Earlier today, I attended a Green LA meeting that Mayor Villaraigosa and new Environment Deputy David Freeman both attended and made several commitments to continue working towards making Los Angeles a more sustainable city. Originally a working group supported by the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Green LA Coalition recently became its own independent entity and is now a project of Community Partners.  Green LA is a dynamic coalition of environmental organizations working to transform the region and serve as a collective voice for our region's many organizations working on these issues.  The Coalition released a report prioritizing actions to green LA, and has been working hard over the last several years to work with the city to implement their recommendations.  I'm glad that the Green LA Coalition has grown over the years and am happy to support them in their work (I volunteered to take pictures at today's meeting, which was fun!).

Ever wonder what the life of a consultant is like? Well, now you can get a taste for that life by following me on Twitter.  Not only will I share some of the interesting work I'm doing, but I'll also occassionally update you where I'm doing that work (like right now, as I update this blog, I'm sitting on the beach in Venice where groups of pelicans keep flying by in beautiful formation).   If there are interesting events that I'll be attending, I'll also post some of those too. 

Lately, I have been doing some consulting work for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a fantastic organization that "facilitates the creation of small, accessible community green and open space, such as parks and gardens, to address the inequity of open spaces in Los Angeles’ underserved neighborhoods, and to ensure community participation and collaboration in every step of the process of creating these parks and community gardens."

I’m working closely with their board and staff to help them develop a strategy to implement their long term vision of developing 50 new parks throughout Los Angeles.  This work involves a lot of facilitation at meetings as we brainstorm and prioritize strategies. 

This is a collaborative consulting project for me not only because I’m working closely with their staff and board, but I’m also partnering with Steve Rasmussen Cancian, a former organizer turned into Landscape Architect that has breathed new life into neighborhoods with his engaging work to develop community living rooms, among other things.  Together, we are combining our talents and generating a lot of great ideas for how to generate community parks and open space in a 21^st century Los Angeles. 

If you know of any local community groups that are interested in having more parks and open space in their communities, please email me. 

As many of my consulting clients know, I ride my bike most of the time to meetings and presentations.  I really enjoy riding around town and credit it for my good health.  Outside of consulting, I’m working on developing BikeSage, a community of streetwise bicyclists inspiring others to ride.

A few months back, I ran into some researchers at UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing working on developing a technology called Biketastic that uses cell phones to track bicycle rides.  Excited about the potential of this being a tool that could help potential cyclists discover routes that other cyclists already use, I volunteered to help test this new program in its development stage.

Nearly 150 rides later, I’ve mapped out all of the routes I ride on a regular basis.  Below is a snapshot of one section of the overall map.  As you can see, the streets I bicycle on are sometimes streets with a lot of traffic, but often quieter side streets with less traffic. 

I look forward to continuing my work with the folks at UCLA to further develop, and hopefully one day launch this exciting application.

I'm leading another "What's your Message" media workshop this Thursday at the Flintridge Foundation in Pasadena and welcome you to attend.   Here's more info about it:

"How can people choose to donate to your organization if they don't know you exist?

Media visibility about your organization and work increases your credibility in the community, helps you to obtain financial, in-kind, and volunteer support, and also plays an important role in shifting societal perceptions and moving your organization's mission forward. If you had one minute with a reporter, what would you say? How would you pitch that story to get media coverage in the first place? In this workshop, you'll learn how to craft your message to pitch to media. You'll have the opportunity to practice and receive feedback from both the instructor and your peers in the workshop. The workshop will explore what's newsworthy and discuss various strategies for securing media, including the development of an effective press release.

This workshop is designed for nonprofit professionals with no or only moderate amount of media experience."

I recently facilitated a day long planning session for the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust, an organization working to exercise land stewardship as the basis for creating pedestrian-centered neighborhoods that emphasize sustainability-oriented affordable housing.

We had an especially productive retreat.  As a facilitator, I helped create a space for the Board of Directors to decide their organization's long-term goals, short-term goals and the beginnings of a 2009/10 workplan. 

At the end of the retreat, one of the participants shared a list she had been making throughout the day of “Ronisms”: little things I said to encourage the group as they made tough decisions throughout the day. 

Here are some of the things I said:  “Nice”, “Excellent”, “Good work”, “Awesome”, “That’s Great”, “Huge”, “Amazing”, “Lets Rock and Roll”, “Give yourselves a hand of applause”, “You folks have chosen well” and “We have less than 40 minutes people”.

I laughed as I heard this list and was reminded that part of my work as a facilitator is to help ensure full group participation in the decision making process, which is done in part by encouraging and affirming participation throughout the process.  By the end of the day, everyone was very happy with the results of their hard work and thanked me for my hard work as a facilitator. 

Facilitation plays a key role in my work as a Consultant.  I've faciliated numerous retreats, board meetings and community meetings. On April 28th, from 7 to 9pm, I'll be leading an "Introduction to Facilitation" workshop at the Los Angeles Eco Village. I invite you to attend.  

Here's more info about the training: "Facilitators play a key role in helping a group make decisions, especially intentional communities and neighborhood groups.  They help create a safe environment where everyone feels like their input is valued.  In this workshop, you’ll explore the benefits of facilitation, explore the group decision making process, explore various tools a facilitator uses, and have the opportunity to practice facilitating a group (and receive feedback).   Good facilitation can significantly raise the quality of life in any group that makes decisions together. Poor facilitation can sometimes chase valuable members away from a group."