The March Hare: Winter 2008 Issue 55

Cover Page • DR In My Luggage • Crating Change • Thank You Donors! • Nature Corner • Yoga Offsets • Under Your Sink

The Best Way to Create Change?

by Tony Sirna

After 10 years, Dancing Rabbit certainly has something to share with the world. Our exports include both know-how on a multitude of topics and inspiration that change is possible.

And change is what we are after. Our mission is to help move (or at least nudge) the world towards sustainability. We're certainly not working alone in that effort, but want to do our part.

The question that is often on my mind lately, and probably on the minds of other Rabbits, is, "What is the best way for Dancing Rabbit to help create social change?" I wonder how we can be most effective, how best to use our skills and experience and the time and energy at hand. What will both change the world and feed our souls?

I bring my musings to you, our readers and supporters, to see if you have any insights. You who don't live at DR may have a better sense of what the world needs, or what will create change. But before we talk about possibilities, it seems worth reflecting on what we have already had success with. We don't have much in terms of measurability, but I can at least say what we have done or are doing:

• Visitors:

We host 50 people for 1 to 3 weeks in our visitor program each year. Last year a remarkable 20% of these people chose to live at DR.

• Public Speaking:

Rabbits are often invited to speak for school classes or at events. We don't do this as much as we'd like, but probably speak to a few hundred people each year.

• Tours:

We give dozens of tours each year to hundreds of people from neighbors, to school kids, to college classes. They are only here for a few hours, but you can learn a lot in two hours.

• Newsletters:

We send weekly and quarterly news to almost 4000 people as well as being printed in a handful of local papers and on our website.

• DRTV:

Our new member Brian has brought us into the video age with DRTV. The five videos he has created have already been viewed over 5000 times on the internet.

• Website:

Our extensive website provides information on DR as well as useful knowledge on many community and sustainable living skills. Almost 100,000 people visited our website in the past year.

• Mainstream Media:

Our big coup was being on the TV show "30 Days," which was seen by probably a million viewers. We have also been in various publications, news shows, and other documentaries, and occasionally we get calls from ABC or MTV about the possibility of being on TV again.

As I look at that list I am proud of all we have done and excited to do more. I'm also struck by the dynamic of "deep impact for a few" vs "shallow impact for many". Our 50 visitors are so few, but the impact on them is profound, whereas the million viewers of "30 Days" are so numerous but a 1 hour TV show can only have so much impact.

But back to the question at hand: "What is the best way for Dancing Rabbit to help create social change?"

Should we write a book that tells our story, sharing knowledge and inspiration? Could it be like Helen and Scott Nearing's "The Good Life?" Or at least like "Gaviotas," a book about an ecovillage in Columbia, or "Is it Utopia Yet?" about Twin Oaks community in Virginia? These are books that helped inspire DR; can we in turn inspire others?

Should we make a full-length documentary for film festivals and DVD? Does video touch people in a way that is harder with the written word? Can we reach more people through video? Could we send a copy to every ecological classroom in the country?

Or maybe video is the answer but these days it's all about YouTube and the 3 minute attention span. Maybe DRTV is the way to go, making dozens of short films for internet download. We can still put them all on a DVD and send them out.

It might be that we should send folks out into the world to speak at events and meet people in person. Maybe change happens best by meeting people where they are, face to face, where they can hear your voice and shake your hand and feel your inspiration.

Perhaps we need to ride on the mainstream media, getting articles published and appearing on news spots and more TV shows and the like. They certainly have the channels to distribute the information and access to millions of people. But they get to spin the message and choose how to portray us as well, so it's not without risks.

On the other hand, maybe it's the depth of connection that matters and we need to find more ways to get people to come to DR and see it for themselves. Host more visitors and interns. Hold workshops and seminars. Maybe the Milkweeds' B&B will be the ticket to more folks seeing DR first hand.

30 Days filming, May 2005

And possibly we don't need to do anything new, just do what we have been doing, only better and more of it. Maybe we'd be best off sprucing up our website and adding more content and then working to get more and more traffic and hopefully more and more impact on those who do visit our site.

Of course, its not just one or the other. We can, and should, do multiple things to create change, both because that will be more effective and because we are a diverse group and different things will utilize our skills and feed our souls.

Sometimes I want to just do it all— write the book and then go on a speaking tour to promote it (by bike and train if possible), which would get us media attention, and drive traffic to our improved website, which would draw more people to come visit us (and of course we'd make a documentary highlighting DR and the bike/speaking tour)!

But in reality that is a huge endeavor and we may not have energy to do it all (at least not right now). So where do we start? How do you think we could best focus our efforts? Email or write us to let us know— we'd really love to hear.

Cover Page • DR In My Luggage • Crating Change • Thank You Donors! • Nature Corner • Yoga Offsets • Under Your Sink

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