Local News

Community Conversations

Townhall meeting to focus on strategies for Michigan's future

By Mark Couturier GVL Staff Writer
11/11/2009

The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies is partnering with the Center for Michigan to host a "community conversation" at 7 p.m. today at the Loosemore Auditorium.

Students, faculty and other Michigan residents are invited to participate and share their ideas on how to help the state deal with the many challenges it faces in the 21st century.

Tonight's community conversation will be the second of three such townhall events taking place at Grand Valley State University. The first one was held Nov. 3 and the third is scheduled for Wednesday.

The community conversations are the cornerstone of the Michigan's Defining Moment Public Engagement Campaign, a nonpartisan effort designed to get Michigan citizens involved in local affairs.

More than 6,000 people have participated in community conversations across the state since the program was launched two years ago by Phil Power, a businessman and founder of the Center for Michigan.

Mike Holaday, who serves as the group moderator in the community conversations, said participants are asked to prioritize among nine different strategies suggested as ways to move Michigan forward.

"We have participants vote on which strategy they feel is most urgently needed for improving this state," Holaday said. "Whichever strategy gets the most votes is the one that we discuss. We'll talk about it for the next 15 to 20 minutes and people will tell us how they think this strategy could be pursued. Then we collect all of the ideas from various conversation groups and put them into a large database. From there, the Center for Michigan and a Lansing-based think tank called Public Sector Consultants will decide early next year how they want to use these ideas to frame the discussion during the 2010 election campaign."

Holaday said 2010 will be a significant year for Michigan politics because of the unusually high turnover in state government positions expected to take place due to term limits. Not only will Michigan have a new governor, secretary of state and attorney general at the start of 2011, but the legislature will have 31 new senators and 45 new representatives.

"The point of these community conversations is to be able to go to all of these candidates running for office and show them a clear citizen-driven agenda for the state of Michigan," Holaday said. "This has nothing to do with either political party. We don't ask the people who come to these conversations what their political affiliation is."

Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center, said the community conversations are a great way for residents of different backgrounds and political beliefs to come together and find some common ground.

"Michigan is at a crossroads, facing one of its biggest crises in history," Whitney said. "Families are tired of seeing their jobs and children move out of Michigan. They have strong ideas about what needs to change."

Mandi Bird, event planner for the Hauenstein Center, said it is important for students to attend the community conversations if they can.

"Students really need to know about the issues that are happening here in Michigan," Bird said. "It's an essential part of being a good citizen, knowing what's going on in your community and being willing to participate in local affairs."

mcouturier@lanthorn.com

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