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CHAPTER ONE

GETTING ORIENTED: DEFINITIONS AND BENEFITS @

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It is hard to learn gardening, if no one can tell you what a flower is, or a vegetable, or why they are important. The cultivation of positive linkages between people is somewhat similarly handicapped. The word "network" is frequently used to describe many different activities, and the concept behind the word is so broad that it’s difficult to pin down a definition for it.

Visualizing the process of networking, we see a BRIDGE, a solid connection linking people as equals for the exchange of information, ideas, expertise, personal support and/or material goods. Our BRIDGE is a way of connecting resources and needs in ways that are easily managed, maximize the creativity of participants, and most importantly, provide channels for every person to give and to gain from the system.

Perhaps the key is starting where people are, rather than attempting to create the will in people to exchange resources with each other. We begin with what exists of its own, right now, in the motivation and behavior of people and find ways this can be helpful to others. Said another way, this might be called the "judo principle of motivation". Instead of trying to push people to help, we move with what’s already moving in people, and make that helpful.

Another main element in networking states that while some people may have more to share than others in any given area of concern,

1. Everyone, no matter how inexperienced or helpless, has something to give;
2. Everyone, no matter how strong, or expert, needs something; and
3. Reasonably systematic matching between this giving and receiving will reduce the need for outside expertise, purchased services, and other one-way help, due to the quality and accessibility of help given from within the network.

Networking is a form of the "new volunteering" which explores who volunteers may be, what they can do, and how they can go about doing it. One growing edge is the volunteering of peers to each other (something called peer support networking) which gives respect to the dignity and worth of every individual. It is humanitarian in its permission for all people to have pride in themselves and their work. What is of value here is a means of encouraging volunteering to one another and recognizing the notion that people don’t have to be "social-do-gooders" or offer one-way service in order to be helpful to others. We can each give and receive; help and be helped; volunteer and be a recipient of volunteer service – networking is definitely a two-way street.

In our view, barter is cousin to networking but not a twin. The notion of voluntary exchange is common to both, but barter is more likely to emphasize getting precisely as much as one gives (or maybe a little more) in points, credits, work value, etc. Networking seems to be a little less exact in measuring exchanges and encourages people to volunteer a little more than they expect in return. But the relationship remains, as does an overlap of meanings between two sets of somewhat synonymous terms.

Currently, a major spark igniting more enthusiasm for networking is the tight economic situation in the country and the world, especially for those human service related agencies and other groups relying on governmental funding. For example, a network in Colorado is getting started because various agencies are trying to survive financially. No longer can each agency afford to do everything themselves, have a full-time receptionist when they only need a half-time person, purchase a copy machine when the prices and maintenance fees escalate annually and so on. It is beginning to look efficient to network because by pooling resources with others, we are much better off than alone. The agencies can share resources, both human and material, take the time to carefully plan their network and build a mechanism for handling their own agency problems.

Several State Offices on Volunteerism are helping local agencies network with other groups around the state to provide training events and particularly inexpensive speakers (because they’re from within the state). They are finding that it’s not possible for most people to afford to go to workshops outside the immediate area and that most states and local communities can meet their own training needs. The lack of funding within most agencies has made this cooperative effort more viable and attractive to the participants; obviously so, or they wouldn’t be networking.

Another type of networking arising today involves people of all kinds sharing job information. An example of this type of informal networking happened at a meeting for social activists: a man, on introducing himself, mentioned he was currently unemployed. Immediately another person announced a possible job he might check into. They agreed to talk more later. People truly are becoming more and more willing to share resources and needs as the economic system becomes tighter.

While traditional means of managing programs are hampered by severe budget cuts, networking alleviates many of the problems and helps various groups work together. In the future we’ll rely more heavily on peer support networks among individuals of all kinds: among human service leaders, among service, policy, or advocacy workers, among clients, etc. Effective networks between people will tend to demystify the notion of only a few experts in helping, while reducing use of terms like client and helpee. In a word, networking skills do more than help us "get by" in hard times with the same number of helpers; they actually increase the number of helpers, potentially to 100% of the population.

But what of the quality of this help? Here it is easy to be trapped in the conventional misconception: what doesn’t cost a lot of money can’t be worth much. On the contrary, network linkages can and do carry first class care along their helping lines. As volunteer leadership consultants, our strong impression is that 80-90% of the questions addressed to us as "experts" or to central information systems, could be answered as well or perhaps better through interactions with peers, close to home, via effective networking. Indeed, the concept of networking has potential for empowering all people.

What better case could be made for networking? Let’s not forget to include creativity and fun in the scheme. Out approach to networking demonstrates that giving and receiving don’t have to be trying experiences: it does not have to hurt before it helps. In one BRIDGE workshop one of many people reluctant to stop the networking exercise we were doing commented with excitement that he felt like a "kid in a candy shop" and wanted to continue making beautiful connections with others with similar concerns.

Networking can be just as effective whenever we need to involve more people; increase resources; get more accomplished with less money; build teamwork, etc. It is the ultimate in creatively tapping human resources.

Now to speak to your potential needs for connecting with others, we have below a set of benefits of networking.

As individuals, networking can provide you with:*

1. information;
2. needed services, advice;
3. personal support;
4. feedback on what you do or are planning on doing;
5. allies with which to work.

As a group the benefits could extend to include:

1. ability to advocate for an issue/group;
2. needed power and clout to get a task completed;
3. the necessary resources and people to fulfill the group’s function.

As a community, or society, people could benefit from:

1. more and more people seeing themselves as givers and receivers;
2. the increased likelihood of each of us to become networkers;
3. the ability to meet society’s social needs through the willing help of others.

There is much to motivate the idealist in all this. Units of people as small in number as a typical family can build bridges, then move up to neighborhood groups, then community networks, then connect more widely between local bridges, to nations and, who knows, perhaps one day a planet. All this begins with you and now.

 * Welch, Mary-Scott. Networking: The Great New Way For Women To Get Ahead. New York, Warner Books. 1981.

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Ivan Scheier
Stillpoint
607 Marr
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 87901
Tel (505) 894-1340
Email: ivan@zianet.com

For comments and editing suggestions please contact Mary Lou McNatt mlmcnatt@indra.com