Re: Towards Carfree Cities IX alternatives

Hi all,

Simon Field wrote:

>We are looking at ways of considering and voting on certain topics in 
e-forum working groups *before* the AGM, freeing time at the AGM for
informed  >discussion and voting if appropriate.

On 2.2.2009 Ed Beale wrote:

>...The main things that need to be decided at the AGM are: new members 
for the Steering Committee, approval of new member orgs, and a
discussion of future
> strategy and project priorities. Information on all of these things 
should be circulated beforehand to those people who are WCN members and
are booked to >attend the conference, including a list of people
standing for Steering Committee with some brief text about them, a
summary of existing projects and strategy, and >the list of provisional
member orgs again with some brief information about them. Then on the
AGM day we can discuss and make decisions as a whole group >without
splitting into working groups, and without starting from scratch on the
day with no prior information. We should be able to cut down the AGM to
half a
>  day at most. The time freed up can be used for workshops on 
particular projects, or an afternoon outing or social event for more
informal networking, which I
> feel would be a more constructive use of limited time....

THE AGM has always been open to anyone. There have always been people
present who are more informed than others - this is natural - but the
current plan seems to make this into a formality, or at least to make it
more robust than before (If I remember correctly, proposals made for
previous AGMs were made only on the members-only Wiki, and discussions
were not facilitated in such a specific way as it seems is now planned).
The problem then is that people who have participated in the e-forums or
other pre-AGM discussions will be joined in votes by people are
completely uninformed.

Is there another example of a worldwide organisation with legal status,
government funding, and formal and somewhat hierarchical structures like
ours (with, for example, a members-only website) but which has a 
completely open meeting which is actually at the top of the hierarchy? I 
am not arguing against keeping information to a certain group of people 
(e.g.  WCN members). I am also definitely not arguing against as full 
participation as possible. What I am arguing for is informed 
participation. What I am arguing for is consistency. So why is the AGM 
completely open but the rest of structure - the rest of the year - not 
as open?

Do we want to consider letting everyone in to the physical (and
hopefully virtual!) space of the AGM, and also let them participate to
the best of their ability in discussions there, BUT only letting people
who have prepared themselves to actually vote?

By "prepared themselves" I suggest some kind of registration which is
open until two or three days before the AGM. People who register in the
months or weeks prior to the AGM will be sent a link to a "voter's pack"
in PDF form. People who join a TCC conference (which has an AGM on the
last day) on the first or second day to receive a printed voter's pack
which they will have time to study. If the AGM happens without a
conference attached the same rule would apply: People could not just
show up and vote. But, again, they would be able to participate in every
other way. This has a parallel, I suppose, in the Steering Committee
observers.

Simon mentioned that the Steering Committee is looking at ways to
organise certain topics. This is great... but when can we expect more
details?

Thanks,
T

-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory

Urbanstr. 45
D-10967 Berlin
Germany

Skype: toddedelman
Mobile: ++49 0162 814 4081
Home/Office: ++49 030 7554 0001

[email protected]
www.greenidea.eu
www.flickr.com/photos/edelman

CAR is over. If you want it.

"Fort mit der Autostadt und was Neues hingebaut!"
- B. Brecht (with slight modification)



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