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A Piece of Your Mind

If you live in Columbia, the Columbia Association wants to know what you think. They have already been soliciting your ideas through Inspire Columbia, an online space for sharing suggestions for community improvement. This Saturday they are hosting a community-wide event. Their goal? To bring more people together--different kinds of people, people they many not have heard from before--to discuss what matters most to them about Columbia.

"Columbia Speaks: CA Listens" will be held this Saturday morning from 9:30 to 12 noon at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center. A social hour begins at 8:30. Click the link to register.

Columbia Association (CA) wants to hear more from you — and from more of you. That's why the External Relations Committee of the CA Board of Directors will be hosting "Columbia Speaks. CA Listens," a community input meeting. The meeting will be on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center (10431 Twin Rivers Rd, Columbia 21044), with a social hour from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Pre-registration at ColumbiaSpeaks.EventBrite.com is encouraged but not required. Child care will be available.

Columbia is made up of many kinds of people. But, if you have attended CA Board Meetings, you may have noticed that the diversity that is Columbia is rarely represented. Younger residents, parents of young children, residents from different ethnic groups, and those who are less than affluent are seldom if ever heard from.

CA is aware of this and wants to get more people "in the room" to discuss what Columbia means to them. What are your hopes? Goals? Suggestions for improvement? If the loudest voices are always the same voices, representing only a narrow slice of our community, then how can we truly know what our community wants?

I know that giving up an entire Saturday morning to go to a meeting is a big deal. If you can make it happen, though, your input will be greatly appreciated. As Columbia moves forward, we will need many voices--many different voices--to help chart the course and steer the ship.

You should be a part of that.

*****

Here is the press release for the event. It's worth the read.

Save the date and register now for

"Columbia Speaks. CA Listens"

Saturday, October 18, Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

Social Hour from 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m., Program runs 9:30 a.m. - noon.

Columbia Association (CA) wants to hear more from you -

and from more of you.

 

That's why the CA Board of Directors will be hosting "Columbia Speaks. CA Listens," a community input meeting that will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center (located off Trumpeter Road across from Wilde Lake High School). The meeting will go from 9:30 a.m. to noon. A social hour from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. will precede the event.

 

Facilitators will help moderate the meeting and guide discussions. Pre-registration at ColumbiaSpeaks.EventBrite.com is encouraged but not required.

 

 

"We're seeking to engage people more than we have in the past and make them feel like they are more a part of the process and a part of this community," said Nancy McCord, chairwoman of the CA Board's External Relations Committee and the board member representing Wilde Lake.

 

"We also want people to talk to us about how they feel, what they think and what they see, both the positive and the negative," McCord said. "We hope to reach people who don't normally attend CA's meetings. Everybody is welcome, though, whether they've attended meetings or not. We want to spread the love and bring more people in so that they understand more about Columbia Association."

 

Child care will be provided on Oct. 18. Those seeking assistance with transportation to "Columbia Speaks. CA Listens" should email Columbia.Speaks@ColumbiaAssociation.org. CA is also looking into ways for those who cannot attend in-person to still be able to participate electronically and to submit comments afterward.

 

In addition, there are other ways that community members can have their voices heard on a regular basis. The CA Board offers "Resident Speakout" at its meetings. Board members and CA staff can be reached via the email addresses and phone numbers listed at ColumbiaAssociation.org. And CA has a community engagement website at InspireColumbia.com.

 

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