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All-America City Table of Contents

All-America City Announcement Article

All-America City - The Process

All-America City - The Competition

All-America City - Editorial "It Really IS a Big Deal"

All-America City - Presentation Script

All-America City - photos and video index

All-America City - SCLT article by Jan Reed

All-America City - Congratulatory Messages from the Community

The Winning Application

All-America City – The Process

By Bill Coburn

 

The process of becoming an All-America City in 2007 actually began with Sierra Madre’s entry in the 2006 AAC competition, in which it was named an All-America City finalist, but didn’t make the cut as an actual All-America City.  Many lessons were learned by the participants in the 2006 competition, lessons which were used to fine-tune this year’s program into the victorious collaboration that it was.

 

While the process for the 2007 competition officially started about October of last year, those who had participated in last June’s competition had spent the summer thinking of ways to improve the Sierra Madre application and presentation, and by October they hit the ground running.  The steering committee worked together to give the program direction.  A series of community rallies were held, which were decidedly under-attended, but the group never lost its spirit. 

 

A fund-raising committee sought donations, Alison Kalmus of Southern California Lyric Theater led the committee charged with writing the presentation for the judges, and used her considerable theater and directing skills to give the presentation a dramatic and spirited flair.  Elisa Weaver, Josh Moran, Alison Kalmus, Jan Reed, Matt Bosse, and B.D. Howes worked diligently to prepare the City’s application for submittal in March, and shortly thereafter, Sierra Madre got the word that it had been selected a finalist again.

 

There was a lot of coordination to be done, and much of it fell on the shoulders of the Deputy Director of Community Services of Elisa Weaver.  Coordinating with the hotel for blocks of rooms for the delegates, working with the National Civic League, overseeing the group preparing the City’s booth for the fair, writing and re-writing the script for the presentation, arranging car pools, setting up note cards with each player’s lines, coordinating with local organizations for giveaway items for the booth, ordering printed AAC ballons with the Sierra Madre seal, making sure each delegate had a supply of Sierra Madre pins that could be traded with other delegates, setting up rehearsals, both in Sierra Madre and in Anaheim, transporting all the supplies from Sierra Madre to Anaheim, and countless other details were all arranged either by Weaver or under her supervision.

 

In the final days before the competition, Sierra Madre rehearsals were conducted, lines swapped between players, the script written and re-written to ensure that the group stayed within its ten minute limit.  E-mails flew back and forth between Weaver and the delegates, informing them of schedule changes, script details, asking for help in last minute preparations.  On Wednesday, June 6th, the delegates assembled in the Anaheim Marriott for their first Orange County rehearsal, and while I had missed the previous rehearsal due to a conflict, I was amazed at how well the presentation had come together just in the last couple days before the presentation to the jury. 

 

After the rehearsal, the group adjourned to their own activities until the late afternoon orientation.  A dozen or more of the delegates joined each other for lunch, enjoying the camaraderie of working together on a project that benefited the community, and getting to know each other a little better than they had before.  As the orientation drew near, the delegates headed back to the ballroom.

 

The delegates from all twenty cities packed into the ballroom, and the spirit and enthusiasm was inspiring.  Chanting, engaging in rhythmic clapping, jumping up and down, yelling and whooping it up, the delegates engaged in nearly 20 minutes of cheerleading before the orientation got started officially.  Brief speeches were given by Gloria Rubio-Cortes of the NCL and others, but the tone for the conference was effectively expressed by Derek Okubo of the NCL, who noted that for communities to work most effectively, it is necessary for community leaders to be actors (as in people of action), not just critics.  He told the delegates “The thing is that when I look at you, you are the actors that are making communities work, you’re the ones that are creating the change, you are the ones who are creating the belief, and we are all here because we believe, we believe in what is possible.”  He added that the “AAC award does not recognize perfection because there’s no such thing…it’s like families, there’s no such thing as perfect families, every family has its issues….a lot of it is that level of belief that is there, that mindset of what is possible, that mindset of spending the energy, not on who’s to blame, and who can I point that finger on, but what can we do together to address that issue.”  Following the orientation was an opening reception with hors d’oeuvres and a deejay, an opportunity for the various delegations to get to know each other a little better in a light-hearted atmosphere, encouraging a greater sense of community among the delegations as they got to mingle amongst themselves and learn about each other and the communities from whence they came.

 

The following morning was the presentation to the judges, and the delegation marched into the ballroom, singing Happy Birthday to Sierra Madre, recognizing its 100th birthday celebration.  The delegation was led by two men, Jim Murray and Jerry Durgerian, carrying large bamboo poles bearing the impressive Centennial banners that currently grace Sierra Madre Blvd. and Baldwin Ave.  The delegates ranged in age from 6 to somewhere in there 80s, and everyone was excited and happy to be a part of the delegation as they marched on stage, singing, laughing and clapping.  Lisa Spigai-Perez started the presentation off with a spirited “Good Morning Anaheim” a la Robin Williams’ Good morning Vietnam, and the delegation was off and running with various members stepping to the microphone stating their lines, the crowd behind them whooping and cheering for positive statements, then each speaker handing a sprig of (manufactured) Wistaria to two of the youths who placed it in a makeshift trellis, so that by the time the speech was over, the trellis was fully stocked and brimming with the beautiful purple vine.  The script, which can be found elsewhere in this paper, spelled out how Sierra Madre had worked together to on issues dealing with open space, youth disenfranchisement, and a lack of affordable living space for seniors who wanted to stay in their community as they faced declining health and a need to downsize from the homes in which they had raised their children.

 

The presentation ended with a very spirited delivery of a desire to become a member of the YAC by 6 year old Carter Thomas, followed by Catherine Adde and Lisa Spigai-Perez with some final words to the judges about the community and how it has worked together to face challenges, and will continue to do so.  The delegates all yelled in unison “Hats off to Sierra Madre” and threw the hats that they had worn to represent the changing times during Sierra Madre’s 100 years into the air, and the judges all appeared to be very impressed by the presentation.

 

A ten minute question and answer period took place, with different members responding to inquiries from the judges, Michelle Keith fielding a question about implementation of the Senior Master Plan, John Buchanan deftly answered a question about whether Sierra Madre had a master plan for people in the middle, noting the youth master plan and the senior master plan.  Buchanan stated that the middle people recognize their responsibility to the youth and the aged, and work together in a “symbiotic relationship between the citizens and the City.  It works.”  Beverly DeVoy, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce answered a question about how the community is preparing itself for the future as the community’s population ages.  There were several other questions, one of which afforded Mayor Joffe the opportunity to tell a story about how she got out of jury duty because she was from Sierra Madre, and the last question had to do with the recent turmoil in the town over the potential development of the downtown area.  Spigai-Perez and Joshua Moran answered that question with Lisa noting that the election to incorporate in 1906 included 28% of the town having voted no, and “this town was born amidst controversy one hundred years ago, it happened then, it’s happening now, it’ll happen in the future, and what you see on the stage, are many different minds, many different backgrounds, many different families, many different points of view, but we work together to make it work.”  Moran added that the recent election was about a very small downtown area that people are very emotionally attached to, and that people want it to remain pretty much the same.  The question was how do we keep the small town character, in the face of the demand for more stores and more buildings and things like that, what direction are we going to take, and that’s what the heated debate was about.  The judges noted that there are issues in every community, but when we succeed is when we at the end of the day agree that we may not agree on everything, but still manage to work together to take care of the communities needs.

 

That afternoon there was a “Civic Action Fair and Cultural Entertainment Showcase,” kind of a tradeshow set-up where each city had booths in which they could educate the conference attendees about their town.  Sierra Madre’s booth, prepared in large part by Maria and Jim Murray and Kim Sperling, of More than Meetings, a Sierra Madre business, featured the Wistaria filled trellis, the Centennial banners, Waldo Ward Jelly, 500 bottles of Sierra Madre water (all of which were gone by the end of the night), a 100th birthday cake with the Sierra Madre seal on it, and a 20-minute video/slideshow projected on a computer monitor, that depicted typical Sierra Madre scenes, such as Huck Finn Day, Rose Float Construction, SMVFA’s Easter Egg Hunt, the Trail Race, 4th of July, Halloween and much, much more.  Again, the delegates mingled among themselves, and got to know one another, building an NCL community that  expanded the community beyond each community’s immediate borders to their fellow competitor communities.

 

The next day’s schedule included a series of seminars for Civic leaders, such as Leadership Challenges and Lessons Learned, Emergency Preparedness as a Shared Responsibility, and a Chief Elected Officials Roundtable.

 

That evening was the awards ceremony, with a performance by emcee Ric Romero of ABC-TV that was somewhat forgettable.  But none of the winning delegations will ever forget the moment their city was announced as a winner, bringing to fruition the hopes and, for some, dreams they had been working on for months, or even years.  There was also a post-awards reception where the winners got to congratulate each other and again work on bonding, and building a greater relationship with their fellow delegates, a relationship that may come in handy down the road if, for instance, one individual’s community faces a situation that they recall another’s community facing, and many of our communities are facing similar challenges.  They may take the opportunity to contact their fellow delegate for advice as they confront the issue, learning from the voice of experience, helping their local community by working within the larger community they entered as delegates at the NCL’s All-America City conference.  It could happen, and almost certainly over the years, has happened in the past.  And that’s what the National Civic League is all about.  Building stronger national community by supporting and encouraging local communities.

Community and Personnel Services Director Michelle Keith addresses delegation just before they appear before the judges

Delegation tips their hats to Sierra Madre

The delegation after they've learned SM has been named an All-America city

More video

The following (more to be added soon) are videos/audio files of the AAC2k7 presentation. If it's audio, it's because someone stepped between my unmanned camera (I was on stage) and the stage, so the screen is pretty much black.  Not much I can do about that.  Sorry it's not all video.

Sierra Madre Delegation enters judging area singing Happy Birthday to Sierra Madre

Sierra Madre Delegation enters judging area singing Happy Birthday to Sierra Madre

Sierra Madre Delegation enters judging area singing Happy Birthday to Sierra Madre

Final entry, beginning of greeting from the Judges

Greeting from the Judges, Good Morning Anaheim

Lisa Spigai-Perez begins presentations

 

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