Dear colleagues 9 months ago we opened (holded) a space in a Regional Council that includes 25 villages and Kibutzim ( corporate villages). They decided to build a 5 years strategic plan for the region together with the inhabitants. 11 teams worked on the issues that stemmed from the Open Space and last friday 10 teams that included inhabitants (130 of them) and civil servants presented their final suggestions in an open event/market to the public and guests and were acknowledged as the official guidelines of the strategic plan. The teams decided that they want to continue. The issue of the missing team was as Harrison calls it "clear as mud" and was publicly declared by the Head of the Council as the next focal point. The event and all the process was declared by the Inhabitants and the Academic and Govenmental guests as the first manifestation of real participatory democracy that they have experienced and they were thrilled. One of the inhabitants shared her understandind of the process: " We were excited by the 4 principals but I would like to add to the 4th: It ends when it ends but then it starts again". Or as Tova said " After 9 months the baby was born but now all the work of raising him up starts" It seems that they are getting addicted to this, and our role along the way is just slightly to remind them of the tune (in their words).
And the question: We (with Tova) are in a process of using OS in the context of inhabitants participation in building a "Master- Plan" for a small city. We would be very thankful to hear and learn about your experience in this kind of work, especially on the allignment with the city planners and the planning stages, and how coming elections effects it? Thank you Avner Haramati Jerusalem * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
