Boulder Community Dialogue
Oct 7th, 2007 by rlsorbe
Community meetings have been the forefront of development and change throughout history. For centuries people have arranged meetings, programs, and projects to create change at the local level.We have used these community concepts as tools to hear people’s needs, wants, public voices, and to administer changes. Cities, neighborhoods, and communities all over the world are practicing different techniques through meetings, projects, and developments - working to create positive changes through community voices.
Starting this fall, the city of Boulder is putting forth great efforts to create a community dialogue that stresses the importance of sustainability for our city.The 2007 Boulder community Dialogue is composed of two parts that will illustrate the importance of the community voice, as well as implement effective tools for the city to hear your voice. The council would like to address real issues pertinent to Boulder, and seeks to hear from community members who cannot easily reach them. Goals for the 2007 Community Dialogue are to invest in the public process to have residents informed and involved on the out come of the cities master plan, and public improvements.
The 2007 Boulder Dialogue has created two mechanisms in which to attain their goal of hearing the communities’ voice. One method is by mailing scientific, random sample surveys in Spanish and English to 3,500 Boulder residents. These surveys will ask about city issues and satisfaction levels with city services. The second, less traditional method for hearing the voice is through community gatherings called “Meeting - in - a - Box”. During these meetings an open discussion will occur amongst ten to fifteen people over the course of forty meetings throughout September and October. These meetings are directed by ‘the box’ that is a discussion format with response forms included that is given to the host and returned at the end of the meeting. The goal from this second survey is to gain insight of the priority levels regarding current issues and concerns of Boulder residents.
Please join Boulder Space at The Kitchen on Thursday October 11th at 8:30 pm. We will be hosting ‘Meeting – in – a – Box’ and would like to hear from voices in our community about pertinent issues that are affecting Boulder. If you would like to join us, please call 720.771.0528, or send an email to rl[@]sorbeliving dot com. If you cannot attend this community meeting, check out the city’s survey, and discuss these issues within your own community.