I completely agree with Greg's point and was very disappointed that no one from diverse neighborhoods such as Central or a couple of the north neighborhoods, not only did not send a rep., but were not even present to hear any of the discussion. Responsibility lands on those neighborhoods notified who did not organize to send a rep., not on NRP. I'm sure that the NRP sent all neighborhoods the same information. In years past, Central has always organized well. I can remember that my first experience with Central, was when Maxie Turner and Beverly Larkin organized the neighborhood to challenge the number of Policy Board seats available...and they won...more seats were granted because of their challenge. As a matter of fact, Beverly Larkin was one of the 1st Policy Board members. I think she is still a resident of the Central neighborhood and would be a great resource on the topic of outreach, diversity, etc. She is brilliant!
I went to this election, even tho' I was not a delegate/voter and was thrilled at the depth of knowledge possessed by all candidates running for the seats. These Candidates were very much involved with their neighborhoods and with NRP. It was very impressive. It was also impressive to see the caliber of questions being asked from the floor to the candidates. Quite a growth in the challenge and expectations shown from the past election memories I have. I think the best thing we all can do is to be sure that neighborhoods and neighbors are aware of these elections and that neighbors organize and turn out to not only the elections, but to the trainings and events that NRP sponsors. It is an opportunity for networking and growth that shouldn't be missed. Jana L. Metge Phillips resident CLPC Coordinator Gregory Luce wrote: >But that was not my real point, which was the lack of ethnic diversity at this level of the NRP as well as on neighborhood boards, etc. That, at least, deserves some honest and open discussion, as well as more work. > While I completely agree that the lack of ethnic diversity is a problem for NRP, both on the neighborhood level and the Policy Board level, the Hmong candidate that you referred to didn't even show up for the election! From the materials he submitted about his candidacy, it seemed like he wasn't clear about what he was getting in to. Clearly not the best candidate. Maybe next year we'll have better options! Cara Letofsky Seward (a redirection neighborhood) and NRP Policy Board Elector, Nov. 29th _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
