Guest Blogger - A View from the Crowd at T.O. 101

~ Guest Bloggers can submit posts to this site - the opinions of the authors  are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the postion of the City of Toronto, Civic Engagement Toronto or Toronto Civics 101. ~

The most important premier to happen in Toronto last week was also the least reported. Over a hundred Torontonians making up a representative sample of the city came together at City Hall for the first of six Toronto Civics 101 events. There may have only been one camera and the presence of only one celebrity (Mayor Miller), but no other event could claim to have as much future potential for the prosperity of Toronto.

Toronto Civics 101 is an important step in civic engagement and although it’s a new initiative, it felt like a throwback to an era before we would just crowdsource opinions online. For that reason, it felt extra special to be among the delegates for the rare opportunity to learn firsthand about our city and engage with strangers who we shared at least one commonality with: to make Toronto even better.

A few thoughts following the first session Sept 17 09

Many of the registered participants at the first session mentioned that it was great to be in Council Chambers - at the end of the session the question of how people can see the Chambers, or take a tour came up. Access Toronto has a self-guided tour of City Hall available - the link to the information is here. Council Chambers are open during Council meetings -to find out when those are you can visit http://www.toronto.ca/city_council/index.htm

One thing I noticed is how often we use acronyms in our writing and speeches - must watch out for that. Many people might be unfamiliar with OMB (Ontario Municipal Board); GTA (Greater Toronto Area) or even TPS (Toronto Public Service - the staff of the City, but is sometimes used to refer to the Toronto Police Services). Hope everyone can help us to be mindful of this - just let us know if we slip one or two in that we haven't adequately explained.

It's Fall - I can feel the "back-to-school" excitement in the air!

September has always seemed like an extra new year to me - a second chance to keep some of those resolutions and get organized, make time to learn new things, find a new pencil and sharpener and lay down some ideas on fresh paper.

The idea of a civic education series started a few years ago. We looked at the kinds of information other cities provide to their residents, how civic literacy is taught by other levels of government and around the world, and we started to developed our plan. We soon realized we could spend every one of the next hundred evenings discussing how cities work, how decisions are made and the roles within local government - because issues, economies, communities, ideas and more, are always changing.

Commenting?

First thing you need to know: This blog is moderated and comments are read before being posted.
Moderation times are generally Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. but you can make comments at any time. They may not appear until the next business day or after the weekend. That doesn't mean that postings won't happen on the weekends or in the evenings, it just means that generally we do try to take some downtime now and again.
What will get posted: Anything related to Toronto Civics 101 - questions arising from the presentations, discussions on the various topics covered in the sessions, questions to other posters, comments on posts or questions by other readers, your evaluation of the sessions, this site, the resources etc.
What's not going to get posted. Please note, we encourage you to let us know what`s on your mind about the website, sessions or content but let's be mannerly in how we talk to each other. We will not be able to post:

• comments with information deemed to be someone's "private or personal" information,
• profanity, abusive language, abusive comments, threats, off topic comments, racist comments, sexist comments, pornography
• comments requesting services or comments about service delivery complaints and,
• anything even remotely resembling spam. No malicious links, advertising or advertising of services

Privacy: Your privacy is important to the City of Toronto. Really important! By default, Blogger allows users to comment under existing blog accounts. The City of Toronto is not asking for your personal information as a criteria to comment. Should you comment other than anonymous, please be aware that your agreements with Google or others allow users to view profile information you may have authorized in your own account. If you choose to remain private, be so kind as to give yourself a screen-name at the end of your post - it makes it easier to respond to the right "anonymous". Please don't include phone numbers or house addresses etc. in your comments. We will delete any personal information (including references to others you might include) before posting.
(thanks to Keith for help in writing this!)

 - Meg Shields