What if I told you I had the perfect method to kill our community? Not only just one but 13 ways to kill our community. You would probably call me crazy and ask why I would do such a thing. Well, it isn’t really me who has come up with this plan but on May 18 we heard from a special guest speaker, Doug Griffiths, the person who has come up with this. In fact he has written a book called “13 Ways to Kill your Community” and it has gotten some people up in arms. “Why would he write something like that?” “That title is horrible. Not inspiring at all! People will be put off.” In the book, he outlines 13 things that will cause a community to weaken and wither if you do them or continue to do them. Some of the ways are;

• Don’t attract business
• Don’t engage youth
• Don’t paint
• Ignore outsiders
• Live in the past (my personal favourite)

Here is an introduction that will hopefully help put this into context; “We all do things that undermine our opportunities for success whether we are consciously aware of it or not. Doug spoke to high school students time and again about how to be successful – study hard, don’t do drugs, marry someone nice. The challenge for them, like so many of us, is that we trade what we want most for what we want now, and fail to realize the consequences of our choices. Communities are no different. They want success, they make plans for it and they work hard, but daily they make choices or adopt attitudes that ensure they fail. If we simply stop doing what encourages failure, and ensure our attitude is aligned with our goals, our communities can and will prosper for another generation. Attaining success means realizing we need to be willing to change and adapt, we should truly believe in our community, and we must be prepared to fight for it. If you believe you can, you have a chance. If you believe you can’t, you will prove yourself right every time.” The real point to all of this is to open people’s eyes. To show them what the consequences can be if they engage in these behaviors. The value is recognizing the warning signs and putting actions in place to prevent them from happening.
– Jeff Hamilton, Chamber Chair