Howard County wants to spread civility fever to a larger audience.
In the next year, organizers of the program want to strengthen the campaign on the local level before spreading the concept to the state and national level. The plans were unveiled last week during a news conference that attracted a slew of community leaders and residents.
"It's going beyond what we expected," said Valerie Gross, chief executive officer of the county library, which is leading the effort. "It's become a hallmark."
The organizers plan to offer civility workplace assessment and training; a civility speaker's bureau; youth civility training; and special events such as lessons on how to practice civility in politics.
The Choose Civility program has a Choose Civility Week, a Choose Civility Symposium that attracts 500 community leaders and residents; an awards ceremony; workshops; book discussions; and events that regularly attract authors of civility-related books.
The initiative gained traction in the county in 2006 after P.M. Forni, a Johns Hopkins professor, appeared at the library's staff development day. Forni wrote Choose Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct. As a result, the library sponsored a series of civility-related events and ordered 60,000 "Choose Civility" car magnets. Since then, 40,000 have been distributed.
Gross hopes to further promote the campaign through posters, bookmarks, screen savers, stationery and the magnets. She said she has received questions about the movement from as far away as British Columbia.
"We want to be a model of civility," Gross said.
The campaign has raised more than $52,000 in funding. Gross wants to strengthen the movement through a partnership with 50 community groups such as Howard Community College, the county public school system, the county government and the Chamber of Commerce.
"Civility is critical to a higher quality of life," Gross said.
Organizers are considering revising the Choose Civility logo and issuing a new version of the car magnet.
"We may keep those as they are because they are so recognizable," said Christy Lassen, a library spokeswoman. "We certainly don't want to change it so much that people don't know what it is anymore. What you see now will most likely remain the same."
