The Importance of Community
Mar 27th, 2008 by Wes
Shared by all or many, a sense of connectedness, a tighter subset of society, social in nature. Community seems to be the strands of interest which binds our society together. Wikipedia has a very interesting social definition of community. We all want a sense of community, a feeling of belonging. In searching for community I believe I am looking for freedom and security. I want to feel safe in my environment. When I am with people who have the same interests I feel more safe, more important, I can contribute more, and I feel I belong. How lucky we are to live in this period of time. We as humanity have access to any community we could ever imagine. We can even join virtual communities with virtual interests. Take a look at Second Life and we find a community of people creating their own virtual communities within virtual communities, fascinating. I am amazed at the endless number of groups available to us in our culture. In fact marketing professionals rely on our group interests to target market our personalities. Being a pilot, I belong to the AOPA community (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association). My association with the AOPA gives marketing professionals more information about my socio-economic status and because I am a member of AOPA they expect I would be interested in more cross communities such as sports cars (Jensen Healey Preservation Society), golf (Professional Golfer’s Association), and exotic travel (International Living). All of these communities or associations give me a sense of belonging.
In many cases what you join is who you are. Our interest in communities is a reflection of our identities. Our identities can be strengthened by community, and being somewhat fragile, it is important our identities feel safe. The community needs to be a place where our identities can be nurtured and protected, while challenged and supported. My favorite communities are those which provide the safety and freedom for me to enrich and challenge myself, ones which allow for the greatest capacity of growth. I joined a community of men in the Mankind Project a few years ago and they gave me the safety and security and freedom to personally grow into my adulthood.
Communities and associations can also create leverage by combining forces. Idaho Rivers United is a conservative watch group in Idaho created to be a voice for the people who enjoy the recreational and extraordinary beauty of the many rivers of Idaho. By collecting the dues and donations from the community of like-minded people, the association can leverage the individuals $35.00 into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Idaho Rivers United can then use the leverage of the money with the voices of the collective community to become a major influence to help protect the rivers of Idaho. The more members, the larger the community, the more money, the more power.
Here at Coastal Dreams Worldwide we strive to create a community of like-minded passionate people interested in offshore investing, foreign travel, entrepreneurial spirit, resort development, eco-travel, eco-development, and much, much more. We help provide some safety and security within our investments by creating the community to support our endeavors. We join communities of local entrepreneurs in Nicaragua to join us and help us achieve our desired goals. We help challenge investors to take the action required to become foreign land owners. We also strive to help educate people who come in contact with us, we use our community to access a wealth of knowledge not available to any one person alone. In certain applications we are able to leverage money to purchase larger tracts of land a single individual may not be able to afford.
Our blog is meant to foster this community. So please participate, we encourage all to join in.
