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 |
