Standing in line for the bathroom at a house party, a friend of mine met a woman who recognized her from a volunteering event a few days before. My friend mentioned she was having trouble moving some leftover boxes from the event to a different location.

The woman had a truck and offered it to her. Just like that, a need was fulfilled.

This sort of connection happens all the time, but often quite randomly.  The network we’re building will help make these connections intentionally and with more frequency.

Silvana from the Portland Team recently posted a proposal on how to do this:

Since we are in the business of making connection between the community and its resources, I propose we create here a needs and resources forum. The idea is that for many of the needs we see in our communities today, there are also resources already available to meet them.

Now, how can we do this?

Just a few suggestions of what we could do to gather the information needed:

1. We could use what each of us already know of community needs and resources;

2. We could assign different people to go out into neighborhood association meetings, public forums, etc. to observe and take note of what challenges the community is facing;

3. We could create public forums and invite people to talk about what the challenges are in their communities.

This plan is the essence of what Connectors can do: take a look at what’s around and find ways to fill in the gaps between intentions and actions.

Thanks for the great idea, Silvana!

To learn more, check out the discussion about Silvana’s proposal to see where it’s headed.

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What conversations are you having on your local Connector Team page?