At a meeting a couple years back, a member of the Long Range Planning committee (now in limbo as an ad hoc) and coincidently a former RCSC board of director used the term "transparency" and then added he hated the word. It brought a smile to my face because I liked him and even more that he acknowledged the importance of more openness in the process we know as self-governance. But transparency for me is far more than just being open. In a previous life we ran 4 websites, 3 of them were interactive. We had a full color monthly magazine that talked to people about the future and what we needed to do. We went to where members worked and did so 6 and 7 days a week where we asked what was important to them. We were an oddity in what was called the "labor movement," because it had morphed so far from being a movement it was laughable. Transparency is about engaging people in ways that are more than just superficial. When we wait for people to come to us, we set ourselves up to be far less than we are when we go to them. It's a process of bringing people to the party, not waiting for them to come. In the coming years, if Sun City is to evolve to its greatest potential, we need far more residents involved than in the recent past. Just curious how others feel?
