E-Democracy.org – Project Blog

Give to the Max Day was a big success.

We’ve doubled our number of donors to over 150 total on GiveMN.org, with 76 donors contributing on or near Give to the Max Day. We raised $2,215 which earned our local “Leader’s Challenge” match of $1,000.

That means we now have $3,215 in 2012 to support grass roots neighborhood and community Issues Forum outreach – primarily for our forums that do not currently have special grant funded outreach support.

Your donations are a huge thank you to our dedicated local volunteers – our local “forum managers.” Without them and their time, there would be no online public space for your community or neighborhood.

Your donations will support our efforts to further support their dedication and energy:

• Printing of posters, handouts, and other outreach materials distributed locally by volunteers. (Become one and help get the word out. Our forum volunteers need your help.)
• Tabling at key community events – a crucial part of our in-person outreach strategy.
• Special “inclusive” outreach leveraging field work by our outreach team. Our inclusive outreach grant funds have specifically supported forums in lower income, highly diverse areas. Your donations will make it possible to extend diverse community outreach to the middle income neighborhoods where participants donated. For example, we can pay our Latino outreach leaders to do some work in the Standish-Ericsson neighborhood where just over $500 was donated.

Being part of Give to the Max Day was a great opportunity. Across this Minnesota-focused event, over 47,500 donors donated $13.4 million to about 4,000 nonprofits. This reminds us how important it is to ask those who support our work or find a real benefit from our forums to contribute toward their success. While 76 donations is our most at one time ever, we need to do more to support all of our forums with your donations. In fact, it is not too late to donate this year.

This year we set up a team challenge to extend inclusive outreach in our Minnesota forums. Almost $1,000 of our $2215 raised came in via our local volunteers – in order of the amount raised:

• Steven Clift, Minneapolis Standish Ericsson
• Sara Bergen, Minneapolis Powderhorn
• Peter Fleck, Minneapolis Seward
• Jeff Ueland, Bemidji
• Nick Cross, Minneapolis Phillips
• Jason Stone, Minneapolis Nokomis East
• Jonathan Carter, Saint Paul East Side
• Sally Fineday, Cass Lake Leech Lake
• Dan Haugen, Minneapolis Northeast

Thank you team! (Now let’s rev up the outreach engine  . )

Here is what we heard from some of our donors:

• “I learn SO MUCH about my neighborhood through E-Democracy. Keep up the great work!”
• “An excellent, non-partisan source to discuss local news and social issues. MPR – watch out!”
• “E-Democracy is one of the best ways to address and discuss local issues. I think this is especially true in rural areas where the options for news and discussion are far more limited.”
• “The battle for democracy will be won or lost in our local communities. E-Democracy is helping us win the battle by creating the public spaces for our conversations about our communities.”
• “One of the very best sources for information and discussion of state and local issues ever! That includes MPR! Thank you E-Democracy.”

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Cross posted from CityCampMN. E-Democracy.org as a co-host of this event and Steven Clift was the “convener.”

We will have a more detailed review of CityCampMN soon.

For now, here are some news articles, blog posts and other items.

A key outcome is that that Bud Fisher volunteered to call a “what’s next” meeting in January 2012 with the dozen or more volunteers who raised their hands to explore what’s next. To join Bud and others, join the CityCampMN online working group.

Also, everyone should join the global CityCamp Exchange for useful exchange across the 2.0 and local government, community, etc. space.

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Over 40 donors giving over $1300 US can’t be wrong – join them now through Midnight Central: 

DONATE on Nov. 16 starting at midnight Central time U.S.

Donations from E-Democracy.org supporters
from the world accepted and encouraged!

The third annual Give to the Max Day is Wednesday, November 16.  More than 42,000 donors logged on to GiveMN.org and gave over $10 million to Minnesota charities on Give to the Max Day last year.

These past couple years we’ve worked hard at inclusive outreach. We focused our 2010 efforts on the low income, high immigrant, highly diverse neighborhoods of Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis and Frogtown in Saint Paul. Your support is helping make this progress possible.

“E-Democracy.org has been our platform to talk to each other and raise our issues with government officials. Without this forum, our voices in our neighborhood would have been silent. I thank all the volunteers and the management of E-Democracy for giving me and others in Cedar Riverside the chance to air our ideas and concerns…”
—Cedar Riverside forum member

“When I reach out to communities where I’d be seen as foreign, perhaps we can all be seen as part of the same struggle to make a better community—that may be where we find commonality… I don’t have to be a Black person to relate to a Black person. We can have conversations about what’s affecting our community and what we can do together to change.”
—Frogtown outreach staff member

“Segregation—whether cultural or economic—contributes to the silence, and the lack of sense of community.”
—Cedar Riverside Forum member

In 2011, we expanded our efforts to start several new forums in the urban core. In addition to recruiting new volunteers across almost all of St. Paul, we had special efforts in Phillips and Powderhorn in Minneapolis.

We  have just opened or are recruiting to open new forums in these neighborhoods:

Minneapolis

• Audubon Park
• East Harriet
• Kingfield
• Linden Hills
• Loring Park
• Near North Heritage Park

Saint Paul

• Como
• Dayton’s Bluff
• Mac Groveland
• North End
• Summit Hill
• Summit University-Rondo
• Union Park (Merriam Pk +)
• West 7th Fort Road
• West Side

And just this fall we are revitalizing our efforts in northeast Minnesota with the Cass Lake Leech Lake forum and their majority Native American community.

We’ve never had this many new forums in the pipeline in our organization’s history.

As an E-Democracy forum member, you there are two ways you can help us build on these efforts to invite your neighbors—whatever their national or racial origins may be—to have a voice through the E-Democracy Forums!

Make a Donation on Give to the Max Day—November 16!
Your contribution of any amount—$25, $50, $100 or more—will help advance our work for inclusive civic engagement and can be amplified to increase your giving impact to the E-Democracy:

Win a Golden Ticket! $1,000 will be given to a random donor’s nonprofit of choice every hour.  You could be that donor!  You can log on to E-Democracy’s donation page as early as 12 a.m. on Wednesday, November 16, or make several donations throughout the day for more chances to win.

NEW THIS YEAR!  $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 prize grants will be awarded to the top three small nonprofit organizations—with budgets under $750,000—which receive the most dollars on Give to the Max Day.

Join the E-Democracy 2011 Team Challenge!
We’re building out a team of volunteer Forum Managers and ardent supporters to help us on Give to the Max Day. Join your Forum Manager’s team or create a team of your own!

Our goal is to raise $500 for each forum. 80% of the funds raised will be dedicated to outreach in that forum’s neighborhood. Donations from multiple team members raising funds for the same forum will be combined. Dollars will be spent on further outreach as determined by the Forum Manager and E-Democracy.org and must be spent in 2012.

Visit E-Democracy’s donation page now to learn more about E-Democracy’s inclusive outreach work.

Please make a donation of $10, $25, $50, $100 or more in support of E-Democracy!

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The other month I had the honor to participate at the Aspen Institute’s Forum on Communication and Society.

One morning they stuck me in front of the camera …

Steven Clift: When you roll up your sleeves you can shape democracy from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

Some of my comments were mixed into this great compilation video as well:

The Digital Revolution & Democracy (intro) from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

The event was a heady experience. It was quite a contrast to our inspiring grass roots online inclusion work in diverse communities this year. I believe I was invited in part to be the voice of those on the front lines of online community engagement for all, not just those who already show up. I made a point of sharing a draft hand-out on Digital Inclusion for Community Voices and shared a number of real life examples during the event. Watch Archon Fung from Harvard tee things up on citizen engagement online and my comments at 14:46 via LiveStream. (Note Archon’s insightful slides – also below.)

Delegates included folks like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Paula Kerger the CEO of PBS, Norman Ornstein, Alberto Ibarguen head of the Knight Foundation and others. Vice President Gore stopped by one morning too (he didn’t realize this session at Aspen was uniquely being webcast live). I recall noting to myself in a breakfast buffet line, “Hey there is someone in jeans, I should have worn jeans too. Oh, it’s a Supreme Court justice.” Elena Kagan was in Aspen for a different seminar on justice.

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Here is a secret – politicians don’t really care about opinions expressed online … that is unless they are from their actual voters. Then watch out, because then you will see real democratic change in action.

As we’ve added neighborhood level engagement with “community life” exchange to our classic city-wide online town halls, we’ve seen a twenty fold increase in the percentage of households in the area participating (from 1% to 20% in some areas). We’ve also seen a major embrace, at least in Minneapolis … hey, St. Paul we want you next … by city council members, park board members and others.

Check out these recent passionate community discussions on airport noise (89+ posts) in Standish Ericsson and recreational fires and smoke (55+ posts) in Longfellow.

The below is the impressive and responsive full text from two different city council members. Every local elected official, everywhere should be part of an online space that makes this happen. (An not just some surface-level Facebook page that cuts you off with a paragraph or two or some puff your chest out political tweets.)

First, from Councilmember Sandy Colvin Roy on airport noise and then second from Councilmember Cam Gordon.

Metropol
itan Airport Commission (MAC) staff have responded to my inquiry about

an increase in airplane noise.  They confirmed through statistics, what you
have observed.  There has been an increase in flights going over Standish and
Ericsson.  Between January and August of last year, 16,093 flights went
directly over these neighborhoods and in 2011, 20,441 flight flew over. That
translates to an average of 67 flights per day for 2010 and average of 84
flights per day in 2011.  I have requested numbers going back five years in
order to get a longer term view of the situation.

The flights being directed over Standish Ericsson are coming off runway 30R.
Surprisingly, overall use of runway 30R actually went down quite a bit this
year compared to last so it is puzzling why there is an increase in planes
flying over these neighborhoods. When MAC staff inquired at the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) about the reason, they said the increase was due
to their policy of using runway 30R for north and east bound planes when there
are northwest [air] flow conditions present.   This still does not answer the
question for me because I am told that this is not a new policy.  So, why are
there more departures than before that fit this criterion?  I need to get
answers from the FAA.  I am scheduling a meeting with the Control Tower Manager
to discuss this because he determines which runway to use in accordance with
FAA rules.

MAC staff was also able to document that noise levels have increased. The
remote monitoring tower (RMT) located on Northrop Elementary (installed at my
insistance) showed average noise level for 2010 as 49.9 dB DNL and the average
noise level for 2011 as 51.1 dB DNL.  At Longfellow Avenue and 43rd Street, the
RMT reported average noise level went from 56.3 to 56.8 dB DNL.

Some residents had questions about fleet mix.  This is what Chad Leqve (Manager
- Noise, Environment and Planning at MAC) said in response to those questions:
“The general trend is that the aircraft fleetmix at MSP is getting quieter. The
DC9 aircraft, the loudest in the fleet for many years, is being removed from
the fleet. It is anticipated that in 2012 Delta will remove the last of the
DC9s from its fleet. Conversely, operations by A320/319, B737, MD80, MD 90 and
regional jets have increased over the neighborhoods in question. All of these
aircraft , with the exception of the MD80, are significantly quieter than the
DC9. The MD80 is quieter than the DC9, but not to the degree of the others
listed. Overall the aircraft fleetmix trend is in the right direction from a
noise perspective.”

Are the planes flying lower? MAC staff says there have been no changes to
flight operations (take-offs and landing procedures and flight tracks).  They
could think of no reason that the planes would be flying lower. This is another
topic I need to cover with FAA staff.

Some on this group have talked about the use of Performance Based Navigation
(such as RNAV).  These are navigation techniques that could impact how planes
take-off and land, flight tracks, and noise exposure and intensity.   However,
these techniques have not yet been implemented at MSP.  In fact, the FAA is
still in the process of developing the procedures for MSP.  The new proposed
procedures will go through a review process that will include public comment
and an environmental assessment.  New proposed flight tracks are expected to be
shared as early as this November. This will be a VERY important discussion.  I
will be keeping you informed about this process. We, as a community, will want
to be actively involved throughout.  We will also need to ensure that folks at
all level of government are engaged.

I don’t have all of the information we want right now but I knew you would be
anxious for an update. I will continue to work through various channels to
understand exactly what changes have occurred and why.  This is the first step
to possible improvements.  As you probably understand, I have no direct
authority over the airport’s activities but I will do everything I can to
advocate for our community.

I will not share details now since this is already a long post but you should
know that I have been working hard on your behalf (and for all people who are
impacted by airport noise) by fighting some potentially harmful proposed
federal legislation.  I have rallied the help of U.S. Senators Klobuchar and
Franken and Congressman Ellison. We are carefully monitoring work on
reauthorization of the FAA and working with people throughout the country to
protect the interests of airport adjacent communities. If you want to know more
about work on this issue, let me know.

In the meantime, please continue to share your concerns with MAC via their
noise hotline:              612-726-9411       or online complaint form:
http://www.macnoise.com/complaint

Sandy Colvin Roy
Keewaydin
Council Member, 12th Ward

Now the smoke:

I have been reading this thread with interest.

I have heard complaints about wood burning and recreational fires since first
being elected to the City Council in 2005 and this is a topic I have done some
research about. I have enjoyed wood fires all my life and I want the air we
breath to be safer and cleaner.

My understand is that the Minneapolis City government banned recreational fires
in the past and then reversed that decision before I was elected. The last time
the ordinance was amended was in 2003. The rules we have now appear to be
focused on fire safety and are pretty consistent with what other cities are
doing, although a more thorough study of what other mid- to large-sized cities
do has not been conducted recently as far as I know. There does seem to be a
difference in most people's minds between indoor fire places and outdoor yard
fires, although air quality studies often don't distinguish between the two.
The health experts also indicate that there is a difference between the types
of stoves or furnaces as well as the material burned. Certain wood stoves and
furnaces burn cleaner that others.

It is clear to me that people have strong feelings about this on both sides of
the issue.  Some people, depending perhaps on their health and on the frequency
of the recreational fires near their homes, consider recreational fires to be a
major health issue and something that dramatically affects their quality of
life and ability to enjoy their homes.

There is an easy to read article (Health Effects of Wood Smoke Exposure) about
this in this 2009 newsletter from the state health department (pages 5 and 6).

http://www.health.state.mn.us/asthma/documents/bs0309.pdf

At this point I am convinced that there is room for improvement in our
approach.  I am not sure if the problem is with the ordinance or with its
enforcement, or with both. I am slowly moving to a position that says both
could be improved. The ordinance may need to be amended in some ways, perhaps
calling out air quality a little more clearly and adding some regulations or
restrictions related to it.  Currently, the ordinance says that recreational
fires shall not be conducted if prevailing wind conditions exceed ten m.p.h. I
believe it might make sense to also limit them during particularly dry periods,
or during times when air quality is especially bad.  Examining some kinds of
additional time restrictions may also be in order.  For those with asthma,
emphysema, or other breathing difficulties, it seems unreasonable that they
should have to endure wood fires burning next door most hours of most days.

Still, most of the complaints we hear about are about fires that violate some
portion of the City's existing recreational fire ordinance.  This tells me that
some of the problem is in compliance with the current ordinance and could be
addressed with improved public education about the issue and better
enforcement.  Last spring we were able to include a mailing about this with our
water bills.  You can see the insert here:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2010-meetings/20100514/Docs/RecreationalFires_INSERT.pdf

This issue came up recently for a brief discussion at a recent Council
Committee when we were reviewing our air quality sustainability indicator.  In
the months ahead I will be talking to colleagues, community members,  and staff
from both the Health and Regulatory as well as Fire department. I think that it
would also be very helpful if the appropriate committees of our neighborhood
organizations and our citywide Environmental and Public Health Advisory
Committees would also be take the time review and weigh in on the issue.

I am open to looking at possible changes both to the ordinance and to how we
enforce it.

It is clear to me that we, as a city, don't have a clear consensus about how to
handle this issue.  Perhaps, by sharing accurate, credible information and
keeping the conversation going, we can find one.

The conversation here may be one way to help do that.  Thank you all so much
for taking the time to write and read and care about our city.

Cam Gordon
Minneapolis City Council Member, Second Ward
673-2202, 296-0579
<email obscured>
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ward2/
http://secondward.blogspot.com/

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In May 2011 our updated forum rules went into effect.

How are they working for you so far?

While have not had one complaint about a new rule or rule change, we’d like hear of any. Also, there are the rules and there is implementation of these rules by our volunteer forum managers. If you have any specific comments about how we’ve applied the new rules over the last few months, let us know as well.

These rules represent our freedom of assembly based our desire for strong civility and the use of real names.

Here is the verbatim summary from our full rules:

Rules Summary

1. Real Names Required: Register and post with your real name and community.
2. Right to Post and Reply: Sharing your knowledge and opinions with your fellow participants is a democratic right.
3. Limits on Posting within a Forum’s Purpose: Two posts per day per member on most forums. Forum charters determine geographic or topical scope.
4. Be Civil: No name-calling. Respect among people with differing views is our cornerstone.
5. No Personal Attacks: This keeps the forums welcoming and safer.
6. Private Stays Private: Don’t forward private communication without permission.
7. Avoid Unsubstantiated Rumors: Asking for clarification of what you’ve heard in the community can be appropriate if issues-based. You alone are responsible for what you post.
8. Items Not Allowed in Forums: No strong profanity, pornographic content, chain letters, unsolicited commercial advertising, etc. Forum charters may detail examples or exceptions including allowing commercial exchange and advice.
9. Public Content and Use: You are sharing your content under the E-Democracy.org selected Creative Commons license unless you state an alternative copyright.
10. Warnings and Suspensions: You may receive informal or official warnings. The volunteer Forum Manager is responsible for facilitation and enforcing rules. With your second official warning in one year, you are suspended for two weeks. You may appeal all warnings after a third warning that brings a six-month suspension.
11. Forum Managers: Each forum has a manager with responsibilities and technical privileges to meet those responsibilities. Disputes with Forum Managers may be brought to E-Democracy.org through various mechanisms.

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Whether it is Somali Independence Day in Minneapolis (video), Rondo Days, or the CHAT Hmong arts festival in St. Paul, our new outreach team will be in the field across the community this summer.

Our goal is to recruit at least 1,000 new participants across our Twin Cities online neighborhood forums (15 forums open with 18 new forums in the pipeline) with major growth in the diverse, lower income neighborhoods we work with as part of our Inclusive Social Media effort.

Here is our lead summer outreach team – along with their diverse community and neighborhoods of focus:

• Corrine Bruning – Outreach Coordinator
• Ayanna Raven Benitez – Latino (Powderhorn, Phillips)
• Damon Drake – African-American (East Side, Summit-U Rondo, Frogtown)
• Deanna StandingCloud – Native American (Phillips mostly)
• Julia Nekessa Opoti – East African (Special engagement work, Cedar Riverside extending to Seward, Phillips)
• Kaying Thao – SE Asian (East Side, North End, Frogtown)

As great applicants for the part-time positions above (most are two month summer jobs except for Julia and Corrine) came in, we felt compelled to add some additional outreach roles. Let’s call them “volunteers+” for their dedication, as they provide additional grass roots outreach in the community. The idea is to time-efficiently leverage their existing networks and existing activities deep in the community as they recruit up to 100 people each.

Thank you for joining us:

• LaShunda Jackson – African-American/Everyone in Frogtown
• Mustafa Adam – East African Outreach (Any Forum)
• Salmah Hussien – East African Outreach (Any Forum)
• Sandy Ci Moua – SE Asian Outreach (St. Paul-wide)
• Possible – Additional Latino Outreach (West Side St. Paul) – Interested? Contact us.

This project is supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, and the Knight Foundation (St. Paul Foundation donor-advised fund).

With all of this “digital inclusion for community voices” work, we are experimenting and generating “how to” lessons we will be sharing via future Inclusive Social Media webinars, via the Digital Inclusion Network, and other means. One lesson we can share now is a reflection on trust.

Trust.

Trust is a powerful thing.

Going to a community and saying “we will empower you, just trust us” simply does not work. If anything, it will get you tossed out. Further, taking a technology-first approach can create distrust and generate conflict if you roll over long-time and essential community voices who happen to be the wrong side of the digital divide. Inclusion isn’t providing an “opportunity” and then being satisfied when few show up.

With this in mind, we had one of the most powerful and humbling E-Democracy.org gatherings in our 18 year history the other week.

Gathered around the table/phone were most of our recently contracted ten member Diverse Communities Outreach Team. While our funded Inclusive Social Media effort is focused on lower income, high immigrant or highly diverse neighborhoods, all of our all volunteer-based forums should strive to broadly represent the full diversity of their neighborhood not just of those who most easily “show up.” The fact that Internet users who make 75K a year are 5 times more likely to belong to a neighborhood e-mail list or forum than someone online who makes 50K of less a year can not stand (15% v. 3%) (Source: PewInternet.org). Our direct experience is that all neighborhoods can benefit from digital community engagement and the digital divide is no excuse to wait.

During the meeting it dawned on me that this was NOT about E-Democracy.org building enough trust to get people to join forums on a website they have never heard of, it was about our team members putting their own hard earned trust on the line.  They are sharing their trust to help build our shared effort and vision that all people who live near each other (of many different backgrounds) should be able to talk to each other in an open, accessible, welcoming, civil, and effective local community building setting online.

Gulp.

(On a related note, one outreach leader noting skepticism in initial conversations, said anything that starts with “e-” is thought of as a likely pyramid scheme in their community.)

So together we are rolling up our sleeves and getting out into the community to reach people one at time so every voice can be heard one click at a time.

Some Video

Say here is our video from our Somali Independence Day as well as May Day outreach.

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The Federal Communication Commission with the Knight Foundation have put up a very interesting challenge called Apps for Communities.

• Download GroupServer - We’ve put up GroupServer.org as the “app” for this competition. It is designed for technology hosts. End-users engage the app via the web and e-mail.
• With certain customizations that we use and most importantly a “human” outreach wrapper we call our Inclusive Social Media project, we hope to have a decent chance at recognition.

Below is the text of our submission:

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As our summer of Inclusive Social Media outreach gets underway across St. Paul and Minneapolis, we’ve put together a presentation introducing “Neighbors Forums.”

The slides are detailed so you can skim or go in-depth. Additional download options are at the bottom of this post.

Invite us to present in-person in your neighborhood. Our Outreach Coordinator Corrine Bruning is also available for small group overviews in our target inclusion neighborhoods in particular. So far we have an on-demand video version with audio that goes in-depth (play it below).

In addition to the presentation, we have a new flyer available in our print materials section.

If you would like the start a new forum in your area anywhere please contact us. With renewed grant funding, we are focused on growing and launching as many diverse community forums (see our outreach summer job posting) as possible in St. Paul and Minneapolis. tcneighbors.org is our new promotional web address where folks can quickly find their local forum or request a new one.

How can you help?

If you don’t see yourself starting a new forum in your neighborhood, you can still get involved! Please join our Projects online volunteer group here or monitor it via Facebook or Twitter. We put out calls for assistance there. If you are covered by a forum, contact your local Forum Manager and offer to assist with outreach.

Also, if you are software developer, please join the GroupServer Development group and help us develop new features or join our proposed next generation BeNeighbors.org effort.

New communities?

Are you from outside Minnesota, Oxford and Bristol in the UK, or Christchurch, New Zealand? We are open to hosting forums both at the neighborhood-level but also city-wide “online town halls” based on our classic Issues Forum model everywhere. Eau Claire, Wisconsin is next. If you have the will and the dedication to do real outreach, we have the technology and lessons that plain and simple – work!

This isn’t an auto-pilot, set it and forget model (nothing is), but wouldn’t you rather build your local online community supported by a network providing mutual benefit and support? If not, if you prefer your own technology or think Facebook Pages really work over the long-run (you need 20x the “Likers” for comparable activity so we use rather than rely on Facebook at our core), that’s awesome. Take our lessons and run with it because millions remain unserved. Also join the Locals Online community of practice that we host with hundreds of people doing local good online.

Additional Slide Options

Download options: PowerPoint – Full Version, PowerPoint – Short VersionPDF Online Viewing, PDF Print Full Page, PDF Handout 6 to Page

Watch/listen with extended audio:

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Check out some of the images across our community and neighborhood Issues Forums courtesy of ShapeCollage.com. Can you tell that pet adoptions are hot in our Las Vegas, New Mexico forum as well as lost and found pets in our Twin Cities Neighbors Forums? Interesting, lost pets result in a number of new members. People join to find their pet and stay for the community and civic engagement. This is one reason why our multi-topic “community information stream” approach really works and meets our mission.

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