Change alive and well in the Sault

[Gerry Kirk]

<cue Donna Ross> I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...

Lots of action happening in the Sault. First, to get you all up to date:

• write-up on the inaugural ChangeCamp Sault one day event
• one month later (end of July), a World Café event to keep the juices flowing

Both events were energizing and dynamic. People are wanting to get more involved, liking these open, participatory ways to meet and organize.

Now, I have a chance to help launch a series of events leading up to the municipal election at the end of October, and I'm thinking about how to go about this. What I'd like to do is:

• Help election candidates and the community better understand what the priorities are from the community. There doesn't seem to be a clear sense of what they are according to the mayoral candidates I've spoken with.
• Identify top priorities in the community to inform electoral candidates and the public.
• Move from traditional combative debate events to open, participatory ones as a way for candidates and citizens to get to know each other.
• Get people involved in local politics, and in this election, feeling that their participation makes a difference.
• Continue building the change movement.

I'm envisioning holding a series of events, one per ward (region) and / or topic-based. A lot will depend on the response by the community to help organize these things. There are already 3 or 4 topic debates that happen, so I may reach out to those groups to transform those events as a starting point. Much more thought needed.

Work done in this election has a *real* potential to turn into an ongoing investment in community grassroots activism, funded by the City of Sault Ste. Marie, as well as introducing new ways of collaborating to the bureaucracy in how they do their work. 

Open to ideas, suggestions. I need to move fast as these events will have to happen in September.

- Gerry

--
blog | contact / social networks | schedule / book time

[Michael Allan]

This is a long shot Gerry, but here's an idea for online
participation. I have two examples, the first in Toronto:
http://rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/why-school-board-elections-are-important

That was an attempt to spark a participatory debate on a school
trustee issue. A better example of the overall method (but still a
clumsy application) is this provincial policy debate:
http://rabble.ca/babble/western-provinces/possible-strategy-ginger-group-bc-new-democrats

We just started developing the method, and documenting it here:
http://u.zelea.com/w/User:Mike-ZeleaCom/Discussion_refit
http://u.zelea.com/w/User:Mike-ZeleaCom/Guerilla_gardening

OTOH, I'm not sure an election would be a good atmosphere to explore
any kind of paticipatory approach. It's rare for an electoral debate
to focus sufficiently on concrete issues that people might grapple
with them in any meaningful way. You'd definitely be swimming against
the tide of expectations, in that regard. (Midterm is perhaps better,
with debates focued more on pending bylaw issues.)

And there isn't much time, as you mention. But if you're looking for
ideas, that's one. And I can help if you need more info,
--
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/

[Gerry Kirk]

Hi Michael,

I appreciate you taking the time to share some ideas with me. Since I posted this, I've made good progress on a format. First off, my focus is on off-line participation, because one of my goals is to re-build community by connecting people. 

Attached is a rough draft of a plan I have, which uses a combination of World Café, and two Innovation Games: Remember the Future and Prune the Product Tree. I'm getting some help from Games for Democracy in designing the event.

Happy to share more, and hear what others think.

- Gerry

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChangeCamp Canada" group.
To post to this group, send email to chang...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to changecamp+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/changecamp?hl=en.

--