A Change of Heart

When we started discussing the possibility of a Sustainable Waterloo Region team blog a few months ago, I was more than a little sceptical. After having suffered under the weight of maintaining a blog for several months in early 2009 – while under some acute time pressure to lead the team towards launching the Regional Carbon Initiative before the summer of that year – I knew of how a blog can quickly become “that-thing-you-know-you-should-do-but-always-have-something-more-important-on-the-list”. On top of this, I’m keenly aware of the excess of blogs already at all of our fingertips, the reality that this growth is sputtering in lieu of other social media tools, and the simple truth that without relevancy and crisp insight, there is little point to even starting.

But over the past few months, not only have I been convinced (a) that this is a valuable addition to how our team communicates with the community and (b) that this will directly help us achieve our mission, but I’m even more importantly, I’m genuinely excited about being a part of it.

Why such a change of heart? Well, it starts with Jenn – our Social Media Manager – being an awfully convincing and passionate person, and putting together a strong case for it! But more than that…

For me, this is a unique space where the community can get to know the Sustainable Waterloo Region team a little better, and learn from each contributor’s unique perspective. As glad as I am to be a spokesperson for the organization, I’m energized by the prospect of other key members of the team being more conspicuous. It is for similar reasons that we now have a separate page on our website that helps visitors get to know our ‘functional area’ leads.

It is also an opportunity for each of our contributors to connect more personally and directly with engaged supporters in the community, and in and of itself, that is special.

Last, to be honest, enough people had been finding (buried as it was on our website) and mistaking the most recent post on the old blog for a recent piece (it was from April of last year), that I came around to the idea that maybe there are supporters of ours in the community that would be genuinely interested in reading a team blog. And what more, maybe this will give them a more direct link than our monthly Community Updates already do, not just into the organization, but also the research we’re doing and the impact we’re having?

Well, I certainly hope so. Please let us know – either in the comments below or by emailing blog@sustainablewr.ca – if we’re hitting the mark. For me, I will aim to keep these posts a little more concise than some I’ve written before!

Mike