On Saturday January 31, 1998, more than 1000 citizens in Racine,
Wisconsin, gathered into 23 community forums linked together into
a live televised Electronic Town Meeting to begin working together
on the future of their community. As they talked, many of their
fellow citizens called in to participate from their homes, where
they watched the forums on cable TV. Emerging issues identified
as top priorities included youth involvement, a clean river and
lakefront, a revitalized downtown, regional cooperation, and regional
transportation. Within 48 hours, high schooler volunteers had
posted the outcome of the forums at www.sustainable-racine.org.
Citizens at each forum site selected a 4 to 6 person delegation
to a community Vision Council which worked over subsequent months
to develop a shared vision and goals for the region. These diverse
delegations included one eleven year old and several other high
school students, as well as area service organizations, nonprofit
organizations, government representatives, business leadership
and other civic organizations.
This event had broad support from the community. The local paper,
the Journal Times, covered it for days with large
front page headlines, editorials, letters and an 8 page insert
supplement, including a 2 page survey for members of the community
and notes on how they could participate as viewers of the event
on cable TV. The forum was promoted in 2 1/2 hours of radio interviews
and scores of speaking engagements -- as well as by volunteers
distributing posters and 100,000 brochures to businesses, 75,000
placemats in restaurants and 25,000 bi-lingual door hangers. 60
Rotary Club volunteers hosted and managed the forum sites. And
the 100 volunteers who went through a training to serve as forum
facilitators subsequently committed to continuing to help the
community work together.
Edited from materials supplied by Sustainable Racine.
COMMENTARY: A community is made by what its citizens all do (or
don't do). It has many parts: families, businesses, government,
churches and many other organizations. Although citizens are active
in many of these groups, they seldom have time to step back together
to consider the big picture questions of where they are headed,
where they want to go, and how they are going to get there. Sustainable
Racine's Forums were only a beginning of an on-going program to
engage Racine citizens in co-creating the best possible community
to live in, work in and enjoy. Each of the 25 community forums
was encouraged to continue their work together.
Sustainable Racine is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization
established to bring together all sectors of the community in
a partnership to form and pursue a long term community vision.
It facilitates an inclusive, democratic, neutral civic forum which
brilliantly engages the region's civic, volunteer and public resources.
It champions innovative and creative solutions to community problems
and collaboration to find common ground on community priorities
and action. It provides a space in which the collective
intelligence of Racine can grow and function.