EugeneDNA endorses party

Comment

Comment by Greg Bryant on June 12, 2008 at 12:23pm

We've moved discussion of the Bloc Party over to Downtown Gossip. There's a site map, and an explanation by Tom.

Comment by Charles Hollands on June 10, 2008 at 12:23pm

Liz, There is in fact still an open at-large position on the Steering Committee.
I think the more concerned one is about the process, the more important it is for one to participate in it. To that end, you can nominate yourself for the remaining seat at the next general meeting. If you are unable to attend that meeting, I would gladly nominate you myself.

The last general meeting was our first as a fully valid N.A., and we had not only a large enthusiastic turnout, an array of relevant and informative speakers, but we also had a motion from the general membership put to the floor and voted upon.
Given all that, I think its easy to forget that we've only JUST started doing this, and still have plenty of work ahead of us as we gradually figure out how this process is to best work for us.

I think going forward it will prove our health when members continue to attend and participate with enthusiasm, to suggest relevant, interesting speakers, to put motions to the floor for the general membership, and seek to guide and speak for the group via the Steering Committee.

Comment by Tom Kamis on June 9, 2008 at 11:24am

Liz, You seem to want to be involved in the process. Would you like to be on the steering committee?

Comment by Greg Bryant on June 7, 2008 at 11:53am

Yes, I also find our inability to edit posts, to be irksome. I'll look into it. Maybe this feature will be available in the discussion section.

Comment by Liz on June 7, 2008 at 11:19am

Greg, will do, let me think about how I want to open the discussion. I also wanted to clarify something in my hastily-written last post, since the software doesn't seem to allow me to edit it: I didn't mean to in any way imply that Isaac was somehow being negligent. I think Isaac is doing a great job, and his explanation that he only contacted people who indicated that they wanted to serve on the Steering Committee was completely reasonable.

Comment by Greg Bryant on June 6, 2008 at 11:03pm

The general membership can vote, to bestow or limit any power to the Steering Committee. If everyone is aware of this, then it is deeply democratic.

So, if at the next meeting, someone says: "I move to stop the SC from making any endorsements whatsoever", then it's up to the membership to decide. This might be revisited at a later date. That's democracy.

Shall we move this over to a "discussion" thread on the "forum"? Something like "powers of the steering committee: motions for the next meeting"? Please feel free to "start a discussion" in the middle column. We need to see how well the software works! :-)

Comment by Liz on June 6, 2008 at 7:53pm

Sorry, Greg, I don't agree. The purpose of the Steering Committee is to not to unilaterally make decisions or statements on behalf of the general membership without obtaining input first. Allowing a subsequent "retraction" of a fait accompli is mere lip service to democratic process.

Some of the irony here is that although Steering Committee meetings are open to the general membership, Isaac never sent out a general notice about that first Steering Committee meeting. I found out about it earlier that day because I went into the Neighborhood Association offices and asked about it, but I had another engagement. I think this issue should be brought up at the July meeting.

Comment by Shelly Richardson on June 6, 2008 at 2:30pm

Wow, What a great web site.

shelly

Comment by Greg Bryant on June 6, 2008 at 1:47pm

Hi Liz,

Completely valid points.

I just modified the post, to say that we endorsed the block party at the Steering Committee meeting in May.

This was something Tom Kamis of Davis' asked for, and the rest of us thought aloud: "as a steering committee, do we want to endorse things?" Our collective answer was "yes, we want to use endorsement as a way to involve the membership in downtown initiatives."

The membership also issues endorsements at the General Meeting ... which we did (Mary Leighton's proposal that the City materially helps clean downtown in preparation for the Olympics).

I think at the next general meeting, the steering committee should ask the membership "is our endorsement policy ok?". I think the steering committee endorsements should be subject to retraction by the general membership, for example. But it is really convenient for the steering committee to endorse something quickly, in order to involve the organization in new initiatives.

At the moment, there's an "any activity is good" view among lots of people downtown. I don't fall into that camp, although I'm enthusiastic about many things. I think the interest shown, at the meeting last night, indicates that as downtown becomes increasing active, there will be a highly interactive community political force.

For example, Tom will definitely read your comment about the party itself, and I think he'll address your concerns here. I myself have concerns: will there be gates, for example? What area will be blocked off?

(By the way, congratulations on making the first comment!)

Comment by Liz on June 6, 2008 at 12:59pm

Greg, nice job with the website. I was wondering why you were taking photos at the meeting! But I don't remember DNA "endorsing" BBP, only that the party was announced. In fact, I don't think DNA was involved at all in the planning of BBP, and to be honest, as a downtown resident, I am somewhat ambivalent about it and I wish I had been included in the planning process.

For example, I don't even know how late it will run, what kind of crowd control measures will be in effect, where the stage will be, etc. I think it's misleading to state on our website that our neighborhood association supports something which was never actually discussed by its members.