Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[Marie]

Can you please post the ANC minutes for September-October-November?

Thanks.
Marie

[Gregg Edwards]

Dear Marie,

Current drafts -- to appear soon.

Your question is right on point, and thank you for asking it. It is a concern several of the commissioners have been fretting about. Not only you but everybody deserves an answer on where we are at.

The drafts the commission had at our last meetings were 30 to 50 pages long and contained many ambiguities/inaccuracies -- too long and messy for publication.

Jack McKay is preparing a short version which I hope will be published on the ANC website after approval January 10th.


We’ve heard complaints, and are beginning to respond with large improvements.

The commission is just beginning a major upgrade of our communications. This has been my highest priority since I joined four months ago. Partly because my opponent, Matt Silverman, ran such a professional campaign, we stirred up a higher level of interest in the ANC. Both of us heard many demands for improvement.

My take on complaints was that the #1 first step is to improve communications, and especially to make them two-way, and based on easy access to the facts. Todd Kutyla in his November campaign raised similar issues, making communications his #1 point for improving ANC1D. Jack McKay, of course, has been the champion communicator; like it or not, his monthly newsletter informs his constituents, and lets them know exactly where he is coming from.

Jack McKay and I have been working hard in close collaboration to introduce many improved functions for the whole commission. The other commissioners (both old and newly elected) have been quite supportive, so I expect we will see much progress soon.


Public Address System -- to help accessibility for all comers.

First off, I heard that at big meetings some people could not hear. They could not hear each other nor follow the discussion. After many difficulties (some the object of ridicule in the last City Paper), a Public Address system with three mics was bought and used in the last meeting.


High quality recordings speed up and allow more accurate documentation.

Next, details of what was said (especially by neighbors commenting from the audience) were too often unintelligible on the cassette tape recordings. The commission adopted the recording system that had evolved over many years by All-Ways Mt Pleasant where the main point of the monthly meetings is discussion by all. For a few meetings, I brought the AMP recording system.

At the last ANC meeting, the commission had its own -- a MiniDisc stereo recorder. Details of what happened in a meeting are now much easier to follow and document. This should greatly speed up documentation of the meeting so that those not present can follow the discussion.

Details to be published on the web and by print in the library.

I’ve suggested, with informal but apparently unanimous support, that the commission publish both the minutes (which should be "minute") and Proceedings -- a more detailed record of the content and arguments. Both should be published on the ANC website, and made available at the MTP branch library. For several years I used this approach at my church to engage what was a divided Board, so I think it might work in the larger and more “diverse” population in ANC1D.

This is no cure-all. Many MtP residents do not have a computer, and many cannot make the meetings. The library is only open 40 hours a week. We will likely need to work harder to reach the larger community. For example, we could print extra copies to be lent out by the library. Given our limited budget (especially after core expenses) of only a hundred or so dollars a month, we cannot afford to hire translators for our French, Spanish, and Vietnamese residents. just to mention a few of the roughly 100 languages spoken here. We might pay for the translation of just the minutes into Spanish, but that likely depends on the costs.

This upgrade should greatly improve access to following and participating in the dialog. Again, implementation has so far been largely by Jack McKay, with me acting as a technical advisor.


Next, an upgraded website?
In its December meeting, the commission voted several hundred dollars to renovate (and pay back bills) for its web-site. Jack McKay and I were appointed to a committee to start implementation. Commissioner-elect Rich Wysocki is an experienced sysadmin and has agreed to help almost immediately. He is enthusiastic about the proposal I sketched for upgrading our web presence into a distributed network of sites, based on relatively inexpensive open-source software. (The software is free, and even though both he and I are old programmers, we undoubtedly will need help with the systems integration.)

Many MtP residents work with comm and groupware systems that are years and years ahead of what we can now afford. We have sketched some stretchy goals on top of some initially easy first improvements. Rich and I agree that implementation of even standard practices from tech savvy corporations will take years for us to implement, given our small budget. I’m starting to informally talk with other ANCs about partnering (donating money and volunteer time) for a common core code.

Certainly, we have bigger issues to deal with, but at least some of our volunteer time can be usefully invested in adopting the cheaper and more useful innovations.

Sorry...
that there have been delays. But help is on the way.

Respectfully,
Gregg Edwards

[jack]

[Marie]

Thanks to both of you for such a thorough response.

That presents an interesting question. In January, will the new commissioners be allowed to approve meeting minutes in which they had no part? If they are not allowed (since they didn't participate to know whether or not they are accurate), will there be enough to vote the minutes in without them?

Marie

[jack]