Gordon:
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A friend of mine once remarked that it wasn't President
Regan who was the great communicator. it was Jesus Christ who,
if he was born today, would be an IT specialist and
not a carpenter. Being responsible for the
Assumption Church's
website is a critical component of Assumption's communications. When
did you first become interested in website design and management? |
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| Ron: |
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My first website was for
Holy Name Cathedral around 1998. We had joined the parish only a year
earlier and we were talking about
“outreach” and the need for service to the large
number of visitors to Chicago who include the
Cathedral on their list of places to see.
Introducing a website seemed like a logical thing to
do. |
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Gordon:
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You also developed and support a portion of the
Chicago
Architecture Foundation's (CAF)
website which provides
interactive data services for docents (not part of
the public website), What prompted your initial
appreciation of architecture and
when did you become a docent? |
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| Ron: |
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I
joined the corps of volunteers at CAF in
1999. Organizations served by a large number of
volunteers – each with unique skills or
assignments – can create a nightmare of records. The
worst part is when those records are all “in the
office” and a volunteer wants
information while at home. A private website can
give volunteers direct access to information they
need wherever they are. |
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| Gordon: |
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Could you list your five favorite
buildings in Chicago and why there are architectural masterpieces? |
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| Ron: |
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While some people view
buildings as sculptural masterpieces, I tend to be more interested in
learning what problems the architect
was trying to solve, and what technological hurdles
were involved. So the buildings which were erected
in the 1885 – 1930 period, which
is when Chicago “gave birth to the skyscraper”, is
the most interesting to me. We have a tour which
exactly covers that period – including
the progression from the Monadnock, the Rookery, the
Marquette, and the Chapin & Gore buildings. |
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| Gordon: |
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You also conduct tours of
Millennium Park.
What are some of the most popular features
in Millennium Park? |
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Ron:
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Millennium Park is one
of my favorites because it can be so surprising. People have
expectations that a “Park” will include standard
items such askids’ swings, sliding boards, bar-b-cue
pits, etc. This park is none of those. In many
respects it is an active sculpture
garden as an extension of the Art Institute’s North
garden. The close proximity of so many monumental
sculptures, each different from the
others, provides a visual treat. The utility of the
park invites people to not only see but also to be,
to do, and to be seen. The elements of
the park are all cemented by a stream of diverse
people who enjoy it – it makes it magical. It gets
more interesting when you add the stories
of how it came to be. The focused attention of some
key people, and the structural things you don’t see
in a giant roof-top-garden. It was
“the Chicago Way” at its best. |
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| Gordon: |
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You are also the webmaster for and job coach for the
Career
Career Transitions
Center of Chicago.
What initially interested
you in job coaching?
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Ron:
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When we came to Chicago
in 1997 I had only recently retired. The bulletin at Holy Name, which
was one of the original sponsors of
the CTC, called for volunteers with work/management
experience who would like to help. I have been doing
it ever since. The predicament
faced by people without a job, or in the wrong job,
hasn’t changed. But it takes some new approaches to
solve their problems because
relationships between employees and their employers
have changed. |
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Gordon:
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Considering the difficulty that some
young people have getting jobs when they graduate, what are some of the
more
critical studies that college students should take
to be more qualified for the many technical jobs
that are available? |
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Ron:
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The most important skill for recent
graduates, as well as older workers, is effective communication! It
doesn’t matter what you can
do if you can’t explain it in a convincing way. The
second critical area is recognizing the importance
of always knowing why you are doing
whatever you are doing; who is your “customer”, how
you will know how well you are doing. Don’t tolerate
just “going through the motions”.
Of course it helps to get training in specific
work-related skills – but the details become
obsolete quickly. The first two items I cited
actually
will have greater impact. When I look back at my
college studies leading to an engineering degree – I
still think one of my most important
courses was “argumentation and debate”!" |
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| Gordon: |
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You worked for over 40 years as an
Engineer at Western Electric. What were the most rewarding experiences
you had
at Western Electric? |
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Ron:
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The rewards I enjoyed were both of the
“Macro” and the “Micro” varieties. Forty years was long enough to offer
opportunities to help
usher in major changes in technology – both in the
products and the manufacturing technologies used to
build them. The Micro rewards were
the little challenges- the one-day eruptions of
issues which required quick thinking. Through it
all, I was part of an outstanding team of people
who were focused on common objectives. |
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| Gordon: |
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When did you join Assumption Church
and what aspects of the parish would you recommend to friends who might
be
interested in joining a new parish? |
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Ron:
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We
moved from a condo on Huron Street, a short walk from Holy Name, to RiverBend, a high-rise on
Canal Street. While Assumption
was the closest church, we continued to go to Holy
Name until, by chance, we tried Assumption and loved
it. We all know why we recommend
Assumption to others; we all tell the same story
when we gather under the tent at the annual
Homecoming: our inspiring clergy, wonderful look
and feel of the church, friendly and intimate
parishioners, etc. Of course, since we only go to
the 7:30 am mass on Sundays, and the 7 am
daily mass (where I am the regular lector) it is
possible that the other masses have people who are
entirely different. But I doubt it. |
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Gordon:
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There are some older people who are
uncomfortable with some of the new media. Can you foresee a time when
some
parishes might start using Twitter, Instagram, and
other new media tools to connect with some of their
younger parishioners?
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Ron
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That is already happening. Even
Pope Francis has a twitter account. There may not be a parish-wide
dependence on social media
but individual sub-groups are already using it among
their members. Assumption has both a Facebook page
and a website. They serve
different purposes and are of value to different
people. When I offered to build a website for Holy
Name more than fifteen years ago less
than half of the churches in the archdiocese had a
web presence and the pastor wasn’t sure we needed
one. Even now I doubt that as
many as half of the Assumption parishioners have
ever looked at our website. On the other hand the
website traffic on Saturdays and
Sundays is at least three times that of the average
weekday – mostly from visitors checking location and
mass times. It is important to
match the solutions to the right problems. |
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| Gordon: |
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Thank you for a great interview and
demonstrating the valuable impact of volunteering on our parishes and
our
community. |
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