A very short entry today to give kudos to city staff for moving forward an issue that is near and dear to my heart: effective community engagement.

I’m particularly heartened by the objectives that have been set for the working group - in my opinion the group is starting from the right grounding, which is more than half the battle.  I also agree that in exercises like this the process (and the culture change that accompanies good process) is just as if not more important than the destination.  I’m also obvioulsy pleased that the community will be engaged in the development of the community engagement policy, and hope some creative forms of engagement will be used/piloted when garnering that feedback from the public.

Looks like the working group is on a timeline that will ensure the next Council will have a policy in place that will allow it to tap into the collective knowledge of the community, which is an invaluable resource to augment the expert advice of city staff.

With an Open Data pilot project also moving forward, I think all of us that agitate on the sidelines of city politics should take pause and recognize that when a good case is made, change can indeed happen. Both of these initiatives are still in their infancy, but I know there are community champions that want to see both through, and there are also champions within City Hall - politicians, and civic administrators - that are enthusiastic to take action on both of these fronts.  So congrats to all, and I’m really looking foward to seeing both initiatives come to fruition.