Facilitating great conversations.

I love to host engaging, productive, positive group conversations--from meetings at town hall to church workshops to retreats to chamber of commerce mixers.  Sometimes all you need is to put interesting people in the same room, but more structured events can be pretty awesome too.

Also--if you're having a brainstorming session, you want me in the room. I am an idea generating machine!

Creating community.

Wherever I go, I love connecting people and creating space for community to form.

Much of this work happens on a small scale: bringing together a group for weekly dinners, intentionally introducing people I think would like each other, making sure newcomers to the area know about events and organizations that fit their interests, enticing old friends to rent a giant mountain house together for a reunion weekend.

What I do naturally in personal relationships, I also love to do on a larger scale. Check out some of the things I've done to create public community:

I was so honored to receive this award from Sustainable Woodstock, a fabulous local nonprofit devoted to sustainability of all kinds, for economic development: "For advocating for opportunities for young adults and creating affordable workspaces." This was in recognition of the work I had done to establish the YALHT club and pop-up coworking days.

Young Adults Live Here Too

“There are no young people here.”
“The town is pretty much made up of retirees and second-home owners.”
“Dating is impossible.”
“I told my kids to move away so they can find a job and a partner.”
 
While the population does definitely skew older than average, there are plenty of wonderful young adults—and opportunities for them—in central Vermont.
 
Enter the Ottauquechee YALHT Club: A Facebook group for 20- and 30-somethings to find each other in this region. Changing the story is half the battle!
 
The group quickly grew from the 30 young adults I knew to over 200 in less than a year, and it continues to attract new members. We occasionally do events together (one year we had monthly potlucks, but people got tired of cooking ...), and frequently try to recruit each other for participation in all the great things we’re busy with! While it’s challenging to get a big group out for an event (honestly, we’re all overbooked), a huge benefit of this group is just the awareness that we’re not alone.
 
We’re looking forward to seeing the directions it takes!

Pop-up Coworking

I organized a series of coworking days all around our small town, partnering with lots of different people and organizations, funded by a grant from the town’s economic development commission. I created the branding as well to help connect the variety of different locations.
 
This series was great fun and a great success! We were able to ...

• Gauge the interest in a dedicate coworking space
• Stir up conversation among many different networks about the idea of coworking and how it could bring more economic vitality to the town
• Build the coworking community even without a dedicated space
• Introduce townsfolk to organizations and spaces they’d never ventured into before
• Make productive use of “dead space” all over town
• Pave the way for a larger grant for a dedicated coworking space

 
This is a wonderful low-key, low-cost community partnership. I highly recommend putting together a series of pop-up coworking days in your town ...

• If you’re considering a dedicated coworking space
• As a service to the freelancers, telecommuters, and entrepreneurs in your community
• To create new, productive networks among local organizations and entrepreneurs
• As a way to have some cheap fun and get work done at the same time!

 
We had so much fun working in all kinds of spaces, like ...

• The local history center
• An Italian dinner restaurant 
• An airy art gallery
• A cozy church library & community room
• The town library
• The surprisingly chic local rec center
• A homey B&B

 
Please contact me if you want to do pop-up coworking in your town!

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A special thanks to these great community organizations!