A Challenge to the Montreal Junto

Dear Members and Prospective Members of the Montreal Junto:

We have spoken at length about the possibility of creating a university scholarship that would fund at least part of one semester, ideally a whole year, of someone’s attendance at a university in Montreal. I wanted to explore that possibility a little more with this post, and get your input on the idea.

We can make a big difference.

As a group, we are able collectively to make a difference in the lives of many people. The situation in Montreal is excellent relative to other areas of the world – education is relatively inexpensive, food and shelter are affordable, and the streets are essentially safe. But it is by no means perfect.

Together we have immense power: all that is waiting is for that power to be exercised. We must not view the exercise of that power as a mere possibility to be discussed, analysed, and imagined. Instead, it must be viewed as a responsibility. As human beings, one of our myriad defining characteristics is our capacity to support those in our communities and help them to achieve their potential.

As educated, diverse, relatively-wealthy members of our community, we are better-placed than just about anyone to pool our resources and exercise our responsibility.

We are ready.

The concept of the Junto is simple: build slowly a group of individuals that are committed to community, problem solving, learning, and doing. From there, work actively on projects relating to those commitments.

The idea for a Junto scholarship, tied inexorably to the community commitment that embodies this group, was raised before the Junto’s first meeting, back in June of 2008. At that time Nicolas and I thought that it was too early to consider making that kind of commitment since we had yet to establish that our concept would even work. Over the course of the intervening months, however, I believe that we have demonstrated the feasibility of the Montreal Junto concept.

The posts of other bloggers that I put up recently, such as this one, demonstrate again the power of our group’s loose, non-hierarchical structure to complete creative, valuable projects. We are missing one last ingredient: commitment.

Call for action.

I invite all members to examine whether they are committed to the core values of the Montreal Junto. Are you ready to learn, solve, and give back? Are you ready to act? Are you ready to make a real, tangible difference instead of simply talking about it once per month?

I hereby challenge all members and prospective members of the Montreal Junto to commit to making a difference. Let’s build a university scholarship together and help get someone an education.

How it would work.

Funding for the scholarship would be established through membership dues. As full members of the Montreal Junto, you would be entitled to attend meetings, preside over meetings, and participate in the direction of the group. The quid on that set of rights would be the commitment that you would be making to your community.

Membership would be based on an annual collection and responsibility for the bank account into which dues are deposited would be given to two or more Members. Upon collection of membership dues each year, those funds would be pledged to the university scholarship in a formal, legally-binding way.

Membership dues of $50 per year, with just ten members, would allow the creation of a named scholarship at a university such as Concordia. With more members the dues could be reduced or the value of the scholarship increased. The point, and the value, here, is in the action and the show of commitment.