New Blog Site

Greetings!


Here is a link to the new blog for Santa Rosa Together (Santa Rosa Together)

Santa Rosa Together Speaker Series

Santa Rosa Together members,

There are three big events taking place in the next month that will help us move towards our goals. 

1.  Thursday, September 25: The first speaker in the Santa Rosa Together Speaker series, now presented in partnership with the city, will speak in City Council Chamber, City Hall, over the lunch hour, 12:00 - 1:30 PM on the 25th. Our speaker, Matt Leighninger, the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, is a national leader in the work to build local democracy. Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. You will not want to miss this event! Please see the attached flyer for details. Most importantly, please use this flyer to get the word out on this SRT/City event.  It would be great if each of us brought one new person to hear Matt's presentation --and to the events below as well.

2.  Monday, September 29:  Open Government Task Force community forum; The City of Santa Rosa, Open Government Task Force, will hold an Open Government Forum at the Church of the One Tree, 492 Sonoma Avenue, 6 - 8 PM on the 29th.  This forum will give us a chance to share ideas on how we can make our government more transparent and accessible. Our SRT Government Action Team is working with and has provided input to the Task Force. See attached flyer for details.

3,  Monday, October 6: Meeting with new City Manager: The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Alliance and Santa Rosa Together will co-sponsor a meeting to meet and talk with Sean McGlynn, Santa Rosa's new city manager.  Thanks to SRNA for taking the initiative to set up this important meeting. The meeting will take place in the evening on October 6. We will let you know the exact time and place as soon as they are determined.  This will be a great opportunity for us to talk with the new city manager and build a better partnership with the city.

The most recent description of Santa Rosa Together is also attached for you to use in your outreach.

Hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Hank

For your Steering Committee

 

 Speaker SeSpeaker Series: Matt Leighninger

The Next Form of Democracy: How citizens and local government are building new partnerships and moving beyond adversity

When: Thursday, September 25
Noon–1:30 PM (Brown bag lunch welcomed)

Where: City Council Chamber, City Hall

100 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa Rosa CA 95404

 

Matt Leighninger is a national leader in working to strengthen local communities and local democracy. He is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), an alliance of the major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public participation. The DDC represents more than 50 foundations, nonprofit organizations, and universities, collaborating to support research activities and advance democratic practice, in North America and around the world. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy, traced the recent shifts in the relationship between citizens and government, and examines how these trends are reshaping politics. Recently, he led a working group that produced a model ordinance on public participation; and another that developed a new tool, “Text, Talk, and Act,” for combining texting and face-to-face participation as part of President Obama’s National Dialogue on Mental Health. Over the past 18 years, Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.

“Bringing the Best Practices in Civic Engagement and Local Democracy to Santa Rosa from around the world.”

Presented by: Santa Rosa Together

In partnership with:

  

Who is Santa Rosa Together? A broad non-partisan coalition of community leaders working to get more people engaged, give everyone a voice and role, and improve the way we work together in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa Together Speaker Series

Santa Rosa Together members,

There are three big events taking place in the next month that will help us move towards our goals. 

1.  Thursday, September 25: The first speaker in the Santa Rosa Together Speaker series, now presented in partnership with the city, will speak in City Council Chamber, City Hall, over the lunch hour, 12:00 - 1:30 PM on the 25th. Our speaker, Matt Leighninger, the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, is a national leader in the work to build local democracy. Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. You will not want to miss this event! Please see the attached flyer for details. Most importantly, please use this flyer to get the word out on this SRT/City event.  It would be great if each of us brought one new person to hear Matt's presentation --and to the events below as well.

2.  Monday, September 29:  Open Government Task Force community forum; The City of Santa Rosa, Open Government Task Force, will hold an Open Government Forum at the Church of the One Tree, 492 Sonoma Avenue, 6 - 8 PM on the 29th.  This forum will give us a chance to share ideas on how we can make our government more transparent and accessible. Our SRT Government Action Team is working with and has provided input to the Task Force. See attached flyer for details.

3,  Monday, October 6: Meeting with new City Manager: The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Alliance and Santa Rosa Together will co-sponsor a meeting to meet and talk with Sean McGlynn, Santa Rosa's new city manager.  Thanks to SRNA for taking the initiative to set up this important meeting. The meeting will take place in the evening on October 6. We will let you know the exact time and place as soon as they are determined.  This will be a great opportunity for us to talk with the new city manager and build a better partnership with the city.

The most recent description of Santa Rosa Together is also attached for you to use in your outreach.

Hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Hank

For your Steering Committee

 

 Speaker SeSpeaker Series: Matt Leighninger

The Next Form of Democracy: How citizens and local government are building new partnerships and moving beyond adversity

When: Thursday, September 25
Noon–1:30 PM (Brown bag lunch welcomed)

Where: City Council Chamber, City Hall

100 Santa Rosa Ave, Santa Rosa CA 95404

 

Matt Leighninger is a national leader in working to strengthen local communities and local democracy. He is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), an alliance of the major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public participation. The DDC represents more than 50 foundations, nonprofit organizations, and universities, collaborating to support research activities and advance democratic practice, in North America and around the world. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy, traced the recent shifts in the relationship between citizens and government, and examines how these trends are reshaping politics. Recently, he led a working group that produced a model ordinance on public participation; and another that developed a new tool, “Text, Talk, and Act,” for combining texting and face-to-face participation as part of President Obama’s National Dialogue on Mental Health. Over the past 18 years, Matt has worked with public engagement efforts in over 100 communities in 40 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.

“Bringing the Best Practices in Civic Engagement and Local Democracy to Santa Rosa from around the world.”

Presented by: Santa Rosa Together

In partnership with:

  

Who is Santa Rosa Together? A broad non-partisan coalition of community leaders working to get more people engaged, give everyone a voice and role, and improve the way we work together in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa Together Suggestions for City Website Improvements

Greetings!

Here is an example of what anyone can produce using Google Engine Pro, and the information usually published on local government websites.


Santa Rosa Neighborhood Public Notices

Civic Apps

Greetings!

Here is my collection of articles and website descriptions of interesting mobile phone apps which assist civic engagement.

City Voice
Honolulu Answers
Jail Population Management Dashboard
Ohana API
RecordTrac
StreetMix
The Daily Brief
To the Trails
Aunt Bertha
Civic Insight
Local Data
Open Counter
Where's My SchoolBus ?
Family Assessment Form
Measured Voice

To learn more about Code For America's Initiatives, visit Initiatives


Gregory

Second Meeting of Santa Rosa Together, Feb 1, 2014

Greetings!

The second meeting of Santa Rosa Together was successfully held on February 1st, 10am to 12:30pm, at Lawrence Cook Middle School, 2480 Sebastopol Road, in Santa Rosa.  Eighty-five residents participated in the meeting, and notes from it are included below.

A third meeting will be held on April 12th, 2014 at the same time and place.   We can be reached by commenting on this post, and leaving your contact information.

The following ws distributed at the meeting:

Santa Rosa Together Second Meeting: From Vision to Action

AGENDA

Increasing Resident Engagement and Improving the Way We Work Together

Saturday, February 1, 2014

10:00am- 12:30pm

Registration, coffee and snacks begin at 9:30

Lawrence Cook Middle School

2480 Sebastopol Road

Second meeting agenda: From Vision to Action

1.     Welcome, introductions, review of progress to date, and expectations for today --Arnie Barragan  (10 minutes)

2.     Explanation of the process used to develop the drafts for our vision and for this year’s objectives --Hank Topper  (10 minutes)

3.     Discussion/Adoption of Vision and Objectives (30 minutes)

a.     Table discussions  (10 min)

b.     Large group feedback  (15 min)

c.     Thumbs up/down vote  (5 min)

4.     Identification of Possible Action Activities to reach our Objectives (80 minutes)

a.     Table discussion: Facilitators assist participants to identify action activities which would help us pursue this year’s objectives, defining barriers, resources, and additional participants.  Tables select top 5 ideas and summarize in LARGE writing on ½ sheets of paper. (25 minutes)

b.     Table Report outs: Using a blue sticky wall, each table reports out to the whole group on their ideas.  Ideas will be clustered by report-out person and facilitator.  (40 minutes)

c.     Priority Setting and Commitments: Each meeting participant will use 3 sticky dots to vote on priorities for action and commitment dots (as many as they want) to put their names on the actions that they will work on.  (15 minutes)

5.     Summary, discussion, and action items for next steps (20 minutes)

a.     Overview of what we’ve accomplished

b.     Next Meeting and Next Steps

c.     Final thoughts, takeaways, suggestions

If you are interested in being part of the Santa Rosa Together Planning Team, please contact Hank Topper at hanktopper@gmail.com

Draft Vision

·       Santa Rosa has a strong democratic culture of mutual respect, dialogue, and inclusion that has improved our city’s ability to work together and address concerns.  Everyone’s voice and contribution are valued and encouraged and our mutual respect for each other supports our efforts to find common ground.  All segments of our community are equally valued, fully engaged, and playing leading roles in the development of a strong and healthy city.  Santa Rosa is known across the world for it democratic institutions and culture.

·       A large number of city residents are organized and actively engaged in setting the direction and doing the work to create a great city.  We are a city with a strong foundation of organized neighborhoods and communities where we get to know each other, take responsibility, and learn how to work together and take action to build strong communities and a strong city 

·       Governments and elected officials understand the importance of broad community engagement, support the organization of residents, and partner with residents and their organizations to make important decisions and to accomplish shared goals.

·       Our city’s business, religious, and social organizations contribute resources and services to support resident engagement and partner with residents and their organization to accomplish shared goals.

·       Santa Rosa has developed and institutionalized creative new ways to make it easier for citizens to become informed, learn from each other, and participate meaningfully in the decisions and work that will shape our city.  Our new ways of engaging people give them real power and responsibility and bring the decision process and work to our neighborhoods, schools, and churches to make it possible for everyone to participate meaningfully.

Draft Objectives

Objective 1:  We will take steps to improve the democratic culture of mutual respect, dialogue and inclusion in our city.

Objective 2: We will take steps to increase the number of engaged residents and organized neighborhoods and communities in our city.

Objective 3:  We will take steps to increase the capability of Governmental institutions and their respective policy/decision makers to support and partner with residents and their organizations. 

Objective 4:  We will take steps to increase the capability of our city’s business, religious and social organizations to support and partner with residents and their organizations

Objective 5:  We will develop a new process that increases the number of residents and their organizations participating in the decisions and the work to address a key community issue

Following the meeting, th Steering Committee assembled th following document from materials developed at the meeting:

ACTION PROPOSALS, VOTES, AND VOLUNTEERS

Cross sector trust building (11/3)

Convene a “mixer” with multiple groups i.e. SR Chamber, Hispanic Chamber and Black Chamber, social justice and local residents to interact to build trust to work together.

Votes:  11

Volunteers:  Eduardo Vasquex, Gail Thomas, Veronica Jacobi

Youth (13/9)

Have a youth council with a rep from each school who talks with students, then goes to city to voice the youth opinion

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers: 2  Anna Ucik, Hank Topper

Plan a youth summit for all youth groups to build awareness of how youth can participate in key community issues

                  Votes:  6

Volunteers: 7  Yuni Mendoza, Itzel Martinez, Donna Born, Vince Harper,  Gregory Fearon, Roni  Jacobi, Kay Ward

 “Like” DIG and YEC on Facebook (youth organizations) as well as other groupd participating in SRT

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Citizen Engagement and capacity (42/18)

SRT will develop a committee to organize neighborhood block potlucks to build community engagement.  Invite nonprofit organizations, local businesses (restaurants, etc.) community members to create ambassadors

                  Votes: 8

                  Volunteers: 2  Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia

Encourage and strengthen neighborhood groups

                  Votes: 3

                  Volunteers: 1  Gregory Fearon

Map neighborhoods that have strong community ties – identify activities that bonds them together

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers:  4  Katherine ?, Alexa Riner, Pamela Van Helsema, Rolland Vander Sluis

Ensure common geographical definitions of neighborhoods between government agencies

                  Votes:  1

                  Volunteers: 0

Invite and encourage attendance to D.I.N.E., a program that brings community members to share a discussion over dinner.

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Activate neighborhood conversations through social networks (Facebook group, NextDoor.com)

                  Votes: 0

                  Volunteers: 0

SRT will develop a resource sheet bilingual to provide to schools and other public places (church, clubs, YMCA, etc).  Start with Latino community

                  Votes:  3

                  Volunteers:  3  Jamie Padillo, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward                 

SRT involvement in ELAC meetings to facilitate and provide resource information including rights and resources.  Pass out 1-page resource sheet that Santa Rosa together creates.

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers:  4   Jamie Padilla, Irma Garcia, Nora Ward, Alex ?, Rene

Hold community workshops (using issues identified by the community to attract participants) to build skills of residents in engaging the government

                  Votes: 0

                  Volunteers: 3   Rev. Curtis Byrd, Alexa Riner, Lucy Hernandez

Focus on safety in regards to safe bikes and pedestrian pathways within our communities

                  Votes:  4

                  Volunteers:  0

Have a bilingual community website/calendar where residents can see events and be involved

                  Votes: 4

                  Volunteers: 1  Pamela Van Halsema

Communicate with city, county, agencies, schools with public  works with residents for empowerment to annex Roseland to city.  Build Roseland creek greenway and the specific plan for Roseland and Roseland Village Shopping Center on Sebastopol Road.

Votes: 3

Volunteers: 0

Increase Roseland resident voice in city and county planning for annexation and the Roseland specific plan

Votes: 3

Volunteers: 0

Government Capacity to partner with and Engage Citizens (49/6)

Develop a process to ensure residents engagement and organized neighborhoods

                  Votes: 5

                  Volunteers: 2  Vince Harper, Larry Haenel                 

Ensure governmental capability to increase the partnership for decision/policy making process

                  Votes:  4

                  Volunteers: 0                 

Make meetings more accessible to everyone with different locations and times.  Inform of future action items and issues

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers: 0

Hold community meeting to influence the government’s process of prioritizing ways to make information accessible to public

                  Votes: 3

                  Volunteers: 0

Establish Department of Neighborhoods with funding for education/outreach and community engagement.  Along with that, the city should adopt principles of public participation

                  Votes: 10

                  Volunteers: 2  Shannon Ottens, Tanya Narath

Create citizen advisory board for city budget

                  Votes: 8

                  Volunteers: 1  David Moll

Ask City Council to discuss key community issues at a specific time listed on the agenda

                  Votes: 11

                  Volunteers: 0

District elections

                  Votes: 4

                  Volunteers: 1  Arthur Deicke

Support candidates who support our goals

                  Votes: 2

                  Volunteers:  0

Create a mechanism to foster accountable communication between the community and government

                  Votes:  8

                  Volunteers: 2  Gregory Fearon, Rolland Vander Sluis

Schools (12/2)

Actively support community school model (like Via Esperanza) across city

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers: 0

Convene stakeholders to take advantage of opportunity provided by changes to school funding.  Build trust and shared goals around education  (local area plans)

                  Votes: 6

                  Volunteers: 2  Nubia Padilla, Katie Greaves

The Steering Committee met on February 13th, and agreed to take actions to notify all members of the first and second meetings of the above supported actions, to work to further revise the vision statement, and to implement these actions by providing support to committees outlined above in bold.