"Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it."
Martha Gellhorn

On Wednesday, I'll be in Golden for the latest Community Conversation.  This one will examine what it takes to be a good citizen, and will challenge all participants to find the ways we can be good citizens in 2014. 

I love this topic, because it's one I think about a lot.  In a time when so many fail to carry out even the most basic duty of a citizen -- the duty to vote -- it's inspiring to think about the people who do so much more than the basics.  Reading about issues, providing input to decisions, volunteering on committees, working in support of candidates, offering themselves as candidates for election:  the people who do these things are guardians of democracy. 

As the Emily Fund website says:  "Be a hero for a better world".

On Thursday, I facilitated the 16th annual Banff National Park plannning forum. 

Even though this was my seventh straight year with the forum, there were a couple of "firsts" involved.  This was the first session following a new approach to the forum, where the format will alternate between an evening-only session (in odd-numbered years) and the full evening-plus-day session (in even-numbered years).  Last year's "Future of the Forum" discussion landed on this approach, and it seems to have been well accepted, with standing room only in the Harkin Hall.  This was also the first planning forum for Melanie Kwong, the new superintendent of Yoho/Kootenay/Lake Louise field unit, and it was great to meet her and to work with her for the first time, as well as working again with Banff field unit superintendent Dave McDonough.

You can see the Year in Review, plus the summaries of past planning fora (!) at this link:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/banff/plan/gestion-management.aspx

Whenever I facilitate at the planning forum, I am reminded all over again of what the Bow Valley Roundtable process, two decades ago, did for us as a community.  It created a norm of having all viewpoints in the room at once, and a protocol that required listening and responding to points of view that were not your own.  That sounds pretty basic, but we had a bit of a history of "like talking to like" here in the valley, and it broke us out of that.  The planning forum continues the tradition.  There are often points of disagreement, but at least people hear the other sides of a discussion, and find points of agreement where they are available.

It is easy to remain convinced of your point of view if you chat only with like-minded people.  It's healthy for all of us to hear and listen to those whose point of view is different from our own. 

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!

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.

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!