Comment 77661

By CouldaWouldaShoulda (anonymous) | Posted May 31, 2012 at 12:15:42 in reply to Comment 77657

"That you would dare judge the commitment of someone who couldn't afford a babysitter or a sick day (not everyone gets paid sick days) is really sad."

'Community Activism: It's Different For Everyone', a town hall topic.

What bothers me about all 'this' is that whoever is reading this site's articles is essentially intrested in activism. (Granted, there my be some voyeurs here, but who knows; maybe they can be 'converted'.)

So the snipping and the spitting just doesn't strike me as a good thing. (the downvoting is bad enough)

I think the goal is go create community engines that allow for- Well, here's how I put it in a recent excerpt of an interview held in 2022 with the (fictional) Chair of the (fictional) Hamilton Federation of Neighbourhood Associations:


McCrawley: So in regards to the question 'What percentage of residents are active in their NAs, and therefore, in HFNA efforts?' the answer is about 65%. This means that we have roughly 65% of residents in each neighbourhood signed up and at least receptive to being engaged.

But of course, I do have to say that there will always be a core of residents who are more energized, who get things started, who are momentum-creators. This is about 15% of our membership. Then you've got those people who will respond to calls to attend meetings, etc. That's about 30%. The rest are those who may not attend meetings that often, but who can be counted on to occasionally come to festivals, to town halls, and regularly signing petitions.

Everyone has a role to play. And we've been fortunate in creating an environment where residents can define that role themselves out of their own 'comfort level'. But I'll tell you this: because of how NAs are encouraged to run their shows, people are constantly going from a passive place to getting more involved. And this happens mostly out of inspiration.


So the goal isn't to guilt someone into contributing, or comparing contributions. It's more having to do with creating situations where it's more likely that more residents will contribute according to their abilities and inclinations.Because although I don't believe in an 'Us vs Them' paradigm, as Hamitonians, we *are* on the same side.

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