I was never much of a joiner. As a kid I didn't even play organized sports. But now, suddenly, I've joined.
I belong to a few cultural organizations, but once my kids started school and day care, there was a whole new level of joining to be done. That's when I'd say I really became a joiner.
Right away, I got involved at school. But I didn't run for PTO office and I asked our principal to ask me again next year to join the school governance council. I didn't want to overdo it right away and burn out.
Last week, I was asked to sit on the board of the day care one of my kids attends. I agreed. The fact is, I want my kid to be in a safe, secure, fun and educational environment and I'll do what I can to ensure that.
Control freak? Guilty as charged.
Today I became one of our school's two members of Milwaukee Public Schools' District Advisory Council.
According to an MPS mailing, the DAC is made up of two parents from each Milwaukee Public School.
"The primary purpose of the DAC," says the letter, "is to work towards equipping parents with tools needed to assist their children."
It's pretty vague, so I really have no idea what to expect, beyond a monthly evening meeting on Vliet Street. But, I figure if I'm going to sit here and throw stones, I'd better spend some time over in the glass house and hopefully contribute to making some progress while there.
Then, I hope to take that experience back to the school, where I expect it will give me a little more experience for next year when I join the governance council.
Now that I have kids there, what happens at MPS is more than newspaper and political oneupsmanship fodder for me. If you have kids there, you know it, too.
Rather than for altruistic reasons, I've joined because -- like you -- I want the best for my kids. But I'll be just one of many people at these meetings, so it's hard to say how much input I'll have and since it's unclear what the DAC actually does, who knows if we'll do anything useful at all.
But I sure hope so.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
