Good evening, fellow travelers!
After fearing walking through the door of the Friends Room on Saturday and seeing only a few people, I can't tell you how moved I was to see a room packed with people from one side to the other! With eighty people in attendance, coming from all the corners of Georgetown, engaging in lively discussion, brainstorming ideas, working together for the common good....I left that day with a spring in my step that had been missing for some little while! Thank you to everyone who helped me with my "spring."
For those of you who couldn't make it on Saturday, don't worry! There will be plenty of opportunities to share your energy, your expertise, and your ideas. After some spirited and (hopefully) informative Q & A, everyone broke up into committees to address the areas that we felt needed the most attention. These committees are:
This committee will be doing the nuts & bolts work that is at the heart of this issue, seeking answers to questions that have been posed by councilmembers and the public. If you are someone who loves delving into information and numbers, then this is the committee for you!
This committee will be engaged in educating our community about this issue, including the councilmembers, students, Sun City, business-owners, civic groups and clubs, churches, and more. If your head is already brimming with ideas for how this can be done, then this group could use your help.
This committee moves quickly! They are already working out the details of holding a forum on the Lone Star issue in Sun City, with councilmembers and their constituents in attendance, but they can use more volunteers to get this idea from concept to reality. If you are the kind of person who likes to work with others to influence public policy, then contact Carl ASAP. This committee might be meeting again this Saturday.
*** We had discussed forming a Grassroots/Political Committee on Saturday, but, from what I can tell, this committee was not formed at this time. If I am incorrect, and you are on this committee, please let me know!
I really enjoyed hosting this meeting, and am looking forward to seeing what can and will be done. Here are my suggestions for what we should all be doing, right now:
1) Sign up for a committee
2) Write a Letter-to-the-Editor or Editorial to our local publications that accept them.
3) If you ride a train anytime soon, take a picture of yourself, then send a copy to your councilperson with your questions about their vote, or a comment about how you hope they will get us "back on track."
4) Stay in contact with your council representative, and hold them to the same standards to which they are holding Lone Star supporters. Ask them to support any concerns they say they have, or assertions that they make, with proof. If they say they think the costs will be too much, ask them to provide the research that supports their claim....
5) Talk, talk, talk! (In person and on social media.) Help raise awareness of this issue by discussing it with your neighbors, friends, co-workers, business-owners of the shops and restaurants you frequent, with your book club, whomever!
There are 150 people on this e-mail list. So, if each of us does just two or three things on this list, we can do so much to influence the conversation around this issue, and make sure that we Keep Georgetown On Track. You will also make sure that I keep that "spring in my step!" ;-)
Up-way-too-late-but-it's-worth-it!
Rachael
