Mostly for BETH: Sometimes I have sympathy for the councils prior to this one. They operated pretty much in a vacuum with a majority apathetic public. They had little support and little public engagement. I know Luc Poulin and others were trying very hard to change this but were faced with tremendous apathy. Not counting of course those horrifying contentious times. Things since Chelsea Folks have changed the landscape. Councillors now have opinions from the public regularly.Thank you Elaine. When I think of the previous councils I think as much as it made many councillors frustrated, it also gave council the grand opportunity to pretty much operate in that vacuum and that oddly enough made life a whole lot easier for them. No one was really asking them questions or looking at procedure or challenging them on a regular basis. Things have definitely changed. If anyone on council thinks the internet is going away any time soon, it isnt. Welcome to the new world. Not only do they have opinions from their wards what they also need to have is not only opinions but support from all of us. Bruce Langer is brilliant in his analysis of why things like the Markhauser project just BOOM hits us all unexpectedly. Its about process. It may always have been so. Barb Martin was vilified by some for bringing this to the attention of us all. Had she not, exactly how were we going to know? Really? I support any councillor, right wrong or indifferent for having and expressing an opinion. Even if I disagree with it. That is democracy. A long time ago, (when was that bloody election anyway?) we all went through hell here on this list learning a lot. But we all survived. Some won. Some lost. We survived. Elizabeth Macfie has asked us, as communication officer what can be done to make things better. At that time, and now, Im advocating that Councillors need assistants. The workload they have is phenomenal. The issues they are now dealing with are complex. We have good councillors. They need help with the mundane stuff. That is what they need. So Elizabeth, this is my two cents. Bruce has probably already thought of this of course. A volunteer from each ward collects the e-mail addresses of their people and phone numbers for those who hate technology. That volunteer runs that list and prior to every meeting each councillor can send out an e-mail with the agenda highlighting what they feel is pertinent on that agenda to their ward members. They then solicit peoples opinions through Luc Poulins ward Facebook page by using a survey program. This does two things: Councillors can rest assured they have peoples opinions and are not operating in a vacuum, and Residents can actually participate. With the busy stressful lives of many, its not easy for people to make meetings but new technology has eliminated that problem. It just needs to be taken advantage of. That Beth is my two cents. For now. Chelsea Folks is already a one-of-a-kind forum making history in my humble opinion. Lets get on the bandwagon and make all our lives easier. This way we dont end up with all these oh my heavens what is happening now surprises. Dear heavens. The technology is there. It is easy. ANd our councillors need our support to make the best decisions. And its time we stopped operating in the dark ages. Chelsea Folks is making history with the democratic process. Lets expand it. This is one idea for a start. End of long rant. Im still mulling over my thoughts on the Markhauseer project. Heres that website that makes surveys easy and anonymous: https://change.org
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 00:35:24 +0000
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