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Community Conversations, Golden, B.C.

Posted Mon, 11/25/2013 - 18:13

This Wednesday, I'll be facilitating the second in a series of public Community Conversations in Golden, B.C.

https://www.facebook.com/events/435744943203534

This is a great initiative by Golden's Mayor and councillors, supported by the Columbia Basin Trust.  Over this fall and winter, these once-monthly lunchtime conversations will explore a range of questions, everything from "What does quality of life mean to you?" to "How do you measure value for money?" to "What does it take to be a good citizen?"  Community Conversations are a way for Golden residents to explore, face-to-face, the questions that matter to their community, and provide ideas and input directly to their elected representatives.

Since I believe so strongly in the value and effectiveness of democracy in small towns, this facilitation assignment is a natural fit for me.  We had a great turnout in October, and we're hoping to pack the house this Wednesday!

Long-term accountability

Posted Sun, 11/17/2013 - 15:46

As you may recall, I kept my "election" pages visible throughout my service on council.  I've always felt that every elected representative should be accountable long-term for what they said when they were campaigning.

Now that this site has been revamped to concentrate on my facilitation work, the button for "election" has disappeared.  But the archived pages remain, and can be seen at http://www.lataylor.com/election

When I look back at those pages, I see some things that I was able to move forward, and other areas where I failed to be persuasive enough to make change happen.  Reminding myself of my original goals puts my council service into perspective for me.  Goals have a tendency to morph in our minds over time -- having them in their original written form makes for a ruthlessly accurate personal check-in.

An exciting project in Calgary

Posted Sat, 11/09/2013 - 16:29

I just saw this link on Facebook:

http://everydaytourist.ca/blog/2013/11/5/yahoooo-the-grid-is-back

and I have to say that I share the writer's excitement.  I'm on contract with one of the consulting firms, working with this project as the facilitator for a couple of their interactive design concept sessions.  My sense is that the tremendous expertise and the positive spirit of collaboration that I'm seeing in those sessions are going to translate into a truly great community design: green, walkable, liveable, transit-friendly.  It's exciting to be helping this process happen!

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