What I Want From ChangeCamp

Over the past eight months a movement called ChangeCamp has emerged. On December 31, 2008 a bunch of people motivated by the election of Obama and the proroguing of the Canadian Parliament started to plan an “unconference” that posed the question, “How Do We Re-Imagine Government and Citizenship in the Age of Participation?” By posing such a broad question it allows for conversation on a wide variety of topics but it also makes it difficult to define the movement. It makes it difficult to define success. The issue of “What Change Do We Want to See?” pops up. How will we know when we’ve succeeded in making change?

Given that I’m not particularly passionate about electoral reform or other specific policy issues, I’ve been asking myself the question of why I’m even involved with the ChangeCamp people and the movement. Professionally, I’m interested in the process of collaboration and how to make it happen but my interest runs deeper than that and I think I figured out why. So here’s what I want from ChangeCamp:

I want to connect with my neighbours in making my community a better place to live.

I am a big fan of Peter Block’s work on community development and I feel that I lack a sense of connection, accountability and trust with my community. I love Block’s notion that “citizens” have to work with each other and government to effect change and not rely on government as a “service provider” with citizens as “consumers” of the service. Creating trust and accountability amongst community members is the initial step towards making that happen. I feel as though ChangeCamp is a way of helping make that happen. Trying to define  and agree upon the change we want to see or trying to identify when the ChangeCamp movement has been successful is not a good use of time or energy. Getting people engaged, literally out of their houses and into the community engaging in dialogue that is meaningful to them around the health and future of themselves, their families and communities is a worthwhile goal in and of itself.

In the spirit of Open Space Technology, whatever change emerges from those conversations is the only thing that could have.

With the belief that conversation, connection, trust and accountability is good for its own sake, I therefore believe that the big crazy goal of doing 100 simultaneous ChangeCamps across Canada on one day in September, 2010 would be an important, monumental event even if there isn’t a solid definition of change. The act of planning and executing such a thing would in itself be propagating action and strengthening community.

If you’re interested in learning more about ChangeCamp and engaging in the dialogue around what it could be, contribute to the ChangeCamp blog.