Two words have suddenly become hip and sexy.

I didn’t think I would ever see it but thanks to President Barack Obama, within the space of a few months, there’s been more talk and excitement about community and service than I can ever recall.

Obama has plans to expand AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, engage retiring Americans, and send Americans who are fluent speakers of local languages to expand public diplomacy.

He’s encouraging all middle and high school students to do 50 hours of community service a year, and will establish a new tax credit that is worth $4,000 a… More Posted on 01-25-09

Conflict is Inevitable

I always knew that conflict was inevitable but no one ever told me how painful it could be. 

Our work team is based in locations across the province. While we connect regularly using different technologies, face to face meetings aren’t very common due to the costs in terms of time and money needed to get us all at the same location at the same time. Despite the challenges, we’ve somehow managed to become a community that values and enjoys our face time.

This week we participated in a meeting that finally put us all in the same room… More Posted on 01-10-09