NCDD Members Network

Round 2 Community Forums run Feb 21 - March 22, 2009

3:03 AM on Feb. 16, 2009

Hello everyone,

Time again for another update on the Countywide Community Forums of King County, in Washington State.The county auditor has approved our next open "participation window" to be February 21 through March 22, 2009. Self selected Citizen Councilors (anyone who lives or works in King County) are signing up to host, or attend, distributed small-group public meetings across the county on the topic of "Citizen Priorities for County Government: Budget and Strategic Options"

Materials have been approved and are printed for distribution to Citizen Councilor Hosts. A copy of all materials, approved by the King County Auditor, can be found on the official government website for this project: http://KingCounty.gov/operations/auditor/CommunityForums/topics

The whole project is funded WITHOUT tax dollars -- with only donations and grants from civic-minded individuals, businesses, and foundations (the only underwriter so far is my familys local restaurant chain: Dicks Drive-In Restaurants.) An example of the partnership capable between business, non-profits, and government.

A registration and meeting management website was recently enhanced to give Citizen Councilors the ability to make meeting reservations and locate convenient meetings anywhere in the county using a cool new map mashup. The website is at http://www.CommunityForums.org

And recently, the International Association for Public Participation (http://iap2.org) published an article in their December 2008 eNews letter about our work here in Seattle: http://www.iap2.org/associations/4748/files/08December_eNewsCivicEngagementinSeattle.pdf

Finally, the local Public Broadcast affiliate (http://www.kcts9.org/video/countywide-community-forums) has released a streaming video it helped produce that is being distributed to all hosts and guests attending Countywide Community Forums. The stream is embedded here for those who are interested in reviewing the 20-minute topic video that all Citizen Councilors will be watching.

Thanks everyone for reading my update. If you have any questions about our process, please leave a message for me at the phone number for our project: 206-296-1633

Regards,
John Spady
Seattle, Washington