I’ve been rather focused this week on getting the paper I needed to get finished in order to explain the Virtual Town Hall concept and finish recruiting people for the pilot. I’ve spoken to a lot of people in principle and had some very positive noises – now is the time to actually get the detailed sorted out. I then of course had to write a two page summary document as few people will want to read the whole thing!!!
The pilots should get going in October and we are looking for 4-6 councils who are happy to join a shared project where they can learn from each other during the 12 month period as well as trying out the Virtual Town Hall idea. I am hoping to create a good mix of participants from different types of councils on a number of different criteria:
-
Type of council (District/County/Unitary etc)
-
Geographical location
-
Size
- Urban / Rural / Suburban
I’ve also been working on the initial questionnaire and one of the things which is currently exercising me is coming up with a list of formal democratic actions that I can then measure any increases in over the course of the project. So far I have:
-
Vote
- Attend a council meeting
- Attend a public meeting
-
Attend a local community meeting
- Stand as a councillor
-
Respond to a council consultation
-
Respond to a council question
-
Respond to a government consultation
-
Sign a petition
But this does not seem quite right so I am now looking for pre-existing lists of such things as I can’t believe such a thing doesn’t already exist – I would be very grateful for suggestions on this.
Leave a Reply