Running public meetings is a skill that is improved by practice, just
like the skills of museum sign-hanging and apartment renting and
newspaper manufacturing and oboe playing and volleyball playing and
community recycling and whatever else we do, whether for love or money.
Philadelphia has well over 60 civic groups that hold public meetings
from time to time. Many of them commit to only one meeting a year, or
periodic meetings as needed. Many others commit to one public meeting
per month, come hell or high water. It is among the latter group that I
would look for real experts in public-meeting management.
I don't think West Philadelphia boasts any superstars in this
department. Certainly University City does not. Within UC, I'd say the
two most-experienced organizers of regular public meetings are Cedar
Park Neighbors and Friends of Clark Park. That's where you'd look to
find our neighborhood experts on this subject.
Without a doubt, people who have no experience in organizing public
meetings can still provide useful criticisms of them. Equally true,
though, total novices in community meeting management are the worst
possible candidates for planning better community meetings. To get good
results, you've got to look to your varsity-list organizers.
-- Tony West
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN wrote:
not only that, but shca called this meeting, and barry grossbach wrote
that "neighbors will have a full opportunity to ask questions and
offer comments about the project, and the committee will take all
comments into consideration in its deliberations.... please feel free
to share this information with anyone who might be interested." this
is in accordance with shca's zoning committee's mission statement:
bear in mind that none of the neighbors would have to stand up and
speak about this in the first place, if uchs and shca had rejected,
outright, the hotel proposal when they first learned about it (prior
to the october 2007 article). if uchs was truly committed to
preservation it would have rejected an 11-story hotel which is so out
of character with the surrounding blocks and attached to a 3 story
historic mansion, leaving the mansion in permanent shadow; if shca was
truly committed to retaining single-family housing and converting
multi-family housing to owner-occupancy, it would have rejected an
11-story hotel to be built where it is.
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