Events

Report on the 2002 Community Service Annual Conference

Our annual conference was held on November 9, 2002 in Yellow Springs. 49 people attended the conference.

Our conference brochure stated the following:

“While some claim that 90 percent of technical knowledge has been gained in the past 50 years, we believe that in those same years 90 percent of the knowledge of how to live in harmony with each other has been lost.”

Reviving the Small Community – Localism in a Global Era

The promises of far-flung global systems continue to be disappointing, while the virtues of the small community still serve a vital role in society. Now, more than ever, the world needs socially, economically and environmentally sustainable small communities.

We live in an age when waste and consumption have become human values. It is an era when we have forsaken many time-honored skills and have lost much of the art of living together. Measures of social interaction and civic participation show a continuing degeneration of community. Less tangible, though even more profound, is the inner sense of homelessness that people feel when the spirit of community is missing in their lives.

Yet in the humble, but powerful, offering of small communities, there is the promise of great renewal. We can rebuild strong, fruitful communities that provide for our needs, that revive specific, local knowledges, and that allow our humanity and spirituality to thrive, nurtured in local, people-centered environments.

This Symposium is a time to look deeply into the role that the small, local community can play in our ever more alienated society.

Our presenters including the following (with their topics):

The Spirit of Community

Don Hollister has been a student of community for over thirty years. In 1972 he was a founding editor of Communities Magazine. A native of Yellow Springs, Don has the perspective of living in place, raising a family, and caring for parents. Don was the Child and Family Policies advisor on the Ohio Governor’s staff in the 1980’s. He served six years as a Village Council member. He was a self-employed carpenter for twelve years and taught carpentry at the local vocational school. Don has been a member, employee and now trustee of Community Service, Inc. Inspired by the ideas of Arthur Morgan, Don has a particular interest in the interaction of social, economic and spiritual aspects of community.

Depletion Driven Decentralization

Pat Murphy has been studying the interrelationships of fossil fuel burning, the rapid change from small communities to metropolitan environments and the decline of social capital associated with this change. He is a management consultant with extensive experience in computer technology and applications of super computers including seismic exploration and oil reservoir modeling. Pat has also been a homebuilder who has designed and built solar heated homes.

The Authentic Village

Richard Knight is an economist with a special insight into the nature of pre-industrial European cities and their regional relationships. His study of the development of cities in a global economy has led him to advocate for local initiative, local control and the revival of local cultures. Richard has taught at Case Western Reserve, Wright State University, Antioch College, Hiram College, the University of Akron and the University of Amsterdam. As a strategic planning consultant, he has served cities including Amsterdam, Vienna, Genoa, and Cleveland. Richard’s most recent book is Cities in a Global Society.