WIHS

Waiheke Island Historical Society

P O Box 206, Ostend, Waiheke Island, New Zealand


Membership Meeting, 8 October 2007, 7PM

Featured guest speaker: Dr. Michael A. Trick

Social Capital, Organisations, and Waiheke
or, WHY IS NO ONE COMING TO MY MEETING?

The Waiheke Island Historical Society invites all members and interested parties to a membership meeting on Monday, October 8th, 2007, 7:00 PM at the Historic Village on Onetangi Straight near the Golf Course.

Social capital, the value we get from repeated interactions with each other, is the glue that makes society work. It is all about the people! But, worldwide, social capital is disintegrating, making organizations smaller and society less cohesive. The result is the widespread death of community groups, a great decrease in social interaction, and a general isolation of individuals. What is causing these changes? Is Waiheke immune to these changes? And, once these trends are recognized, what should organizations do?

Michael Trick is a Hood Fellow and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, living on Waiheke in 2007. His home base is at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, where he is Professor of Operations Research, the science of decision making. He has consulted extensively for Major League Baseball, the United States Postal Service, and many companies on scheduling and resource issues. His interest in social capital came about in 2002 when he was elected president of INFORMS, a professional society of 12,000 members. Since three years earlier INFORMS had 14,000 members, he wondered where 2,000 people went. This talk is the result of his research on the broad trends in professional and community organizations.

Mark your calendars!

 

Michael Trick