Set on top of my husband's desk this weekend was a book I hadn't seen before: Community: the Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block. This was the kind of title which demanded I read it, so I put a sticky note on the cover of that new purchase on his desk to take my place in line as next reader.
You would think that, after just having finished his doctoral studies in leadership, my husband would be thinking about taking a break from the topic, but that is apparently not the case. He had just written up his research on building community within the workplace—or, more specifically, for teams in nonprofit settings—so I could see how Peter Block's book would catch his eye. In my husband's case, he has spent years developing his own thoughts on how to take a team of employees who are (almost literally) at each other's throats and lead them through a team building process to establish shared values and develop mutual goals. So thoughts of community and a sense of belonging speak to him loudly.
Though I certainly haven't undergone as much study on the subject, community building has been something I've been musing about lately, particularly when I think about one specific organization: our county genealogical society. Like many such organizations post-Covid, ours has suffered several set-backs. It is as if we are still emerging from that cocoon of isolation, not sure how to flex our wings, even years afterwards. The book's title spoke to me, too.
While the book was originally published in 2009, an updated version was issued in 2018. Scrolling through the reviews at Amazon, I noticed the page included some excerpts from the updated version of Peter Block's book. In one passage, the author referred to the work of Robert Putnam in the earlier book, Bowling Alone, where Putnam refers to "social capital." As Block explained it, "A community’s well-being simply had to do with the quality of the relationships, the cohesion that exists among its citizens."
That community cohesion has been on my mind a lot lately. I had noticed it at work years ago in projects to bring together disparate groups for a mutual goal. When a community gels, that group can get so much accomplished.
In our own group, our county genealogical society, I believe I'm seeing the development of that same cohesion. I actually think our members became so tired of online-only meetings—despite our relief that at least, during the pandemic, we could still come together, if only virtually—that they were desperate to have face-to-face social interaction. We still hold our monthly meetings online, mainly because we've been priced out of the market for paying for a public venue, but online doesn't afford us much opportunity to feel as if we've connected with each other. We've actually had members begging for us to come up with a way to just get together—no speaker, not even an agenda, other than to see each other face to face.
Now that we've had some in-person opportunities—a potluck at the park, several morning gatherings over coffee and baked goods, monthly special interest group meetings at a local restaurant—it seems the energy has built upon itself. In these past two weeks, in the midst of an ongoing heatwave, I thought numbers would be down at two different events our society hosted. That was certainly not the case: each event had even more participation than usual. There is a synergy building here, an enthusiasm which I can only attribute to whatever that community-building concept is that Block's book refers to. We're deep in the middle of something evolving, but only now do I find a book that might explain what's happening.
Whatever it is, I'm glad to see it unfolding. It gives me pause to consider just what, moving forward, our genealogy societies really need. It's not only a matter of offering solid programming—which we do, month after month—but it delves deeper into human needs to connect and interact, to create and mutually encourage in the process. Whatever those needs are, when we find the ways to give those needs a voice, then a venue to let it happen, that's when we'll see our societies grow again.
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