November 2016 ABAC meeting

[sjclaeys]

Has the decision by ACPD to often station an officer at 19th St and Van Buren been raise to the ACPD at an ABEC meeting? Would be interesting to know what the objective criteria are to station an officer there versus intersections that likely have a much higher rate of crashes and that ACPD has the funds to station an officer at this intersection but does not have the funds to regularly increase presence at Lee & Lynn.

In addition, for the ABAC to consider, it would be certainly be in the spirit of government transparency to put out notification on the Forum when the minutes of ABAC meetings are posted.

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 148641 wrote:

Has the decision by ACPD to often station an officer at 19th St and Van Buren been raise to the ACPD at an ABEC meeting? Would be interesting to know what the objective criteria are to station an officer there versus intersections that likely have a much higher rate of crashes and that ACPD has the funds to station an officer at this intersection but does not have the funds to regularly increase presence at Lee & Lynn.

Good point. Will raise tonight (I imagine the answer will have something to do with complaints)

@sjclaeys 148641 wrote:

In addition, for the ABAC to consider, it would be certainly be in the spirit of government transparency to put out notification on the Forum when the minutes of ABAC meetings are posted.

Drafts get posted to the publicly available googlegroup. Finals are posted to ABAC’s publicly available website. Someone could certainly link to them here if they had the time.

*be the change you want to see in the world*

[sjclaeys]

@dasgeh 148656 wrote:

Drafts get posted to the publicly available googlegroup. Finals are posted to ABAC’s publicly available website. Someone could certainly link to them here if they had the time.

*be the change you want to see in the world*

Mmmm, so you are saying that no one at ABAC can post a short announcement on the Forum when the minutes are available and that someone not on ABAC should instead constantly check the googlegroup?

[americancyclo]

@sjclaeys 148665 wrote:

Mmmm, so you are saying that no one at ABAC can post a short announcement on the Forum when the minutes are available and that someone not on ABAC should instead constantly check the googlegroup?

Are you asking Dana to post them? It looks like he’s been posting the drafts on the google group.

[sjclaeys]

@americancyclo 148675 wrote:

Are you asking Dana to post them? It looks like he’s been posting the drafts on the google group.

No, I am asking that when the minutes are posted to the google group, it would be great if someone then takes the extra minute to post something on the Forum along the lines of “Hey, new minutes posted, check them out!” As it is now, anyone who wants to know if new minutes are posted needs to continually check the googlegroup. I do not see why there is such resistance to this. It would greatly increase transparency of ABAC’s work and inclusiveness for the Arlington cycling community.

[DrP]

@sjclaeys 148680 wrote:

No, I am asking that when the minutes are posted to the google group, it would be great if someone then takes the extra minute to post something on the Forum along the lines of “Hey, new minutes posted, check them out!” As it is now, anyone who wants to know if new minutes are posted needs to continually check the googlegroup. I do not see why there is such resistance to this. It would greatly increase transparency of ABAC’s work and inclusiveness for the Arlington cycling community.

Especially when some of us (like me) had no idea that there was a googlegroup with the minutes or how to get there. Perhaps it has been said in the past, but clearly not strongly enough to stick or in a thread that one didn’t read or wasn’t paying attention to at the time. A monthly link would get more folks there.

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 148680 wrote:

No, I am asking that when the minutes are posted to the google group, it would be great if someone then takes the extra minute to post something on the Forum along the lines of “Hey, new minutes posted, check them out!” As it is now, anyone who wants to know if new minutes are posted needs to continually check the googlegroup. I do not see why there is such resistance to this. It would greatly increase transparency of ABAC’s work and inclusiveness for the Arlington cycling community.

I see your point, but what you’re asking is for volunteers to do more, or for a County employee (who posts the final minutes) to post on a non-County website.

You are welcome to join the googlegroup and receive the emails, so you wouldn’t have to check manually. Also, most months the draft minutes are posted the within a week of the next meeting, sometimes same day.

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 148641 wrote:

Has the decision by ACPD to often station an officer at 19th St and Van Buren been raise to the ACPD at an ABEC meeting? Would be interesting to know what the objective criteria are to station an officer there versus intersections that likely have a much higher rate of crashes and that ACPD has the funds to station an officer at this intersection but does not have the funds to regularly increase presence at Lee & Lynn.

We discussed this. Officers are dispatched in response to complaints to police@arlingtonva.us . (There are a few other ways they get complaints, but this seems to be the most direct). They claim all complaints are eventually addressed. They have put officers at Lynn and Lee some mornings, even though the dedicated program has ended.

[sjclaeys]

@dasgeh 148692 wrote:

I see your point, but what you’re asking is for volunteers to do more, or for a County employee (who posts the final minutes) to post on a non-County website.

You are welcome to join the googlegroup and receive the emails, so you wouldn’t have to check manually. Also, most months the draft minutes are posted the within a week of the next meeting, sometimes same day.

I am not raising this just for my own benefit, but to improve the transparency of ABAC and increase the participation of the Arlington cycling community in ABAC. I still do not understand how making one post on the Forum once a month or so is so burdensome, particularly given the potential benefits to ABAC’s mission. In my opinion, I think that this undermines ABAC’s legitimacy as an Arlington County advisory committee. However, since ABAC refuses to consider these thoughts, I will just leave with noting the following from ABAC’s charter:

Scope
“Provide a forum for citizens to comment to the County on the state of cycling locally and regionally.”

Public Involvement
“To help engage those not naturally inclined to attend public meetings, the BAC should develop an online presence using Google Groups, BikeArlington.com or other social media tools appropriate to their mission.”

[dasgeh]

@sjclaeys 148709 wrote:

I am not raising this just for my own benefit, but to improve the transparency of ABAC and increase the participation of the Arlington cycling community in ABAC. I still do not understand how making one post on the Forum once a month or so is so burdensome, particularly given the potential benefits to ABAC’s mission. In my opinion, I think that this undermines ABAC’s legitimacy as an Arlington County advisory committee. However, since ABAC refuses to consider these thoughts, I will just leave with noting the following from ABAC’s charter:

Scope
“Provide a forum for citizens to comment to the County on the state of cycling locally and regionally.”

Public Involvement
“To help engage those not naturally inclined to attend public meetings, the BAC should develop an online presence using Google Groups, BikeArlington.com or other social media tools appropriate to their mission.”

ABAC does not refuse to consider your thoughts. No one has volunteered to do the work. Anyone can do this. I, personally, welcome someone doing this. I encourage someone to do this. But it would be burdensome for me, so I’m not signing up for this on top of everything else I’ve committed to do.

[rcannon100]

Steve speaks my mind here. At least at the federal level, this level of transparency and notice for an advisory group is expected. I concur that I would think that it would make the group more effective. The amount of effort this requires is minimal – a few moments of button clicking. The benefit is tremendous. And it embiggens democratic dialog.

* And as I always note, I offered to do this years ago and was turned down.

[americancyclo]

@rcannon100 148720 wrote:

* And as I always note, I offered to do this years ago and was turned down.

Better to ask forgiveness than permission!

[lordofthemark]

@sjclaeys 148709 wrote:

I am not raising this just for my own benefit, but to improve the transparency of ABAC and increase the participation of the Arlington cycling community in ABAC. I still do not understand how making one post on the Forum once a month or so is so burdensome, particularly given the potential benefits to ABAC’s mission. In my opinion, I think that this undermines ABAC’s legitimacy as an Arlington County advisory committee. However, since ABAC refuses to consider these thoughts, I will just leave with noting the following from ABAC’s charter:

Scope
“Provide a forum for citizens to comment to the County on the state of cycling locally and regionally.”

Public Involvement
“To help engage those not naturally inclined to attend public meetings, the BAC should develop an online presence using Google Groups, BikeArlington.com or other social media tools appropriate to their mission.”

So if checking the group and then posting here is so easy, why don’t the people kvetching in this thread volunteer to take on this task? (My mood right now is not the best)

[Steve O]

@rcannon100 148720 wrote:

Steve speaks my mind here. At least at the federal level, this level of transparency and notice for an advisory group is expected. I concur that I would think that it would make the group more effective. The amount of effort this requires is minimal – a few moments of button clicking. The benefit is tremendous. And it embiggens democratic dialog.

* And as I always note, I offered to do this years ago and was turned down.

I just invited you, Bob, to the Google Group list. I do not know who turned you down in the past, but I hereby rescind that turning down. Feel free to share notes, minutes or other information from the group with the larger bicycle community as you see fit.

Thanks for your help.

Interesting. You are, in fact, an official member of the committee, so I’m not sure why you were not included on the mailing list before. Now that’s fixed.
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[Tim Kelley]

@rcannon100 148720 wrote:

And it embiggens democratic dialog.

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?10416-Confirmed-More-People-Biking-During-SafeTrack&p=141617#post141617

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