Looking for a tweet about my "
Creative Spaces for Empty Places"
campaignette on Councillor Matt Cooke's Twitter time line I came across a
tweet he made about a week ago. This was about a new community engagement strategy. Odd, I thought, I keep an ear pretty close to the ground. I talk to all these people. They know my agenda is about engagement and empowerment and I had no idea about this paper.
So, I tracked
it down via Google. And, lo and behold, it's not a strategy, it's a draft framework out for consultation.
A few thoughts arise:
1. A consultation paper about community engagement where the Council seem to be missing key opportunities to engage with the community. I've asked Matt exactly how they're engaging with the community on this.
2. Twitter works. Okay, Matt/someone in Haringey might have thought, "Hey Harringay Online has approaching 1,500 members. They're really big on empowerment, engagement and place-shaping. We'll let them know about it". Uh-uh; too much engagement all at once?. BUT, because Matt Cooke happened to push out a Tweet about it, and I happened to notice it, at least it was picked up. So, good for Matt for Twittering. But, bad on you Haringey for not finding us and letting us know about it.
3. What do you think about the consultation process? Does the format the document's been made available in, make it accessible to you? What else would you like to see? Will you read it? Will you comment?
4. What do you think about the content of the paper?
5. If we could get Matt Cooke and officers to host a local meeting to explain and discuss it, would you attend?
BTW, the deadline for responses to the consultation is 21st April 2009.