Solution-oriented volunteerism

I want to thank Bill Willitts for taking a Saturday morning to pen last week's guest editorial in The Nugget. He expressed the sentiment that many of us in this community feel about our town. My wife felt it important enough to read it to me as I was driving our son back to college. As I drove the back roads of Eastern Oregon for six hours, passing through many small towns, I had a chance to reflect on what separates our town from some of these other small, less-vibrant towns.

What makes Sisters a desirable place to visit, live, raise a family, and retire?

First, I reflected on why Sisters has always been able to move forward. How had we been able to do it? As the miles clicked away, I tried to examine how all of Sisters' accomplishments came to be and why Sisters has been able to endure. I came away with two traits that helped us achieve many goals and stay strong as a community: Respect and solution-oriented volunteerism.

Our little town is not perfect, but we have worked through difficult issues with respect and civility.

Currently, the school district and city have some difficult issues to work through that may not have overnight, instantaneous solutions. Some of these issues do not have a "perfect" solution, which makes it even more difficult. Currently, the city is trying to work through some issues with the development code and temporary-use permits. With growth, we see new situations that we may not have been presented with in the past, and we must work through these issues as a community.

Good communication is vital, and people volunteering time to work on these issues is critical.

As more sagebrush passed, I soon realized that this may be the crux of the feeling that our solidity as a community might be slipping away. Good communication can be passionate and heated but most of all, it must be respectful. I fear we may be losing some of that respect in how we interact as a community. As soon as we start to use words like "us," "them," and "the enemy," we are no longer a community. At this point how can good communication exist? In my mind we are all "Outlaws," no matter our difference in opinion.

The solution-oriented volunteerism that has been exhibited in the past has been essential in moving our community forward in a positive manner. Our current volunteers have one common goal, and that is to continue to make Sisters a better place. Of late, it seems like we are short on volunteers for boards and committees and short on solutions. It took a few more miles of nothingness to examine and reflect on why that may be - including my own thoughts of why I am reexamining the hours of time spent volunteering and comments I have heard from others whom are hesitant to step up and volunteer.

Why would one want to subject themselves to the personal criticism and risks now associated with volunteering? It is sad to see our community transition to this. The good news is we can all practice good emotional intelligence by being careful with our words, our tone, and our actions we use with one another to convey our difference of opinions, thus eliminating this barrier.

As the tedious drive came to an end and I entered our little community, I realized that our community is still strong, and that as long as we create an environment where creative solutions are welcome, openly discussed, and above all, people are respected for their thoughts and efforts, our community will move forward in a positive direction. Being respectful listeners and not always having the last word will yield more success and encourage greater participation resulting in a positive outcome for the entire community.

Bill, I too "love Sisters."