Wanted: the month of September. Last seen: flying by at the speed of light. If found, please return to MASS LBP. We could use a few more days.

September zoomed by at MASS LBP. It’s hardly surprising. We travelled to Waterloo, Ottawa and Thunder Bay to talk to people about social entrepreneurship. We threw a lively party at MASS HQ to welcome Uffe Elbaek to Toronto, Peter closed the show at TEDxTO with his "Imagining 2017" talk and Chi bought a house! Now October is shaping up to be just as busy and even more exciting.

MASS EVENTS
If you have plans this evening (October 13), cancel them. MASS has invited Alan Webber, award-winning author and co-founder of the acclaimed Fast Company magazine, to Toronto. He’s visiting our friends at The Centre for Social Innovation to talk about his newest book: Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self. Space is extremely limited, so RSVP today.

On October 19, we’re helping Bruce Mau Design warm their new home at King and Spadina. Bruce and Uffe will be chatting about design, sustainability and creating positive social change. You can watch the live video stream starting at about 7 pm here.

Who is Uffe? We’re glad you asked. Uffe (pronounced Oo-feh) Elbaek is – among many things – the founder of the KaosPilot School of Business Design and Social Innovation, the CEO of this past summer’s World Outgames in Copenhagen, and a former city councilor in Aarhus. He is also MASS LBP’s first Senior Visiting Associate. We’re delighted to have him with us in Toronto while he works on his new book, Change the Game.

Also upcoming:
You can hear Peter, Uffe and sustainable design thinker John Thackara speak at the Halifax Four Days of Design Festival, October 21 to 24.  Peter will also be in Vancouver speaking at the Gaining Ground Summit, October 20, 2pm to 4:30pm presenting recent work during a session called The Politics of Decision-making for Sustainability.

Vendor of Record
On October 9, we received great news: MASS LBP has been granted official VOR status with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. We are now pre-qualified to provide the ministry and its agencies with a range of services. 

We have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with clients throughout the province who have trusted and encouraged us and shared our vision for engaging citizens. This designation will allow us to continue our work to create a stronger, smarter relationship among health service providers, planners and the public.

MASS LBP Learning
In November, MASS LBP will launch a brand new professional development series, which brings to a very different kind of classroom everything we’ve been learning about how the public can be engaged in developing successful public policy. 

The first workshop on November 20, Designing Great Public Engagement Programs, will shake up any old ideas you have about working and communicating with the general public. Get under the hood of some of the latest methodologies for engagement employees, citizens and stakeholders and learn important facilitation tools that any organization can use.

For information or to register, contact Chris Ellis.

MASS TALK No. 7
Les Klein of Quadrangle Architects kicked off our fall MASS Talks with his inspirational plan for perhaps the most controversial stretch of highway in Toronto: the Gardiner Expressway.
 


What was a visionary infrastructure project, the Gardiner is now plagued by crumbling concrete, falling ice and vehicle-launching bumps. Cries of “Tear it down!” have been heard far and wide. When it comes to the Gardiner, Klein thinks that Torontonians are in a rut. He suggests that we need to be thinking differently.

His Green Ribbon proposal calls for an elevated public park standing over seven kilometers of busy highway traffic. The lush carbon-absorbing park space will be accessible to pedestrians via cyclist-friendly pathways. Says Klein, “There is something fundamental to human society about creating great space.”

MASS Reads
For fans of Negri and Hardt's Empire and Multitude, Christmas comes early. Commonwealth, published this month, completes the trilogy that began in 2000 and catapulted the two political philosophers to fame. Commonwealth confronts the dualism that defines political life: the separation between the public and private realms. They argue that this caricature ignores the promise of the "commons": a third category subject to neither corporate ownership nor state regulation, but a likely basis for establishing a new, democratic covenant in a rapidly globalizing world.



Also:
Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin with a foreword by Calvin Trillin, this book about a small NYC eatery famous for its menu of 900 dishes and willingness to kick out its customers is profound and profane in equal measures. Buy five.

MASS Shorts
Please, sir, can I have some more? Copyright on books and other printed materials can last as long as 100 years, creating orphan books that cannot be digitized and therefore used by public institutions. 

Share and share alike. With the accelerating decline of the newspaper (and the news industry in general), finding ways to save pennies is a top priority for media companies. Sharing news resources and content is quickly becoming a way to ease the burden of getting the story. Next time you’re watching a CBC business show, you may actually be  “watching” the National Post….

Best known to U.S. audiences from their appearance in the documentary Helvetica, Experimental Jetset’s iconic print work makes us drool. Settle in and watch this lecture with two E-J principals hosted by the Walker Art Centre. Anyone we know want to bring them to Toronto?

Theatre as a tool for public engagement and health policy development? Yes, according to this abstract on the use of theatre to educate citizens and stimulate empathy (By subscription).

There are no coupons for governments. Finding efficiencies during tough times has states scrambling to pay bills and balance the books, but according to a new report from DEMOS, “Getting more for less: Efficiency in the public sector,” finding the kinds of efficiencies that really add up will requires a mental shift. Extending their work on personalization, they argue for building public services around people rather than structures.  

|M| The MASS Bulletin is produced monthly by MASS LBP.
      Regular Writer: Jordan Timm; Publisher: Chris Ellis.