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8/3/2019 Notes on Amalgamation Data
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Notes on this Data:
The group Greater Victoria Amalgamation Conversation strongly believes that
community engagement on all levels is necessary to ensure vital, relevant, and
visionary decision making.
For this reason, we chose to invite the public to engage in convivial conversation
about their thoughts and ideas around the topic of amalgamation. At the meeting,
the attendees were promised that their concerns would not go unheardthat the
group would ensure that a report would be prepared on the basis of their comments
and presented to councils, interested groups and individuals, regardless of whether
the group continues in its current form, or not.
This report is written to honour our promise to the many people who attended the
Community Conversation, discussed their ideas passionately and respectfully and who
took the time to write for themselves and others, these thoughtful comments.
Consequently, what we see emerging as a public involvement discourse here was
formed or guided by two very simple questions: what dont we know? And what
can we share? These questions were presented in the hopes that the attendees
would be able to transcend dualistic pro/con discussions. And, judging from these
insights, the questions were successful. In that sense, the comments and ideas in
this report came from a relatively pure, undiluted raw public involvement exercise.
It is important to note that this report does not claim any scientific objectivity or
statistical representation of the populace of Victoria. While it can be considered
embedded, social action research, its findings are in no way indicative of the relative
importance of the issues, nor does this report claim any particular legitimacy as a
basis for future decision making. The report does, however, provide a snapshot of
what issues, concerns and ideas that some engaged citizens, who were willing to
devote their evening to having a conversation on how best we can work together,
concluded.
There were no people invited specificallyother than conversations we may have had
with members of the public. All attendees probably learned about this meetingthrough either print or radio media. There was also an advertisement placed in the
Times Colonist on the Saturday prior to the event and posters distributed to
communities.
At the most basic level, the Greater Victoria Amalgamation Conversation could have
fulfilled its commitment by presenting the actual white poster papers as the report.
However, we were mindful that rolled poster papers are bulky, unorganized and
8/3/2019 Notes on Amalgamation Data
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impractical to engage with.
Consequently, we have decided to present the results in a series of mini-reports:
Where Attendees Reside Currently, comments left on smaller pieces of paper are in
the document Questions/Comments and the bulk of the responses came in from
the tables, these can be found, labeled both numerically and alphabetically in no
particular order in the document table writings: A, B . The editing process here was
non-existent, since the objective was to get the undiluted input from the community.
Two people entered the data from the sheets and this accounts for the conflicting
labeling.
In the interest of transparency, we have also decided to allow free access to the
original poster papers to anyone who would be interested in viewing them. Our group
believes strongly that the key to good decisions in the long term will be the ability to
collaborate and to harness the knowledge capital of our residents. This report is a
first step in this direction. Consequently, the original brainstorming papers will beavailable to anyone who is interested in viewing them. In the interests of
transparency, the papers will be photographed and available in the longer term. For
the next few weeks, they will also be available in the originals. Requests can be made
via email to Shellie Gudgeon ([email protected]).
When reading the report, we recommend that the reader be aware that the
comments were harnessed from a group ranging in size from eight to eleven around a
table. We suggest that while reading the thoughtful results of a creative
conversation, that we all need to become more comfortable with ambiguity,
ambivalence and begin to look to create harmony within apparently divergent views.