Separate sandboxes: A lack of cooperation, communication and coordination in Birmingham
By Wade Kwon
A talk at Ignite Birmingham
One troubling but recurring theme in Birmingham’s struggle to emerge as a true New South city is splintered efforts. This isn’t a surprise: Our community has been fractured for decades: black and white, suburbs and city, educated and uneducated, white collar and blue collar and so on.
We see recurring examples of a lack of cooperation, communication and coordination across the city. But we can also break this pattern with concerted effort.
A telling example of this duplication problem is the battle over the Neighborhoods USA annual conference, this year in Alaska. The City of Birmingham has sent an overwhelming number of delegates in years past, mostly leaders of the 99 neighborhoods.
The original travel plans for this year included sending 168 delegates for a total cost of more than $370,000. The finalized plan — after weeks of deliberation and political tactics — has whittled it to $68,000 for 28 representatives.
This would seem sane, except that the city continues to struggle with finances after the fiscal irresponsibility of one Larry Langford.
But a city that understood the value of proper leadership training would have invested in a more homegrown approach decades ago. Simply put, the conference trip is nothing more than political patronage for the mayor and city council.
Neighborhood leaders should be well trained to run their associations, 99 in all throughout the city. But to have to do it across a continent seems extravagant at a time when jobs, salaries and budgets are being cut.
The leaders who actually want better training and resources could work together with City Hall to come up with modestly funded workshops every 2 years for incoming officers. And the leaders who just want a free trip to Anchorage are unlikely to do much beyond what benefits them most.
The next example hits a little closer to home for me.
For the past 12 months, my friend Henry McBride has been working tirelessly on putting together a quarterly series of free events called Ignite Birmingham. This would be in addition to his full-time job, his family and his other community obligations.
An Ignite brings together speakers from across the community to share ideas and passions onstage. These talks are often recorded on video to share online. It gives people the opportunity to learn and to discuss ways to make the world a better place.
The idea has been kicked around Birmingham for at least 3 years, but Henry was the one who started actually putting nose to grindstone in early 2010. Since then, hundreds of attendees and dozens of speakers have taken part in a lively and intriguing event.
I’ve had the privilege of working with Henry on publicizing the events, recruiting speakers and even speaking at a couple of them.
Henry had a bigger concept in mind, what he calls the Birmingham Idea Ecosystem. He wrote about it on his site earlier this month, outlining how Ignite and another similar international phenomenon, TED Talks, could enrich the community.
Fortunately, someone launched TedxRedMountain last week, an eerily similar cause and event. How similar?
- Both events are spinoffs of global organizations.
- Both events features speakers sharing ideas in short presentations.
- Both events are new to Birmingham.
- Both events are volunteer driven and nonprofit in nature.
- Both events use similar promotional language …
- Ignite Birmingham: Sparking the Magic City’s Creative Class. Ignite Birmingham is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring the city’s diverse community. While mainly focused on the tech and creative communities, we encourage anyone with a good idea to speak.
- TedxRedMountain: Bringing together some of Greater Birmingham’s leading thinkers, doers, innovators, idea-generators, creators, developers, researchers, and connectors. Creating a spark, that ignites a fire. To Advance. Grow. Act. Produce. Change. Inspire.
A couple of differences do stand out.
For instance, Ignite Birmingham is free and open to all attendees. TedxRedMountain is not:
“Invitations are extended at the discretion of the organizing team based on a broad set of criteria. Attendees will be a diverse group of remarkable individuals from Birmingham, representing a wide variety of professions.” (from the TedxRedMountain website)
No information is given on if an admission fee will be charged or how much.
‘One of Birmingham’s least functional traits
is a strong tendency towards cliques —
very high school.’
Another is the approach to cooperation, communication and coordination. I can say first hand that Henry has been open to ideas, help, sponsorship and delegation throughout the past 12 months.
I asked him if anyone from Tedx had contacted him. No one had — and we both know members of the organizing group.
Without Henry’s prior knowledge, I e-mailed them last week to voice my concern.
While this is an exciting new addition to the Birmingham scene, it also represents another missed opportunity for cooperation and collaboration.
I’m terribly disappointed that no one from this new group ever reached out to my friend Henry McBride, who has almost singlehandedly organized Ignite Birmingham events for the last year. …
Although I do not speak for him, I think Henry would have been glad to help with advice, promotion or just a friendly welcome. But for some reason, this group chose to forge its own path.
Good luck with your new endeavor. I hope in the future you do not overlook those who paved the way for you.
After e-mailing twice, I did hear back. And it was an underwhelming, generic e-mail reply:
Thank you for your e-mail concerning TEDxRedMountain.
TEDx events are designed to be be an experience unique to other events and as such, will compliment and augment other presentation-format events in the area. Our goal is not to exclude, but to provide an enriching experience that will be a benefit for all realms of the Birmingham area.
We certainly hope that your concerns will not preclude you from applying to attend or nominate a presenter and we hope that you’ll still seek to join us as we help spread “inspiring ideas” on May 19th.
Sincerely,
TedxRedMountain
I guess the part about the “goal (being) not to exclude” rings the most hollow in my ears. One of Birmingham’s least functional traits is a strong tendency towards cliques — very high school. It’s bothered me every time I’ve reached out into the community.
I did apply to be a speaker, though I doubt my rabble rousing will endear me to the organizers. And when I say organizers, I’m talking largely about friends and acquaintances, not strangers. The disappointment is greater when it seems they are caught up in advancing a cause with little consideration to the community already in place, willing to help if only given the opportunity.
Birmingham certainly has room for two idea-generating events. If only they were working in tandem. (And this may border on the absurd, but a different Tedx Birmingham, completely separate from TedxRedMountain, is scheduled for August. Poetic, ironic and sad.)
My last example is also close to home, but one I feel is positive in approach and outcome.
Two weeks ago, we launched a new nonprofit organization called the Alabama Social Media Association, based in Birmingham. It is an open group that seeks to educate anyone interested about better uses of social media.
Our founding board — I am a member — reached out to organizations across the state before launch day to explain who we are and why we’re here. It was a gentle invitation to work together in the future on events and projects.
And we continue to reach out to groups to answer questions and explain our mission. If you’re interested, contact me, and I’ll be happy to give you more information.
We’ve been working on it since last fall, and we deliberated time and again if we could have done more to work within the existing social media group in Birmingham. But after repeated candid conversations with organizers at the local and national level, we reached an impasse.
But it forced us to line up a stronger mission and a more open, broader approach. And it worked well.
Our experience has shown us that cooperation, communication and coordination can yield great results. Not everyone will jump on board, but those that do begin building partnerships for the long haul.
We feel it’s critical, because we won’t always be here in these roles, and we want this association to be approachable, sustainable, durable.
Birmingham, blow up the sandboxes. Working together can make the load a lot lighter.
Update March 15: One of the Tedx Birmingham organizers called me today for a short chat. He reached out to Henry McBride, and they discussed ways Ignite Birmingham and Tedx Birmingham can collaborate.
He also said he reached out to TedxRedMountain, but has yet to hear back.
Photo: Josh Self
What do you think? What can be done to encourage cooperation and overcome cliques? Leave a comment with your thoughts.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 8:56 am
I contacted this group about the use of a couple of my photographs they used on their website. My photos are in creative commons with the stipulation of attribution. However, no attribution was given. I have yet to hear back from them.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:07 am
Ah, nothing says inclusion and an enriching exchange of ideas like a form e-mail signed “TedxRedMountain.” Family name, maybe? His parents probably expected him to just go by Ted.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:37 am
Divisive urban politics is common to all cities. What sets Birmingham apart from other cities is residential segregation (read racism; 15th worst in nation) and poverty (28 percent). Let’s be real; racism and poverty are Birmingham’s problems. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
http://www.censusscope.org/us/rank_dissimilarity_white_black.html
http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Birmingham-Alabama.html
Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:54 am
While I think having a conference/get together like TedX in is fantastic there could have easily been a simple meeting to work with what others in the area are doing.
Unfortunately some want to move forward so quickly and they do not think about the bigger picture of our community.
What Henry is doing is fantastic and he has an established trust in the community and leveraging that could have done nothing but help this new organization.
In terms of the meeting being “exclusive,” to each his own. If they feel that is the best for their organization then they can move forward with that – but they also have to be ready for those that disagree with the approach.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 11:10 am
While there’s something to be said for cooperation, I think the desire to try something on one’s own is also valid. I feel like it’s kind of hard to make a name for yourself when you’re in the shadow of what’s come before or what someone else is doing. I don’t see it as deliberately exclusive so much as purposely including people who might otherwise get passed up in favor of those who do have the type of experience you’re talking about above.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 1:07 pm
Melinda,
My apologies. I am the one who created the site, and while I had created a attribution/Thank you page, it was not linked from the home page and menu bar.
That is not taken care of, and I apologize for the error!!
~K
Monday, March 14, 2011, 1:09 pm
oops — “NOW” taken care of 😉 …. not “not”.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 2:27 pm
One of my toss-off ideas for “Prize2theFuture” was an organizational thunderdome: A locked-down conference center where two candidate organizations with nearly-identical missions but no collaborative history would be sequestered until they worked out a way to work together. Two groups enter. One group leaves.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 3:21 pm
This seems to happen just as often as it does not in Birmingham. I wonder if other same-size (or larger?) cities have the same issue.
And somewhat related (but sort of not): I’m really looking forward to the proposed Red Mountain Park initiative, but I’m already concerned about what effect its existence will have on the wonderful Railroad Park downtown. I hope there will be city-wide support for BOTH, but my fear — which may be unfounded — is that the opening of a huge park in the suburbs will mean bad things for Railroad.
Monday, March 14, 2011, 7:19 pm
Thanks Karla!
Melinda
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 12:12 am
Thanks, everyone, for your comments.
Well, at least we solved one problem today.
A few select replies:
@Ann: I was disappointed by the form reply. Wholly unnecessary among peers and acquaintances. This forum and my e-mail remain open to future communication with Tedx and any other interested parties.
@Zac: While racism and poverty may be perennial challenges for Birmingham, I would think that would make it more imperative to work on cooperation, communication and coordination. Giving up isn’t a viable solution, no matter how tempting.
@Jeff: I want to add to what you said about Henry. Over the past 12 months, I am one of the few to witness first-hand just how much my friend has put into efforts like Ignite Birmingham and BarCampBirmingham and other projects. I feel it is disrespectful to not even give him a courtesy call or a heads up. So far, it appears no one from TedxRedMountain gives a damn. What a shame.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 12:21 am
A few more replies:
@Nadria: Your points are well taken in the abstract, but assuming we’re both talking about the second example (Ignite and Tedx), let me clarify.
Ignite casts a very short shadow, having been held only 4 times and with a vast number of people still unaware of its existence. I don’t think, but am not certain, the Tedx organizers were concerned about being overshadowed by Ignite.
Also, if Tedx is including people who were passed up by Ignite, I’d like to meet those people. Ignite has always had an open call for submissions and an open ticket policy, even allowing walk-ups at events. The only speakers that would be rejected by Ignite are those with sales pitches, a common standard with Tedx as well.
In any case, Tedx could have easily gone its independent route *and* given a courtesy call. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
@John: I think I would be just as happy if two groups entered and no groups left.
@Katherine: I can assure you not all cities are as turf driven as Birmingham. Also, your fear is somewhat unfounded: The Three Park Initiative is a unified plan to develop Railroad, Red Mountain and Ruffner Parks as the city’s premier green spaces. (Note that Red Mountain Park is in the City of Birmingham, not in a suburb.)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:51 am
Collaboration in and of itself doesn’t do much, unless that collaboration is designed to develop a political majority that is actually going to address Birmingham’s most pressing problems, and even then, it is only collaboration of certain people as desegregation and poverty alleviation programs are obviously against the interests of white neighborhoods and downtown businesses (if we judge by the resistance to transit justice).
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:59 am
Your statement about “cliques” rings very true with me. I have found it difficult to get involved in Birmingham almost to the point of not being wanted in some cases. Maybe it is just a particularly skewed personal experience but my opinion is that often an “organization” seems to be created to give a group of people something to do together rather than actually offer something important/interesting to the community. It is frustrating to want to be a part of something only to see your efforts go unappreciated or unwanted.
The situation you have described with reaching out to TedxRedMountain just enforces my perception of community involvement in Birmingham. It makes me wonder what motivates someone or a group of someones to create an organization or host an event. Is it to bring something interesting to the community or is it a way to pat one’s self on the back for doing something cool?
It is great to have all of these events but I wish we could find a way to get more people involved in a way that gives them an opportunity to really contribute and feel like their contributions are important and make a difference.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 10:59 pm
@Zac: Collaboration can accomplish many things. And most of them have nothing to do with political majorities. I guess I have seen the good of collaboration and need to put more examples out there.
@Jeff: I have heard that the “cliques” part of Birmingham has rung true for many readers. Sometimes, it’s better to skip the events and do volunteer work for a charity’s service projects. The satisfaction of a job well done and giving back is a true reward. May I recommend Hands on Birmingham?
Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 1:16 pm
It’s not just these technological groups that get fractured or have a hard time in collaboration, but it rings throughout the city. Take for instance the ASO and the volunteer group. Neither can get anything done together. Even within the volunteer group, there are people that vie heavily for the spotlight and to get all the recognition. It’s getting worse every year and working together is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.
My mom had left a lot of great friends and groups to move here. Groups that worked well together. When she moved here, she found that to find friends, you had to be a part of a group. If you were’t a part of a group, you had less of a chance to get to know those people and make friends. So, I agree with the clique-like community here. I’ve even run into it with work communities and other areas.
What makes Ignite so incredible is that the thoughts that are shared are so varied. The people are so varied, too. There isn’t that “group-think” that you get in a clique.
So, to Henry – keep up the amazing work.
To Birmingham and these splinter groups – grow up.
Friday, March 18, 2011, 9:29 pm
I’m sure cliques exist everywhere. I haven’t experienced them here in Birmingham, but I’m not saying it’s not true. I just tend to think that if people don’t want to include me, I’ll move on. I’ll find people who do want to collaborate. Like Caleb Chancey. That guy is doing some AMAZING things with Grey Haven, the musical community group he started.
Also, I don’t have a problem with some things being exclusive. I am a part of several groups that if we opened it up to everyone, it would lose all intimacy and ruin it. There’s a time and a place for it. Not all events/groups make sense to invite people to the sandbox.
Saturday, March 19, 2011, 1:04 am
I’m for anything that will bring a positive discussion on ways to improve our city, but one thing did tickle me about the TedxRM website…You have to apply to the event. Never thought I’d have to revamp a resume to listen to a group of people expound their CO2 into the room, maybe pay a few bucks, but seriously…did you see the application? (My eyes are rolling, as I type this…)
That’s it….gonna have to make it to the next Ignite, if it kills me.
Saturday, March 19, 2011, 9:27 pm
As a “transplant” to B’ham, I’m often surprised by the close knit nature of our community. In my opinion, this nature has pros, cons and by-products.
Some of the views in this post seem to me like a common by-product. Due to the small town feel here (and with all it’s pros), you get this “everyone knows your business and everyone has an opinion” vibe.
I’m positive there are cliques in LA, NY or Tampa (cities I’ve done time in). However, the cities are just to big for anyone to notice.
I don’t think anyone meant to kick Henry to the curb. I don’t think the two TEDx event leaders are throwing down some kind of gauntlet; no pistols by noon.
I think Ignite is great, I think TED is great… I do not think they are the same thing. Soccer and basketball have two half’s, a stadium and an audience, but the content is very different.
I’m not sure if I feel like the blog or the comments vilified people, but I know I feel like some people were vilified that shouldn’t be.
Sunday, March 20, 2011, 11:26 am
Came across this on my timeline and it was hard not to laugh. Why judge and take it upon yourself to decide if two projects, people or organizations who happen to be in the city MUST collaborate?
I’m not associated with any of the events mentioned on your blog post, but speaking of cliques, how adult is it to be the one doing the villifying when they unwillingly uninvited a friend of hours in their own endeavor?
I’ve heard great things about Ignite and in particular, Henry’s push towards cowering. However, not everyone has to prefer that.
Not everything has to include everyone else and be a nonprofit in our city either.
I’m anxious to see what TED brings. Whether it models itself on the tenants of social media, inclusion etc etc or it is just a meeting of selected folks, that doesn’t feel pressured to invite or involve everyone in the metro area.
Sunday, March 20, 2011, 11:28 am
err, yours
Sunday, March 20, 2011, 11:30 am
and cowering=coworking.
Egads.
Sunday, March 20, 2011, 3:18 pm
I would suggest that a courtesy call would have been fine, but even that has not been done to this date.
No one has to collaborate on anything ever, but when two groups have such similar goals, it would seem to make sense.
But I can only judge by behavior. And so far, the actions taken/not taken have been underwhelming.