Matthew Lewis, who is heading up Imagine Austin and CodeNEXT for the city, has invited a limited number of FANs to a session prior to the CodeNEXT Sound Check. The session will focus on:
What will happen during the Sound Check
How tradeoffs will be addressed
What can be done to attract other FANs to participate at the Sound Check.
The session will be on Monday, November 16 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm at The Linc (formerly Lincoln Village), 6406 N. I-35 Frontage Road, Suite 2850A.
Matthew indicated up to five members of FAN are invited. Who would like to represent FAN at this session?
By the way, the leaders of ANC and AURA also received this invitation, and they will participate in the same session.
I really hope @Kristen_A_Fox and @Meghan_Elizabeth will considering attending, if they able. Both have a great grasp of LDC issues and will bring a lot to this convo.
I’ll throw my name in as a stand-by but I’ll have to see if I can shuffle a work meeting to be there.
I am happy to go and am available. Have also signed up for 10 of the events. Fine if I am not one of the 5 from FAN, hope nobody makes the trade-off though to attend this instead of more “pin-up” sessions, as that is where we can have the most impact.
Can you explain the value of the “pin-up” sessions? I have to parcel out my time and I’ve been to too many meetings lately that were dominated by ANC members complaining and had no real input component.
Later today or tomorrow, let’s whittle it down to five based on diversity and level of interest that each of the volunteers expressed.
@tthomas48 Details are still a little fuzzy on the pin-up sessions, but I believe they are an opportunity to review and comment on the models of what would emerge from the new code. As there should be, there will be a diversity of comments. Let’s make sure our voices are among those represented!
@Phil_Wiley You’re right about the importance of participating in the pin-up sessions. Everyone, please sign up here for at least one pin-up session.
Here is my understanding how the Sound Check will work, & what our priorities should be based on earlier discussion with Staff. I will confirm / correct each point with them.
(1) The place to comment on / influence potential policy is at the three “pin-up” sessions - much more so than anything we have participated in to date!!! Every day the specialists will model different scenarios for each of the 7 “example” areas being studied (the locations where the recent walks were held). Every day they will pin-up their new work for public comment. I would suggest if you can only go to three sessions (or less) that these three be the priority. Natalie - believe it is open house vs. mandatory start time, & will confirm / clarify.
(2) The second most important events to attend are the opening & closing ceremonies, I would suggest in that order, as the opening ceremony will set the plate for all to follow.
(2b) If you are not familiar with the 7 areas, or those most of interest to your situation, you may consider trying to. I participated in 2 walks, surveyed extensively a 3rd area - not required, but will help make better informed recommendations. “Extra credit” since attendance at the walks was fairly light, this could potentially separate your feedback above the fray (or not).
(3) The “brown bag education sessions” are for you to learn, more than to comment on / influence potential policy.
(4) The “open studio” time is an opportunity to see how the specialists do their modeling work. I don’t think there is value in attending more than one, so will do the first.
Please forgive the duplicate posting - we have two sound check discussions currently live.
The pin up sessions are not meant to be a means to influence policy but rather, to provide a platform by which to provide commentary on the concepts being tested. We will not be modeling different scenarios for each focus area but you may see an evolution of various code standards throughout the week. Keep in mind this is a learning exercise for our team as well as the public and not a platform to influence policy. Policy has been set by Council: implement Imagine Austin.
We really need to make sure we have FANs at all of the sessions, or as many as possible. I’m thinking about creating a Google Doc sign-up sheet for FAN so we can see who’s going when and strategize. Do you guys think that would be a good idea?
@cevangill We have plenty of volunteers for the special session, and they are listed in the Google document I referenced a few messages ago. The challenge now is culling the list down to five.
EDIT: I see now you were referring to the regular sessions. I’m not sure we need a doc to track it as long as people are signing up via the Eventbrite link, but feel free if you think it would be helpful.
After much wrangling over the excellent set of volunteers to represent FAN at the special Sound Check session, I would like to suggest this slate of five: