[OldNorth] Re: ONA meeting place

[John Lofland]

Robin,

You are correct to imply that governmental groups can have two kinds 
of meetings, ones in which official decisions are made and ones in 
which there is only social mingling.

The former should be in public places and the latter can be anywhere.

In the case at hand, there is to be a meeting in November at which 
decisions are made and held in a home.

And, the ONA will have a social mingling event in homes in December 
at which no official decisions will be made. That is fine and good. 
And, such events could be held many times a year for that matter.

The central issue here is legitimacy. Can a group claim to speak for 
a geographical area If it does not operate in a way that is as open 
as possible to everyone in that area?

Official meetings in homes send a message of special insider-ism that 
I think the ONA wants to avoid.

It is exactly the kind of practice our detractors would point to 
before the City Council at some inopportune time to question our 
authenticity in claiming to represent the area. ("They are just a 
bunch of buddies who met among themselves in their homes. They don't 
represent us.")

I am not suggesting the meeting this Thursday should not go forth. 
The die is cast. But, I think we should not make official decisions 
in such a location in the future.

If needed, we can arrange a backup room with the Coop, which makes 
its conference room available to community groups, sometimes with a 
fee, sometimes not. (At the start and before Anne Brunnette said we 
could have the Museum free, I had talked with the Coop's Doug Walters 
about holding ONA meetings in the Coop conference room and that 
seemed fine.)

Remember, ordinary groups pay $41 an hour to use the Museum. The fact 
that we get it free tells us that we are defined as a special kind of 
unit of the Davis City government. That special status comes at a 
price. One price is truly public meetings. (We could of course elect 
to withdraw from that special relation with the City.)

John