Dave Axler wrote:
Sharrieff says, "Those who are interested in participating in the
committee will be
heard and have an opportunity to participate in making decisions about
where we go from here."
Unfortunately, that's only partly true. Only those who can juggle
their schedules so that they can be physically present will actually
be heard. Those who have non-standard job schedules, lengthy commutes,
child-rearing obligations, family commitments, and the like will not
be there, and thus will be excluded from the process.
Most "community" meetings in this area are scheduled for early weekday
mornings (e.g., the recent "First Thursday" meeting) or weeknights.
While that's convenient for some -- especially those who are attending
as a part of their day jobs -- it tends to exclude many others (most
noticeably those who are single parents).
If you want your committee to be truly representative, you will take
steps to ensure that some of the meetings are on weekends (and NOT
first thing in the morning, either...), and that some provision will
be made for childcare.
No problem: all we need is to set up a meeting on short notice that a)
isn't on a weeknight when people are taking care of kids, b) isn't on a
weekend when people have other things to do and are unlikely to provide
good turnout, c) isn't during the weekday when people are at work, d) is
in a room sized to accommodate the agoraphobic community, and d) is at a
location with adequate child-care facilities, no insitutional connection
to Penn, and oriented towards true north to balance the chi energies of
those unempowered individuals with bio-geographical deficiencies.
Maybe you people are missing something important here. Sharrieff is
trying to organize a meeting of people who'd like to be on this
committee. So it's going to be a small, preliminary planning meeting.
This is mainly to _get things started_. It _is_ not going to be a large
public meeting at which public policy is to be debated.
THEN, you can niggle over whether anybody is unfairly excluded because
of scheduling, child-care, travel issues and the like.
----
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the
list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see
<http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
