Title: Why it's Smart to Connect With Your Community
Author: unknown
Reference: http://upsizemag.com , feb 2006
Presenter: Dar Ozer
Why is it crucial that you maintain a strong connection with your community at large?  These connections emulate the big strong companies who respect and care for their customers.
Many companies may not know really and truly why they need to spend time on such an important issue.  However there are several reasons why it is a good idea.  What is good for the community is good for the business.  Therefore, as the community changes so should you to better provide for the community's needs.  Doing so improves productivity, effectiveness and reduces costs by producing things that the only the community needs.  It also eliminates what is not needed.  Building community is not only about the foundation and the structure but also involves a healthy environment of respect and mutual understanding.  And it is not only about the social community but about the business community and attracting new customers, employees and investors.  Committed potential employees are the ones that will look for a business's values similar to their own.  Also, investors will look for a business's principles in addition to the financial aspect of a business.  Over all, it's just the right thing to do.
Now you are probably wondering how to go about doing this tack of promoting community.  On the inside you need to establish an organization's core values and treat these values as a compass keeping the business on track.  This can be on a broad or specific scale but needs to be able to change with the flow of the business.  On the outside you need to become very active in the community.  Find the cause appropriate to the business's values and mission and the see what the business can contribute to that said cause.  Then establish a plan as to how the business will allocate the time and resources to the cause.  Get the employees involved and reward them by volunteering hours on company time and by stating a community relations committee that has a commitment recognition award aspect to it.
Finally it is important to always evaluate the efforts of the organization ti determine what worked and ho to improve on your methods.