News and Notes 5/14/2018

​Ad Hockers talked this morning of next steps. It’s almost six years now since we first met, and from that has flowed increasing levels of trust and collaboration. Still, there is much more to do.
      We discussed several next steps for Ad Hoc — helping to identify potential new businesses, helping to find ways to promote the Sundstrom Conference Center’s midweek availabilities, and cross pollinating audiences through social media. We also received an update on work well under way to provide more public seating.
      An intriguing issue came up toward the end of the discussion:  How can we best demonstrate that Ad Hoc is open to anyone who may be interested?
      In its last 5+ years, Ad Hoc has become an ever-larger crossroads — definitely not reserved just for ideas and people related to businesses, non-profits and institutions.  *Anyone* may sit in or be a part of Ad Hoc. Anyone may pop thoughts into the Monday morning circle (when forward-looking and positively framed, of course). The range of people involved will help define our focus, and the more range the better.
      Besides sitting in on any given Monday morning's gathering, here are other current ways to be in touch:
       •  Ad Hoc welcomes presentations about local community issues and projects (although we have tended to veer away promotions of particular products or services unless the group asks to receive them).  If questions, call David Hay at First Bank Kansas, dhay@firstbankkansas.com) or Kathy Richardson at Small World Gallery (smallworldgallery@mac.com). The more Ad Hoc knows about your objectives, the more our network can help with the buzz.  Do you have an issue or idea to share?
      •  Ad Hoc News and Notes is emailed roughly once a week   to 200 recipients; open rates vary from 30 to 65 percent  It also has its own public-facing Facebook page, “Lindsborg Ad Hoc Roundtable," for those who prefer keeping up with our notes that way. Anyone may sign up to receive direct emails by jotting a note to smallworldgallery@mac.com.  
      What else can/should we do? As with any vital and growing group, the question should persist: How can we better listen and hear new ideas and perspectives -- ideas and perceptions that may not have occurred before? Ideas that make us re-evaluate and act with new alertness?  
       One way to do that is for Ad Hoc to listen and share info with as many people as possible. We need your help with this.  What can we do as volunteers to be in touch with more voices?
       We will be talking about this subject of inclusion once again next week from 8-9 a.m. Monday, May 21, in the second floor city council chambers.  If you have ideas about how we can better listen and hear, please sit in, talk with an Ad Hocker, or send comments by email in reply.
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      Holy moly, what a summer media lineup for Lindsborg so far!  In June alone we have:
       • the Today Show in Lindsborg in June to interview English teacher and part-time professor, book author and blogger Dana Bowman of Lindsborg. Dana often writes from the perspective of a young mother in recovery with a focus on children and marriage, failures and successes.  She also presents workshops on writing and addiction.  See some of her work at www.momsieblog.com.  Big congrats to Dana. 
       • a popular blogger and video host who covers the international world of vacation rentals will be in Lindsborg to do a piece about living like a local in investor Jim Prugh’s historic renovations. We appreciate that Jim has made a sustained effort to educate others in his realm about what is in Lindsborg and how it compares quite favorably to, say, a neighborhood in a teeming Italian city or a countryside town. The blogger (and Jim) believe that a strong sense of place is the thing. We’ll look forward to helping Jim show this writer our distinctive sense of place.
       • a national travel writer coming to write about visiting Wichita and Lindsborg — a result, in part, of the Lindsborg CVB’s recent trip to New York with other travel specialists from Kansas. (Ad Hoc partnered with the City of Lindsborg on this trip.) The writer will be here in Lindsborg for *two overnights* so it’s not just a brief excursion from ICT we’ll receive.  Much better opportunity.