SocialButterfly.

Continuing my weekly “Blogger Neighborhood Series” in honor of the great Mr. Rogers, who called us to “Get to know our neighbor,” I welcome Stacey Monk from Epic Change, who continues to leave me inspired.

Stacey is an amazing writer, showing both her contagious passion and gracious, sincere personality through every word, so I’ll let her tell you about her journey, mission and how she’s gotten to where she is…

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Blog Name:

The Epic Change Blog

Blog Topics:

The Epic Change Blog is a diary of our experiment in social entrepreneurship and an organization I recently founded called Epic Change. We started it just after we received our 501c3 determination last September, and we blog whatever we’ve experienced on the journey since then, including:

• our social media and storytelling efforts,
• updates from Mama Lucy, the founder of the school we’re helping to rebuild in Tanzania,
• anecdotal stories about our trips and stories of the children at the school like Gideon & Glory,
• the inspirations for our work, and
• our feelings about the social entrepreneurship experience.

We try to give a complete, transparent picture of what we’re working on so that our supporters can feel engaged in what we’re doing, and so other folks can learn from our mistakes and successes. We also try to provide regular opportunities on our blog for folks to get involved. Last week, for instance, to celebrate National Volunteer Week, we provided daily opportunities for our readers to perform 10-minute volunteer activities.

About the Author:

I’m a nerd, a recovering military brat, a perpetual nomad and a total sap. I believe the world is what we make it. I started my career managing a performing arts series, moved into public sector consulting for Deloitte, then worked in IT strategy & change leadership at Genentech and, finally, launched a small change management consulting firm called Funken Consulting. Last year, I left for Africa, came back, stopped working for money & founded Epic Change, a nonprofit that “helps hopeful people in need tell their epic true stories to acquire the resources they need to create change in their communities.” I have a BA in Philosophy and a grad degree in performing arts management from the public policy school at Carnegie Mellon. I like to think that artsy background helps me be more creative in my approach to social change. You can check out my street cred on LinkedIn.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

I’d live where Hope, Audacity, Authenticity, & Gratitude intersect because I know I’d like the other people who live there. [This is my favorite quote of the week!]

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor?

Any man who can sing. For today, let’s say John Mayer. His song Say is stuck on my brain. Or maybe Josh Groban. His voice makes me feel like I’m in the presence of an angel.

If you were in charge of the planning the neighborhood’s block party, what entertainment would you plan?

Ditto, previous question. Or I’d plan a performance by a dance troupe that I love like Alvin Ailey or Momix. Or we’d dance ourselves, which might be the most fun. Despite my chubbiness, I love to dance. I’m certified to teach ZUMBA and Shake Your Soul.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

FEARNOT, URHOPE or THANKU

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

Blueberry Pie. Despite 1950s connotations, pies = love.

What’s your favorite blog post and why?

I’d like to point to something brilliant by someone else, because I’ve taken so much as inspiration. Right now, today, though, I’m really wrapped up in what’s unfolding as a result of my recent, totally random, guest post on the Go Big Always blog of Jive CMO Sam Lawrence. I met him totally randomly on Twitter, and last Wednesday after midnight, when he was tweeting that he didn’t feel like posting to his uber-popular marketing blog, I offered to take his place. He, probably in jest, wrote back “Go for it ;)” and I did. That single post has led to a flurry of others, including one on ZDNet, a tweet by @Scobleizer, and a connection to social media giant Jeremiah Owyang, as well as a drastic increase in the number of people interested in our cause. So for today, the Go Big Always post is surely my fave, despite the fact that it begins with a reference to feces.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging?

Be authentic.

Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

• Osocio @ Osocio nominated by SocialButterfly
• Beth Kanter @ Beth’s Blog nominated by SocialButterfly
• Beth Dunn @ Small Dots nominated by Beth Kanter
• Len Edgerly @ LenEdgerly.com nominated by Beth Dunn
• …and now, Stacey Monk @ Epic Change nominated by the Twitter-verse

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Please forgive my delay in posting. I had to defend my thesis, travel from DC to KC to Columbia and get all my paperwork together in the past 5 days! However, Len is a great sport and was nominated by our previous neighbor Beth Dunn, over at Small Dots. Read below to learn more about the newest addition to the blogger neighborhood!

Blog Name: LenEdgerly.com

Blog Topics: Arts, technology, politics, travels.

About the Author: Len Edgerly lives in Denver and Cambridge, Mass., and is retired from careers in journalism and the natural gas industry. He podcasts every Wednesday, alternating between the Audio Pod Chronicles and the Video Pod Chronicles, both available at iTunes and from links on his blog. He is a board member of the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs. He enjoys giving presentations to arts groups and introduce them in non-technical terms to the wonders of the Internet and why they should be playing around with things like Twitter, podcasting and Qik. He is a Kindle enthusiast, an avid photographer, and an Obama volunteer.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why? Easy Street, and I already live there, it seems. I’m very fortunate since age 45 to have been able to work hard at what I love, without having to worry about finances.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor? The poet W.S. Merwin.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why? In fact, I do have a customized license plate. It reads TLFC. My wife, exasperated with all my spiritual striving in Zen and elsewhere once asked me, “Why don’t you ever just take life as it #$%*& comes?” This struck me as an inspired formulation for a good life, something we could agree on, thus the plate. Please don’t tell the state of Colorado Motor Vehicles Department, though. On the form applying for the plate I said the letters stood for “Take Life as it Fully Comes.” Either way, I like it.

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift? A fresh bag of coffee beans.

What’s your favorite blog post and why? “La Belle Grammaire,” one of the posts I labored long and hard to write in French three years ago when my wife and I spent two months at L’Institut de francais, near Cannes.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging? Twitter is hell on my blogging habit. [You can follow Len @LenEdgerly.]

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Continuing my weekly “Blogger Neighborhood Series” and in honor of the great Mr. Rogers, who called us to “Get to know our neighbor,” Beth Dunn over at Small Dots shares her wit, personality and journey as the third neighbor in our series. Dunn was nominated by previously featured blog neighbor, Beth Kanter.

Blog Name: Small Dots

Blog Topic: Social media and other useful technology tools for nonprofits and the people who love them

About the Author: I am the Director of Communications and Technology for the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, I pursued graduate studies in geology at Syracuse University. When I was 28, I bought a nightclub, euphemistically known as a “live-musicvenue,” in upstate New York and operated that for several years before returning to Cape Cod in 2002. I then worked for several years as a freelance editor for Random House Publishing, Sterling Publishing, and several scientific academic journals, and served as the Director of Communications for the Harwich Junior Theater before joining the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod in 2006.

I’ve been in communications since 1997, nonprofit communications since 2004, and I’ve been blogging since about 2003. I started blogging on a personal blog, and quickly branched out into writing weekly columns for several humor blogs (all of which are now sadly defunct). I’m a darn good public speaker, an enthusiastic baseball fan (but not for the team you would expect), and an ex-professional chef. I am also an expert sock-knitter. Yes, expert.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging? Be yourself. You can be no other.

If you could lived on any street, which street would you live on and why? Perry Lane. It’s the dirt road on which my great-grandfather’ s house still sits — an 1840 farmhouse on Cape Cod, only a few miles from where I live now. My grandfather had to sell it a few years ago, and none of us had the scratch to buy it from him at the time. I’d love to buy it back from the (very nice) folks who bought it, and then settle there. I mean, those ghosts are MY ghosts.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor? Annie LaMott. She’s one of my favorite writers; she writes great fiction AND great non-fiction on the subject of writing, and I think we would make terrific neighbors. We have a lot in common, including a certain level of neuroticism, and a peculiar sense of humor.

Why do you blog? I’m a compulsive blogger, and I have been since I first started in 2003. I love to write, and I love how blogging keeps my writing skills sharp. I love the community of people that I have met through writing a blog and reading blogs. Blogging makes me global.

What’s your favorite blog post and why? The one where I compared CEOs (those who are averse to social media) to the Tiv tribe in Africa: Lost in Translation - Social Media and Hamlet. I was remembering that old Intro to Anthropology essay that we all had to read, about the young anthropologist who believes that Hamlet is universal and transcends cultural differences, and she faces hysterical obstacles in her quest to translate it to the indigenous population she is working with in Africa. I like it because it’s typical of the way I think, drawing strange metaphors and parallels from seemingly unrelated disciplines. It’s what we liberal arts college graduates are best at, I think.

Look out next week to see who else has been nominated in the neighborhood!

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Continuing my weekly “Blogger Neighborhood Series” and in honor of the great Mr. Rogers, who called us to “Get to know our neighbor,” Beth Kanter over at Beth’s Blog is the second neighbor featured in this series.

Blog Name: Beth’s Blog

Blog Topics: How nonprofits can use social media

About the Author:

Beth Kanter is a trainer, blogger, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use of social media. Her expertise is how to use new web tools (blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging, screencasting, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, etc) to support nonprofits. She has worked on projects that include: training, curriculum development, research and evaluation. She is an experienced coach to “digital immigrants” in the personal mastery of these tools. She is a professional blogger and writes about the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector for social change. (Borrowed from Kanter’s blog. For more information, click here.)

Learning and Reflection Street - it would be a street where you can take time to learn and reflect any what you curious about

Someone who understood reciprocity and wasn’t intrusive

Why do you blog?
I started blogging because I am a trainer and writer and wanted a place to write, so I could remember or figure out how to use technology tools. My blog is my journal - I’ve always kept a journal - but the difference is that everyone reads it.

When I’m trying to learn something new.

I don’t think I’d want to customized license plate ….

A colleague asked for advice. I wanted to get other people to participate, but it was sensitive so I created a simulation - a funny one.

See the link below to see how Beth combined creativty and humor to ask a very important question about how to react to potential online criticism towards your non-profit, company or organization. —> http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/02/transparency-so.html

That’s hard. But I’ve been enjoying Twitter of late. (You can follow Beth on Twitter @kanter)

Now, here’s a question for YOU: How has Beth Kanter’s work influenced you or your community?

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.