The ten teams of the Hawaii Cluster consist of Volcano, Honoka'a, Laupahoehoe, Honomu, South Hilo, South Puna, Na'alehu/Pahala, Ocean View, Ho'okena, and Kona. The teams represent a broad cross-section of the many cultural and community groups that make up the island of Hawaii. The island contains less than 10% of the population of the state of Hawaii on more than one-half of the state's land area. Community team projects include creating a number of computer resource centers, and several projects revolve around working on the Hawaii County Comprehensive Plan Revision.
Overview of Team Proposals and Processes
The Hawaii Cluster utilized technology for communication through the development of a web site which detailed the MIRA program, the workshop series, a discussion group, and links to each of the community teams. Community teams posted their comments and progress on their projects throughout the MIRA program.
The MIRA program provided an opportunity for communities located all around the island to come together for a common goal. The island of Hawaii is divided into the Hilo side and the Kona side of the island. The Hilo side of the island is the center of state government activity and the Kona side is dominated by tourism. Residents generally identify themselves with one side of the island or the other. The MIRA experience served as a catalyst for an island-wide network and support system. When faced with the issue of the attendance policy, the Hawaii Cluster as a whole gave its support to those communities who were disqualified and continually encouraged those teams to remain a part of the program and develop a community project which could receive financial support from other sources.
The Kona team has utilized the network formed through the MIRA program to provide a discussion on the county-wide comprehensive plan review. The web site provides a link to the progress on the plan, the existing comprehensive plan, and an on-line discussion of the progress. The Ocean View team is also working on the Hawaii County Comprehensive Plan, and they refer to their project as "A Vision for Ocean View."
The MIRA program for the Hawaii Cluster got off to a rough start when communication and transportation limitations created problems with attendance and tension among the Hawaii community teams. In addition, the first MIRA workshop was held in a facility with poor lighting and sound conditions. One participant commented, "the physical site, crowded conditions, and dead P. A. system put several people to sleep. We could not hear. It was difficult to see the visuals because of the light conditions." This experience at the first workshop discouraged some from attending the rest of the workshop series. Comments from various community teams indicated that teams from areas of sparse population had difficultly putting a team together for the MIRA program. The loss of interest due to the experience at the first workshop cost some of these teams their eligibility for the community team project grant.
The teams that were disqualified early on were teams that did not have access to reliable transportation and some members of the community teams did not have phone service or Internet access. These obvious barriers eliminated one team, Ho'okena, immediately from qualifying for the project grant. This incident resulted in low morale for the entire Hawaii Cluster. The attendance policy became a focal point and community teams closely monitored each other. Two teams, Ho'okena and South Puna, were not eligible for the project grant when the workshop series was complete. Some members from these teams continued to attend the workshop series and remained active.
