A successful charter school does more than educate and train children: it unites a community. That is the keynote of this bulletin, an edited version of remarks delivered at a luncheon by one of the founders of a charter school in Albany, New York. It describes the process of creating one particular charter school and the lessons learned from the process. The process involved interviewing and gathering support from parents in the community dissatisfied with their local school district. Input from parents resulted in the creation of a framework complete with goals, benchmarks, and meaningful expectations. With such a framework, the founders of the school applied for a charter with the state of New York. Within 10 days of their application being approved, they had registered some 850 students to fill 550 slots. The principal lessons gained were: (1) facilitating change is difficult; and (2) sometimes one cannot wait for change but must act to institute it oneself. (Contains a list of reports and bulletins available from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.) (WFA)