City council and civil conversation

Thu Dec 18 11:20:03 PST 2003

Hi Gabriel and Florian:

I have had a number of experiences opening space with local political
leaders in British Columbia.  Most recently I gathered with mayors,
councilors First Nations Chiefs and councilors from local governments in
the Cariboo region of British Columbia, a region that is mostly
dependant on ranching and logging for it’s economic base, and where
First Nations issues are heavily dealt with.  

The meeting was a follow up to a regional visioning Open Space we did
there last year, an event which itself spawned four follow up workshops.
In the OST meeting of a couple of weeks ago, it was just politicians,
and the question put to them was, as political leaders, what do we need
to do right now with each other?  

There were some good projects started, but what was even greater was the
depth of conversation.  Here we had Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
leaders regarding each other as colleagues and trying to figure out what
they needed each other for – and answering the question.

One of the most poignant groups had a discussion about trust and racism,
resulting in one of the mayors admitting that he always felt intimidated
when he had to meet with First Nations groups and leaders and that this
posture of his translates into society to almost endorse a sense of
mistrust between the groups.  He declared that he wanted to do something
to address this, both personally and publicly and among other ideas,
declared that the local councils should get together and buy space on a
billboard on the highway that goes through town and put the pictures of
all the six or seven local mayors and chiefs with a slogan like “Working
together in the Cariboo” for all to see.

This was a truly amazing moment for many people.  Picture a typical
western North America town, with real cowboys and Indians who have had a
series of complicated relationship about the land and each other for 100
years.  Picture the real racism, the poverty and the struggle.  Five
years ago when I first started really working in the Cariboo the idea of
a mayor and a Chief appearing together on a billboard would have been
political suicide (for both of them!).  Now people are starting to
recognize that without that kind of statement, nothing will change, and
all the people in the region will be poorer for it.  Remarkable.

Local government is the most accessible level of government.  People can
easily get into it and get elected and when they do there is often a
change that comes over them as they struggle to “play the role” of a
mayor or a councilor or a Chief.  But they are still community members,
and for the most part still the same people they were before the
election.  Opening space to help them remain human and to connect to the
other humans in their community is a great act of citizen engagement.
When local politicians get it, it really hums.

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Gabriel Shirley
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 3:45 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: City council and civil conversation

Hi Florian,

It's been a long time since OSonOS Vancouver!

I just forwarded this post of yours to Robert Gilman, a local (Langley,
WA, US) friend and (hopefully) soon-to-be city council member who is
interested in doing community-wide open space as part of an ongoing
civil infrastructure. I am helping him to develop a prototype online
environment to help support the process with a design team of about 40
citizens who want to help facilitate a community vision of the future of
our town.

Thought others on the list might be interested to hear that this thread
continues on this side of the big pond as well.

Take care,

Gabriel

On Dec 17, 2003, at 12:06 PM, Florian Fischer wrote:
Am 16.12.2003 19:07 Uhr schrieb "Dominique Proudhon" unter
<dominique at DPROUDHON.COM>:

... Will get in touch with city councils around and see what happens. .

.dear all,
I`m living for some weeks at our place in southern spain.
the spring of this year I facilitated an open space
looking to the coming local elections of the district.
the space had been opened / sponsered by a new local party.
they and no one here around had never before done a meeting like this. 
in the closing circle the sponsor mentioned, that  this experience 
opens a new epoch of communication for the region.
meanwhile they have got the government in coalition with two other
parties
the party which I worked for is responsible for planning/development of
the district,
staff affairs, health and police. 
to start a general masterplan for the development there are ideas of
participation.
today I had a first contact with them.

I look forward to offer what I can.
I`ll inform you how it will go ahead.

florian

------------------
florian fischer
facilitador de desarollo
c/sta.bárbara 18
E 04115 rodalquilar/nijar
fon/fax 950. 389819
mailto:
ff at begleitung-im-wandel.com

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--
Gabriel Shirley - gabriel at bigmindmedia.com
Founder and Partner
BigMindMedia - http://bigmindmedia.com
360.221.7701

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