Nice article. I like that it maintains a positive tone and focuses on increasing participation!
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I agree. You always want more participation even if it expresses an opinion that differs from your own.
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I’m glad they finally got it to digital so we can share it out. Hitting up Twitter and FB now!
If anybody else wants to share, please use the short URL http://rlgh.life/voices so we can track. Thanks!
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Reminder about the DTR CAC event at Transfer Co. this evening.
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The more the merrier! If you aren’t following us on Twitter, we may even have some City Council-members in attendance!
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Our November DTRCAC Social has been scheduled and will be at Weaver Street! We’ve also moved the time up to 5:30p. Mark your calendars for 11/13!
RSVP
Facebook: http://rlgh.life/social1113fb
MeetUp: http://rlgh.life/social1113mu
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We took December off due to the holidays and are scheduling a “working session” in January. The socials will pick back up in February.
We’re inviting all of those that want to contribute and/or have ideas for community engagement to come to our working session at the Loading Dock Prince Hall on January 16 at 6p. Please use one of the links below to RSVP. Even if you can’t go, saying you’re “Interested” on Facebook helps with exposure and would be greatly appreciated.
RSVP
Facebook: http://rlgh.life/jan16fb
MeetUp: http://rlgh.life/jan16mu
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RSVP for our January 16 working session @LoadingDockRal Prince Hall!
Help us activate DTR!
MeetUp: http://rlgh.life/jan16mu
Facebook: http://rlgh.life/jan16fb
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Next DTR CAC social is February 19th at 5:30p!
Come join us at Clouds Brewing on West St. to discuss DTR with other DTR peeps!
RSVP: Facebook http://rlgh.life/feb19fb
or MeetUp http://rlgh.life/feb19mu
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i love our new city council.
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In case anyone is wondering what we think about this all:
For those that don’t know about us, please let us reintroduce ourselves. The group behind the Downtown CAC are advocates for public engagement volunteering our time to help get the word out about Raleigh and some of the big things we think you should know about in Downtown Raleigh. We feel that when more voices are heard, better projects and better policies are put in place. We launched our efforts in August 2019.
With Raleigh’s current citizen engagement system already in place, the Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs), we felt complementing that system was the obvious choice. More voices at the CAC meetings would therefore accomplish our mission.
As advocates and/or residents of the downtown area, we noticed that downtown Raleigh was split across several CAC boundaries. To engage Raleighites who felt a part of the whole downtown, our efforts were to route them to each respective CAC on specific issues as well as just bring general awareness to the current system.
In the past 6 months, our efforts have resulted in a few hundred followers between our social media pages and email newsletter, an audience that is growing. We host monthly socials so that advocates can chat face-to-face. The agenda is open and casual.
Recently, the Raleigh City Council voted to disband the CAC system and is working to create a new Office of Public Engagement. Our all-volunteer group’s mission has always been about “activating” new Raleighites, particularly those that live in the downtown area, that were otherwise not being heard or just not participating for a variety of reasons.
Our mission still stands.
While we may not be routing Raleighites to CAC meetings for the time being, we’ll be keeping an eye on the ongoing efforts of the new Office of Public Engagement and will be actively participating and sharing our followers’ feedback with City Council.
If you are not already following us, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook and get our email newsletter. We also host monthly socials so that advocates can chat face-to-face, so check out our Meetup page.
Articles about the recent council decision to disband the CAC system:
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Just relaying this info: there’s a Facebook group that is furious over the disbandment of CACs but one post has tried to insinuate this DTR CAC group somehow had prior knowledge of this city council action. Did my best to dispel those rumors.
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That’s funny. So what if we did? We most certainly didn’t, but so what? And why would city council tell us and no other CAC chairs including the RCAC. 
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Thanks for that. We knew nothing of this. Not even talk of change. Zippo.
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Yeah, like, a community group that’s advocating increased attendance in CACs (including a possible creation of a new one) somehow had nefarious intentions within city council to disband CACs altogether? Makes sense. In defense other members of that FB group they also thought Mailchimp was somehow involved because someone rich (probably insinuating Kane) was paying for it. Not…really knowledgeable of the Internet there.
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Exactly. Nothing like social media facts.
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Please consider taking this survey.
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report on Raleigh’s gutsy call to move past CACs
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The DTRCAC is (kind of) being reactivated. Not necessarily with the same mission, at least not yet.
We’re using the DTR CAC “brand” to help promote downtown street cleanups. Several communities are doing this each month, and we’d like to help encourage additional communities to join the effort around their respective areas.
I know many of you live downtown or even own businesses downtown. We would love it if you could help spearhead this effort with your apartment complex, condo HOA, etc to organize your own clean-ups on the 2nd Saturday of the month. See the DTR CAC FB post below for more information.
Facebook Post: Redirecting...
Tweet: https://twitter.com/dtrcac/status/1393288800231694337?s=20
If this gets some decent traction we may even work to organize meet-ups after the clean-ups but one step at a time.
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