Citizens’ Voices Minutes

February 21, 2007

Present: Tony, Dave, Ardie, Jeanne, April, Malda

Dave on the Community Forum:

The last Forum was very informative & well received. Gregg Marg gave a presentation on alternative fuels and conservation. Many in the audience had additional bits & pieces of information in addition to Gregg's material.

Unlike a debate with opposing points of view, this was a cooperative venture where all participants went away with additional knowledge as well as points to ponder.

The next Forum will be held at the Mankato Police Annex on March 29th. The presenters will be Mike Spellacy, former Mankato councilman, and Bill Meyer who worked for Union Pacific for 30 years. This promises to be a full house so come early.

We discussed the facility and its amenities. Gregg Marg wished that he had a blackboard to demonstrate information. We considered purchasing either a white board or a flip chart for use by the speakers. Dave will discuss this with the NM Police, perhaps they already have one we could use.

We also discussed the possible need to move the Forum to a meeting room about 50 % bigger. The law enforcement folks, however, have been very collaborative.

Story Core: In the near future Tim will organize a meeting of the sub committee on this project. According to my notes the members are Tim, April, Mike, Ardie as well as Jim Gullickson & Dave Engen as resources.

Civility training - due to the present situation with John, the planning for this is on hold.

Rasmussen Woods group - Dave reported that the final installation of the camouflage is ready for the floating observation blind on the Troost Pond.

We discussed the possibility of civility training in Waseca & possibly other communities.