New England Roundtable on Blip.tv

The 2005 New England Roundtable on Popular Governance in New England is online at our blip.tv page. Many thanks to members David Lewit for organizing the Roundtable, Cynthia Ritsher and Joanna Herlihy, and Cambridge Community TV for their work and assistance for editing, and to Vince Franke for videotaping this event. The series features 30-minute programs on regional cooperation, on participatory budgeting and community involvement in Brattleboro, Vt., on governance and development issues in Boston, and on the tradition of the New England town meeting as practice d in Concord Massachusetts. Participants in the discussion on regional cooperation include Allan Fairfax of Lawrence, Mass.; community activist Wanda Hines and city planner Michael Monte of Burlington, Vt.; activist Bill McCann of Dover, N.H.; and city councillor Chuck Turner of Boston. Citizens of Brattleboro have often found their town selectmen unresponsive to measures favored by a good proportion of the population. Strategies for dealing with this situation are discussed in a small group at the roundtable on popular governance and participatory government. Participants include Burlington community activists Larry Bloch and Jules Fishelman, and Ned Perry, moderator for the Concord, Mass., town meeting. The challenges of involving economically disenfranchised neighborhoods and residents in fiscal decision-making is outlined by Boston city councillor Chuck Turner in a section on participatory budgeting. He focuses on Boston's governance and funding streams for schools and other services and outlines some needed changes to make budgeting choices more democratic. You can watch the show here or visit the Roundtable page at blip.tv to see different episodes.

Regional cooperation: a discussion

Brattleboro, Vt governance

Burlington, Vt governance

Boston, MA governance

We're excited at the prospect of organizing another Roundtable in the fall of 2009, focused on building and sustaining local economies, a topic suggested by Chuck Turner. To be on the announcement list or to participate in organizing the roundtable, please email Dave Lewit at dlewit@igc.org.