://www.aiaportland.org/2009_design_award_winners.asp

Together, we can make a bigger difference. MMT could initiate a statewide process for all Oregonians to become more involved in our state in their neighborhoods, communities, schools, and/or statewide. Partner with the League of Oregon Cities, Association of Oregon Counties, Oregon School Boards Association, Oregon Community College Association, Special Districts Association of Oregon, and League of Women Voters, among others, to assist all units of government in Oregon to become more transparent and establish more opportunities using state-of-the-art tools for people of all ages and abilities to get involved. Work with The Ford Family Foundation and other organizations to provide training and support to create a “cascade” of public engagement opportunities for all Oregonians. Greg Hansen

I’ve seen one huge, underlying problem in my decades of for-profit and non-profit work (including work with individuals, couples, students, organizations, businesses, non-profit boards, the homeless, addicts and alcoholics, couples, business owners and employees, the mentally and physically disabled, the wealthy and the poor).

The huge problem is that we don’t have an agreed-upon way to make decisions and create solutions at a level that leads to true collaboration and unity of effort rather than compromise and competition for scarce resources. I believe we need a fresh way of approaching our personal and systemic problems, planning efforts and programs. Problems can’t be solved at the level they’re created.

Over the last 3 years I’ve been using a model of conflict resolution, relationship enhancement and decision-making that frees people from old patterns of thinking and connects them at a level deeper than strategy. It’s based on the global and evidence-based work of Marshall Rosenberg and is called Non-Violent Communication (NVC).

The model includes a simple and profound 4-step process. It works like this – people worldwide make the decisions they make in order to meet certain basic core human needs like connection, empathy, play, creativity, sustenance, health, belonging, etc. People trained in the 4-step process and language of NVC are more connected to themselves and others in the moment and more able to collaborate effectively to meet their own needs and the needs of others. They are more creative and they make better decisions. They make better spouses, parents, managers, employees and leaders because they see their own world and the world around them with fresh eyes, understand their own reactions in terms of needs met or unmet and they understand how to communicate to meet needs with the least social or personal cost.

I suggest a statewide pilot program to train organizational leaders in the language and process of NVC modeled after the proposal I sent to Deschutes County and the City of Bend for staff training.

The individual needs to access community organizations they are interested in from central location, like a neighborhood grade school, and I mean Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts serving the needs of the individual, and family units.

The Neighborhood needs a place to gather and share their knowledge and experiences, and shared values not conflicting views, and opinion. Like a neighborhood, K-8,school, where they can attend classes for personal growth, learning individual skills, gather to discuss common issues of the neighborhood, not conflicting ones.

The community needs a gathering place for events, games, and concerts to learn about each other, planned around common interests, mix, and compete, like a high school, where we can experence ROTC, recreation, and evening classes for CPR, First Aid, etc.

Oregon is currently dependent on a top down political environment that dictates behavior, rather than a political system that accommodates stated need from inclusive neighborhood groups.

Our current political attitude toward the individual needs to change and the neighborhoods need to revolve around the grade school, K-8, for gathering, and High Schools for community (multiple neighborhoods) meetings and events.

People spend too much time, energy and money commuting. Every hour spent driving to work is one hour not coaching little league, mentoring youth, or with your family. Plus, it causes traffic, with all that comes with that. Work with employers to offer down-payment assistance, home buying clubs, lunchroom seminars etc to help employees buy homes within 2 miles from place of employment. That will have many positive effects for the community:
Raise and stabilize tax-base
Stabilize school enrollments and lower dropout rates
Decrease traffic
Promote better community/business relations
Lower crime rate

It will also have very positive effects on employers' bottom lines in the form of:
Lower turn-over rate
Lower absenteeism during bad weather
Better health, lower health related absenteeism
Increased employee loyalty and morale
Lower cost of employee tip reduction plans

Such programs have been proven on a small scale by individual employers. A state-wide program could make Oregon a model for other states and metropolitan areas. Working with Fannie Mae, mortgage banks, the Chamber of Commerce, and employers, we can layout and implement a plan within one year. In time, the program will prove that local home ownership for employees is a good investment for employers and the program will become self-sustaining.
Dave Eatwell
(503) 358-2739

Let's recognize Oregonians who choose to do the right thing for their neighbors, their businesses, and their communities. I'd like to suggest something along the lines of an "Oregonian of the Day" recognition for those individuals who make an effort to make a positive contribution to our state.

Get a commitment from media outlets to run regular stories on the recipients so that their positive contributions are promoted statewide.

And give each recipient an award from an Oregon business, such as a free overnight stay at the Oregon coast; awards could be donated by Oregon businesses in exchange for the publicity associated with the award announcements.

I think that citizenship may be the most important managable factor in our effort to facilitate humane sustainablility. This creative $1 million contribution might well be spent in explicit effort to promote understanding of the meaning and practical use of the concept, "THE COMMON GOOD."

This insight would empower people with the confidence of being authentic in their thought, their own value and their action in being a citizen. The effort would need to identify the channels and processes most likely to bring about societal education on the concept and furnish the initial effort on those channels and processes which appear most likely to be successful.

As to content and topics which can make the concept workable in the citizen's practical thinking and action:

THE COMMON GOOD, as defined as broadly as the word 'common' means, and 'good' defined as an individual thoughtfully chooses, can function as the value matrix against which options and issues are measured for relative desirability.

It would allow people to consider: What is THE COMMON GOOD

-in an increasing wide circle: family, neighborhood, city, state, nation,............planet

-of the useful merits of a FREE MARKET system

-of individual and minority HUMAN RIGHTS

- in responding to GLOBAL WARMING, or more broadly, providing for ECOLOGIC SURVIVAL OF LIFE

- in creating workable structures and processes for SOCIETAL DECISION MAKING

- in determining worthy purposes for TAXES

- in assessing the fairness and practical collection of TAXES

- of the nature and importance of community support of CHILDHOOD

We need people to recognize helpful, specific examples of THE COMMON GOOD, to understand them accurately , and to place them in priority.

Bill Harris

To address a sustainable quality of life, present city/town funding models are no longer viable (ie, over 90 cents of a town's discretionary General Fund dollar go to police and fire, and 2 - 3 cents to quality of life). Already, more than 85% of fire calls are actually medical calls related to community health patterns. Through the establishment of a 21st Century Model of connected Regional Park Districts, Regional Parks Community Foundations, and Government Planning Services a three-legged stool of sustainability for quality of life would emerge. By providing a MECHANISM such as a park district, and having a parks community foundation (501c3) to help leverage resources, plus Parks and Recreation revamping as Urban Planning and Design as part of city or town planning, sustainability can be achieved. These three tools create a point of entry for funding stream(s) that allows the community to equitably spread the cost of quality of life (programs, planning, building, operations and maintenance) across the entire shoulders of the community.

A park district allows any community to proactively leverage tax dollars at maximum VALUE at less expensive tax cost, than more expensive tax dollars reactively meeting these needs through social service, health, and law enforcement. This would create systemic change in Oregon communities by enabling a community to build infrastructure, with the following benefits: Recreation, Support Economic Development, Strengthen Community Image, Health and Wellness, Foster Human Development, Improve Environment, Cultural Unity, and Community Support.
People for Parks

My idea is to start a statewide “returnment” program that would help older adults give back and return to our communities through working for nonprofits on a discounted pay basis. I would title it “experience making a difference program”.
The essence of the idea is to have nonprofits offer discounted paid positions or projects that could be matched up to 50% the first year, 30% the second and 20% the third by Meyer Memorial Trust. The goal would be to leverage the value of experience, time and the desire to give back of older adults to the needs of our nonprofit organizations while at the same time compensating the older adults at some level. The positions or projects could either be new or existing.
Each party would be investing something into the” experience making a difference program.” The nonprofit would be offering a position or project and offering to compensate it at below market rates, the older adult would be offering their passion and expertise at a deeply discounted rate and the community through the funder would be reducing the overall initial cost for the nonprofit.
This hybrid model combines parts of the spirit of volunteering with the need for some level of compensation with the elements of partnership, potential scale and ease of foundation administration.
Finally I would use the million dollars as a challenge grant to be matched by other philanthropic investors to make the overall pool much larger.

With injured returning Iraq vets, and the aging of the population, more people will need accessibility accommodation as outlined in the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act.) Anyone of us could have mobility issues at some point in our lives.
Perhaps look at all Oregon city halls. This would promote inclusion, public participation and community.
I’d like to see research into the best practices for remodeling and construction of this type, so the projects are done to current federal standards, and resources are made available to guide/train smaller companies in making appropriate alterations. Perhaps grants could be made for well designed projects.
The design and construction of the alterations/additions would put people to work right now, and we would be setting ourselves up to meet the needs of the population both now and in the future.