If They Ask What You Think, TELL THEM

An open meeting for the purpose of citizen input doesn't sound like the most exciting way to spend a morning, but it turned out to be pleasant as well as educational. Nashua NH is a high-tech, entrepreneurial town with a higher than average family education and income, so citizens can be articulate and insightful. Add to that a passion for a subject–the arts, family values, history–whatever, and 2 to 4 minute snippets of personal reflection become little jewels.

The Board of Aldermen of Nashua are holding a series of four meetings, one in each quadrant of the city. Each meeting asks the same four questions and allows attendees to speak on the record about each one:

• What qualities of Nashua make it a great place to live?
• What qualities, services, or facilities would make it an even better place to live?
• On an average day, what things about the City impact the quality of your life?
• In the area where you live, what issues cause you the greatest concern?

At the two meetings that have been held so far, the participants expressed similar thoughts on the good qualities of Nashua, and the list got to be extensive.  Suggestions for additional qualities, services or facilities surfaced at least 30 excellent suggestions. Impacts and concerns were a little more predictable, but a few stood out as real insights.

The format was informal, so it gave people an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other and to compared ideas as each wrote their thought on a separate color-coded sticky note. It was, yes, the elusive "sense of community." Thanks, Aldermen!

The Aldermen have two more intake sessions to go, then a lot of work to assimilate the data and report it back to citizens. The consolidated information will be added to the city's baseline Strategic Report to update the 2003 document and new thoughts where needed.

The meeting was definitely not a yawner, even on a beautiful pre-spring Saturday morning. Several participants even asked if they could attend the other sessions. The Aldermen gave a resounding "YES! - Bring your friends!"  It will be fun to see if the number of attendees grows as the series progresses.