For LEAD 497 we were required to write about our personal best leadership experience and describe it. We were to focus on one unique experience where we demonstrated exceptional leadership skills. The piece was written on July 20, 2014
I am a "Mother of a Movement"
This is the story of the development of The East Mullan Homeowners Association and Historic District in Cd'A, ID.
Sometime in the Fall of 2006 on a Friday I went out to my mailbox to get my mail. Looking through the stack of junk I pulled out a city notice. It read like a foreign language to me. Neither my husband nor I understood what it meant. All I knew was that it said something about a hearing the following Tuesday, something about the city zoning and that we could attend. It also said something about being required by law to send this out to all who were within a 500 meter radius. Of what? I didn't know because of the legal mumble-jumble.
We had endured so much already living in downtown Coeur d'Alene with a new corrupt mayor and the new construction going on around us that I felt compelled to make sure I knew what this notification was all about. I decided to walk down to City Hall (just a block from where our home was) and inquire before they closed for the weekend. The lady interpreted the notification for me. She said that the two developers, Steven Shortridge and Harry Robertson had bought 1/2 of our block––the part behind our home and were requesting a zone change from R-17 to Downtown Core of the entire block. I asked her what that really meant. She said, "it means they want to build a tower behind your home! And if no one contests it on Tuesday night at the city council meeting it will be granted!"
And with that I got mad. I could see our way of life suddenly changing and I wasn't okay with it. They were going to build a 10-17 story building within 20 feet of our backyard! The very-hard-to-read-on-purpose notification was inviting us to the hearing if we wanted to say anything about it. Well, hell I did! Developers were buying up property in Downtown Cd'A right and left and building stupid looking buildings on them, charging an arm and a leg for their condominiums and destroying the old part of town. The constant construction in about a 1/2 mile radius was wearing out the homeowners who lived in the area. We had been living in our own home on Front Street for nearly 10 years and I wasn't about to let some money hungry developers swallow up my neighborhood on my time.
I had lots of things I needed to do that day but I abandoned it all because I only had a few short days to gather signatures that I needed to make my voice more powerful at the meeting. I didn't have time to do anything slow. No time to build a database. No time to build a website. No time to put ads in the paper. So the quickest thing I could think of to make change was to meet people face-to-face. I quickly created a petition and pinned it to a clipboard. With a baby in a stroller and my toddler by my side the 3 of us began to walk the neighborhood knocking on doors. From Sunday to Tuesday afternoon I hiked all over Sander's Beach area and all over Downtown Coeur d'Alene alone.
I asked people if they had seen the notice. I told them what the notice was about and then I asked them if they wanted another tower in our area. Most people signed my petition with blessings and many said they would try to show up to the city council meeting on Tuesday night. Several people said they would join me in speaking before the council on Tuesday and several decided to help me gather signatures. Some didn't care, but more were outraged and were quick to sign anything to get rid of the developers and their towers!
Tuesday rolled around and I literally thought I and my family would be the only ones there to make a public statement about the re-zoning request the developers were presenting that night. But they had no idea what was about to hit them. For years developers had waltzed right into Cd'A and done whatever they wanted; they had tromped all over what the residents wanted. But this time, when I walked in, low and behold the left side of the chamber was packed with my new neighbors! On the right side sat the developers in their fine duds and expensive jewelry with lawyers. We were called "peasants with pitchforks!" It was a long evening. We were put last on the roster for the evening (I think they were trying to scare us away, but they didn't). I was the first who got up to speak. To begin I walked up to the mayor and plopped a stack of 154 signatures in front of her that I and my friends had gathered from people who were against re-zoning our neighborhood. Then I went to the podium to speak. I was just interested in saving my home. I just wanted my voice to be heard. I wanted to keep the sunshine coming into our backyard. I didn't want the backside of some huge ugly brick building in my face! But as I spoke, I had no idea that I was sparking a movement that would change the face of my neighborhood forever, with or without me. The city was videoing all public speakers that night and they were airing it on public access television––which people all around town saw and then recognized me later.
To make a long story short, neighbor after neighbor got up to fight against the re-zoning. When Shortridge got up to speak he was confounded. The vote of the council by the end of the night went in our favor! I believe it was a 5-1 vote. A wonderful cheer rose up throughout the chamber––much to the dismay of the developers! It was literally the first time in the recent history of Coeur d'Alene where local people who came against rich developers won. It was a grand success! As we met outside and celebrated in the street we decided to gather at our home the following week to organize. We knew this wasn't the last battle with the developers. We knew we had to rally together and organize something to deal with more situations like this. So we did.
The meetings started off at our home and as I was preparing for it, I sought council myself from an organized neighborhood on the other side of town who had had much success in years past. Kraig Lysak, who founded the Fort Grounds District told me all he knew about forming a neighborhood association. His best advice was telling me that just because I started the movement didn't mean I had to be president of it. This was sound advice that I took to heart. The meetings migrated to the home of a family with more clout in the city. Within a few weeks we were having regular meetings with our newly elected president, Joe Morris and had begun the creation of a homeowners association. Once established, our new East Mullan Homeowners Association and Historic District represented us at any city council meeting that was going to affect our neighborhood. Though I was a regular at the city council meetings and was on a first-name basis with the mayor and I appeared many times to advocate and fight for our historic district and it's trees etc. it wasn't by my effort that the association continued and rose in power. That was done by the sweat of others. I wasn't able to go the long haul with it because I was a full time advocate for my Down Syndrome daughter -- I simply started the movement. We had other neighborhoods come to us to find support and encouragement and methods. I am proud to say that I started the whole thing. But I'm also glad to say that I was only alone in my idea for a few days. The neighborhood rallied around me and then ran with it––even when I had to leave they continued. Only a year later I had to pull back my involvement in the association that I helped to start, but when I would show up I was greeted with a "Look! Here's the mother of our movement!" I was totally honored. That fell into my lap because I noticed and then got mad enough to do something about it.
My family called me peasant princess and my name may someday be mentioned in the history books of Coeur d'Alene as the mother of a movement.
List the actions you took as a leader that made a difference.
Summarize what you consider to be the five to seven most important actions you took as a leader who made a difference.
3. Now identify three to five major lessons you learned about leadership from this experience.
Sometime in the Fall of 2006 on a Friday I went out to my mailbox to get my mail. Looking through the stack of junk I pulled out a city notice. It read like a foreign language to me. Neither my husband nor I understood what it meant. All I knew was that it said something about a hearing the following Tuesday, something about the city zoning and that we could attend. It also said something about being required by law to send this out to all who were within a 500 meter radius. Of what? I didn't know because of the legal mumble-jumble.
We had endured so much already living in downtown Coeur d'Alene with a new corrupt mayor and the new construction going on around us that I felt compelled to make sure I knew what this notification was all about. I decided to walk down to City Hall (just a block from where our home was) and inquire before they closed for the weekend. The lady interpreted the notification for me. She said that the two developers, Steven Shortridge and Harry Robertson had bought 1/2 of our block––the part behind our home and were requesting a zone change from R-17 to Downtown Core of the entire block. I asked her what that really meant. She said, "it means they want to build a tower behind your home! And if no one contests it on Tuesday night at the city council meeting it will be granted!"
And with that I got mad. I could see our way of life suddenly changing and I wasn't okay with it. They were going to build a 10-17 story building within 20 feet of our backyard! The very-hard-to-read-on-purpose notification was inviting us to the hearing if we wanted to say anything about it. Well, hell I did! Developers were buying up property in Downtown Cd'A right and left and building stupid looking buildings on them, charging an arm and a leg for their condominiums and destroying the old part of town. The constant construction in about a 1/2 mile radius was wearing out the homeowners who lived in the area. We had been living in our own home on Front Street for nearly 10 years and I wasn't about to let some money hungry developers swallow up my neighborhood on my time.
I had lots of things I needed to do that day but I abandoned it all because I only had a few short days to gather signatures that I needed to make my voice more powerful at the meeting. I didn't have time to do anything slow. No time to build a database. No time to build a website. No time to put ads in the paper. So the quickest thing I could think of to make change was to meet people face-to-face. I quickly created a petition and pinned it to a clipboard. With a baby in a stroller and my toddler by my side the 3 of us began to walk the neighborhood knocking on doors. From Sunday to Tuesday afternoon I hiked all over Sander's Beach area and all over Downtown Coeur d'Alene alone.
I asked people if they had seen the notice. I told them what the notice was about and then I asked them if they wanted another tower in our area. Most people signed my petition with blessings and many said they would try to show up to the city council meeting on Tuesday night. Several people said they would join me in speaking before the council on Tuesday and several decided to help me gather signatures. Some didn't care, but more were outraged and were quick to sign anything to get rid of the developers and their towers!
Tuesday rolled around and I literally thought I and my family would be the only ones there to make a public statement about the re-zoning request the developers were presenting that night. But they had no idea what was about to hit them. For years developers had waltzed right into Cd'A and done whatever they wanted; they had tromped all over what the residents wanted. But this time, when I walked in, low and behold the left side of the chamber was packed with my new neighbors! On the right side sat the developers in their fine duds and expensive jewelry with lawyers. We were called "peasants with pitchforks!" It was a long evening. We were put last on the roster for the evening (I think they were trying to scare us away, but they didn't). I was the first who got up to speak. To begin I walked up to the mayor and plopped a stack of 154 signatures in front of her that I and my friends had gathered from people who were against re-zoning our neighborhood. Then I went to the podium to speak. I was just interested in saving my home. I just wanted my voice to be heard. I wanted to keep the sunshine coming into our backyard. I didn't want the backside of some huge ugly brick building in my face! But as I spoke, I had no idea that I was sparking a movement that would change the face of my neighborhood forever, with or without me. The city was videoing all public speakers that night and they were airing it on public access television––which people all around town saw and then recognized me later.
To make a long story short, neighbor after neighbor got up to fight against the re-zoning. When Shortridge got up to speak he was confounded. The vote of the council by the end of the night went in our favor! I believe it was a 5-1 vote. A wonderful cheer rose up throughout the chamber––much to the dismay of the developers! It was literally the first time in the recent history of Coeur d'Alene where local people who came against rich developers won. It was a grand success! As we met outside and celebrated in the street we decided to gather at our home the following week to organize. We knew this wasn't the last battle with the developers. We knew we had to rally together and organize something to deal with more situations like this. So we did.
The meetings started off at our home and as I was preparing for it, I sought council myself from an organized neighborhood on the other side of town who had had much success in years past. Kraig Lysak, who founded the Fort Grounds District told me all he knew about forming a neighborhood association. His best advice was telling me that just because I started the movement didn't mean I had to be president of it. This was sound advice that I took to heart. The meetings migrated to the home of a family with more clout in the city. Within a few weeks we were having regular meetings with our newly elected president, Joe Morris and had begun the creation of a homeowners association. Once established, our new East Mullan Homeowners Association and Historic District represented us at any city council meeting that was going to affect our neighborhood. Though I was a regular at the city council meetings and was on a first-name basis with the mayor and I appeared many times to advocate and fight for our historic district and it's trees etc. it wasn't by my effort that the association continued and rose in power. That was done by the sweat of others. I wasn't able to go the long haul with it because I was a full time advocate for my Down Syndrome daughter -- I simply started the movement. We had other neighborhoods come to us to find support and encouragement and methods. I am proud to say that I started the whole thing. But I'm also glad to say that I was only alone in my idea for a few days. The neighborhood rallied around me and then ran with it––even when I had to leave they continued. Only a year later I had to pull back my involvement in the association that I helped to start, but when I would show up I was greeted with a "Look! Here's the mother of our movement!" I was totally honored. That fell into my lap because I noticed and then got mad enough to do something about it.
My family called me peasant princess and my name may someday be mentioned in the history books of Coeur d'Alene as the mother of a movement.
List the actions you took as a leader that made a difference.
- I noticed the notice in the mail
- I inquired at city hall because I didn't understand what it was saying.
- I consulted with another neighborhood on how they did it.
- I made sure my neighbors knew what the notice was saying
- I got signatures and invited people to the hearing to speak too
- I was the first to speak at the hearing and presented the signatures
- I packed the room with my new neighbors who held the same vision
- I had people over to our home for the first meeting where we began to form an organization and find a name for ourselves
Summarize what you consider to be the five to seven most important actions you took as a leader who made a difference.
- I noticed and inquired
- I challenged the process by asking what I could do to change it?
- I modeled the way by getting personally involved, going door to door and being the first to speak that night
- I inspired a shared vision by tapping into people's disgust of the development in our neighborhood and the desire to save our neighborhood from developers.
- I engaged others by inviting people to sign, show up and speak and get involved in our newly organized group.
- I took care of the heart when we had a 'party' after we won the vote!
3. Now identify three to five major lessons you learned about leadership from this experience.
- It takes one fired up person to start a movement, but it must have a community to keep it going.
- People respond well and immediately to the one-on-one approach. There wasn't' time to call or mail out stuff. I had to see them immediately! This is the best way to get a decision from someone quickly.
- You don't have to continue with what you started. It might actually be good if you start it and hand it off to others who are more capable for the long haul than you.
- Dancing in the streets is a good thing!
- Opportunities for leadership come all the time. Just keep your eyes open for what rouses your passion.
- From this experience I see that a good leader finds something that they are passionate about and willing to work hard for, then they go in search of others who identify with the cause to add weight to their voice. (I will try to find the public tv archive and post it. I'd love to revisit it)