look up

today some of the mica banners came down on mount royal to be replaced by the baltimore version of the urban forest project. the idea started first in new york city. artists and designers were called upon to create banners banners that used trees as a metaphor for sustainability (all of the original banners can be seen here) and they were hung on lampposts in an outdoor exhibition. when creator, mark randall, presented the project at the bma last fall during "design for community," he announced that someone had recently agreed to bring the idea to baltimore. just a few months later, it is a reality. 350 banners. 7 streets and 6 parks. and it is a reflection of the direction baltimore is heading in.

the whole city has switched to single stream recyling. it was weird to be home and not have a way to recycle. i'm glad that there seems to be more of a sense of sustainability consciousness here. the mica store has stopped carrying plastic bags. people walk places. cafe doris now has corn cutlery (we still have styrofoam take out boxes, but one step at a time...) there's even a baltimore sweep action parade this saturday. i'm not one to get caught up in the hype of green. but this is all stuff that just makes sense. and why not use banners to build discourse?

you can leave the ship but the ship won't leave you

i had my first real college leadership conference yesterday. it was a collaboration between mica and the university of baltimore. it was pretty basic. but it felt so good to just be in that kind of environment again. i missed it.

one of the sessions was called "true colors." we took one of those classic leadership styles quizes & identified ourselves with a color. i've done many a personality quiz in my day. but for some reason it was good to take one apart from high school leadership activities & apply it to my college leadership experiences. especially recently with all this program manager stuff kicking in to high gear, i've been trying to see how my leadership style from avondale will fit in with the student activities office at mica.

i was green. it was nice find my truth in the typically generic generalizations. the facilitators described greens as sponges. they talked about greens just soaking everything in, and needing to stop and squeeze it all out and process it on their own. which is very true. one kid (who was obviously green) asked with all seriousness where the water went when it got squeezed out of the sponge. (ummm... so he missed the boat with the metaphor.) but i thought about it, and realized this blog is totally where i squeeze out my sponge. (speaking of blogging & sponges... my friend stephanie started her own blog! she's been talking about it for awhile & finally went for it. so glad i was able to convince someone to try the whole blog thing out. it really is such a good outlet.) here's more about green...

green:

expects intelligence and competence
seeks for ways to improve systems
standard setter
perfectionist and quality conscious
serious
theoretical and conceptual
seeks "big" picture
looks at the world and sees possibilities, meanings and relationships
architects of change
sets high standards
visionary/futurist
analytical
philosophical
can see the core of complex issues or problems
can never know enough
appears cool, calm, collected
needs independence and private time
encourages change for improvement
constantly in process of change
are challenged most when someone says it can't be done

and that's me in a nut shell.

at the end of the day i basically wrote an essay on the back of my evaluation form. don't get me wrong, it was a good conference. the idea was to put leaders from mica and university of baltimore together. and it's important to put the idea out there and in motion for a few years before you build on it. but i think it can be bigger. the good old leadership conference planner in me had a strong urge the whole day to start project planning for a leadership conference that would involve all of the schools in the baltimore collegetown network. if the idea is connecting (key word!) & really mingling with other students, that there needs to be more that just familiar mica faces and a smattering of kids. i see mega mixers, lots of networking & idea swapping, and allowing the experienced leaders to plan and facilitate their own sessions and pass on advice to emerging leaders. that's my vision. we'll see what happens...