You have heard this one before…be the change you want to see in the world. As overused as the expression may be, I still like it. It’s not just a platitude, it is also a call to action. One of my biggest pet peeves are people who complain about what they want/what they would do/what should be, but they never actually do anything about it. 

There was a post I was going to write about a month ago about people who sit on every board and committee in town. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for these people. My only beef was the fact that so many of the same people sit on all of these boards that there doesn’t seem to be a seat at the table for anyone who is not in with the in crowd. This is a bit of a theme in Bay City, where ideas and people are recycled and reused for years and years. 

What does a guy have to do to be asked to join a board of directors? Apparently, he just has to wait his turn. Since I made the first “soft” announcement of the Good Works Group, no fewer than two groups have asked me to join. (For the record, no more than two groups have asked me to join.)

The first is the Literacy Council of Bay County. After reading the profile of me in the Tri-City Business Review—where I commented that two of my pet projects are literacy and education—they contacted me and asked me to join their board of directors. I can’t tell you how excited I am to join this group. I genuinely believe that literacy is one of the keys to improving many of society’s ills, so I am looking forward to the opportunity to help bring more attention to the problem.

The second group is an advisory committee for the Bay Area School District’s career center. The career center offers a wide variety of classes in areas such as graphic arts, culinary arts, health careers and more. For some of the kids involved, they use the classes to earn college credits in the field they plan on majoring in. For others who may not be planning on attending college, they get hands-on work experience that will help them find a job after graduation. I have seen some of the work that both the culinary and graphic program students do and it’s really impressive. A chance to be involved with this group is really exciting. 

I like to think that I’m a money-where-his-mouth-is guy so I am genuinely grateful for these opportunities to contribute to my community. As things get busier with the Good Works Group, I know that I will need to be wary of spreading myself too thin, but for now I look forward to the challenges ahead.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for allowing me to indulge in the up-with-people entry. 

I was the coffee sponsor at the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Tuesday morning. Sponsoring the coffee at the event not only gets your name mentioned as a sponsor, but also gives you 2 minutes to speak in front of the Chamber. Normally, I will do just about anything to avoid public speaking. I’ve made blending in with the scenery a near art form. But I know that it’s not enough to get the 989 Design name out there–I need to get out there, too, and talk to as many people as I can.

Luckily, I had something to talk about that is important enough that it made it easy to get over my stage fright. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to introduce the Chamber to the newest studio project, the 989 Good Works Group. A much more detailed post about the Good Works Group is coming, but the short-answer version is that I am putting together a non-profit, not-for-pay group of designers whose sole purpose is to work on as many non-profit projects as we can.

I am approached on an almost weekly basis by groups who need some sort of design work done–maybe a logo or a newsletter, a poster or a postcard, whatever. And a lot of these groups aren’t big non-profits with lots of volunteers, but they’re very small groups raising funds for whatever the cause may be. These are often people who work all day and then work on their non-profit stuff at the kitchen table at night. They don’t have a budget for advertising and design, but they find a way to get it done. If there is something we can do—no matter how large or small—to make it just a little bit easier for them, then that’s something worth doing.

We have a few projects already in the works with many more to come in the first quarter of 2009. Keep an eye out on the site for more information. A more thorough post is coming in the next week or two as well as a new page devoted solely to the Good Works Group.

If you are involved with a mid-Michigan group who might be able to use our services, please drop me an e-mail. And if you are a designer or student designer with time to give, e-mail me.

Until next time…