PfCONA and Texas Forums Special Events Right Around the Corner (Town Meeting, Candidate Forums Update, Re-engaging Citizens Speaker)

*PfCONA TOWN MEETING**PfCONA TOWN MEETING**PfCONA TOWN MEETING*

Monday, March 13th at 7:00 pm is PfCONA Town Meeting from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Pflugerville Justice Center at 1611 E. Pfenning Ln. Will include Fire Chief Ron Moellenberg sharing with community a proposed design of two-story classrooms next Pfluger Hall and two-story Administration Building next to downtown fire station, both with same architecture as fire station.

Meeting will include brief highlights of: City's Strategic Planning Meeting; special meeting between citizens, PfCONA board, Mayor, and City Manager on drafting of a city Commercial Development Negotiations Policy; and Texas Forums work on engaging citizens in democracy and how Pflugerville citizens can learn from it and join in.

***CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM***CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM***

Rescheduled for March 30th (no longer on March 13th) from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm is annual City Council Candidate Forum. Thursday Forum will be held at Brookhollow Elementary Cafeteria at 1200 N. Railroad Ave. Candidates will introduce themselves and their platforms. Questions will come from participating residents, neighborhood leaders, sponsors, and moderators. At this time, one candidate has filed for Place 3, John Welborn. Two candidates have filed for Place 5, Sidney Hacker and Victor Gonzales. Forum will be videotaped for showing on Cox Cable. Ch. 10 and a copy will be made available at the Library.

**SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE FORUM**SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE FORUM**

Scheduled for March 29th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm is annual School Board Candidate Forum. Wednesday Forum will be held at Brookhollow Elementary Cafeteria at 1200 N. Railroad Ave. Candidates will introduce themselves and their platforms. Questions will come from participating residents, neighborhood leaders, sponsors, and moderators. At this time, Elva Gladney has filed for Place 1 and Cynthia Graves has filed for Place 2. Forum will be videotaped for showing on Cox Cable. Ch. 10 and a copy will be made available at the Library.

**TEXAS FORUMS EVENT**TEXAS FORUMS EVENT**TEXAS FORUMS EVENT**

March 14th - Texas Forums Speaker on Re-engaging Citizens in Public Life.

Come on Tuesday, March 14, 2006, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the LBJ Auditorium Atrium (10th Floor), University of Texas at Austin, for an evening with Richard C. Harwood, president and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a nonprofit catalytic organization dedicated to helping people imagine and act for the public good. Click here to download a flier or click here to participate in online forum. Click here for a Podcast with a view of what it means to be a citizen (playing an active role/having some responsibility) and dysfunctional consumer mentality.

Harwood is an established thought-leader on issues of re-engaging citizens in public life, building public capital, and creating strong communities. He will be speaking about his latest book “Hope Unraveled: The People’s Retreat and Our Way Back”. This event will be free and open to the public and will serve as an important catalyst for a subsequent series of forums on the issue “Democracy’s Challenge”.

Richard Harwood will sign his book available for sale at 6:30 p.m. A reception in the Great Hall will follow Mr. Harwood's speech Seating is limited. Please register here!
Go to Texas Forums website: http://www.texasforums.org/ for more info.

Note: Some current and past PfCONA board members have been through Texas Forums moderator training and are volunteers for Texas Forums. Texas Forums has also helped PfCONA with a past consensus-building workshop on subject of gambling. Democracy/Civic Duty-type workshops may be sponsored by PfCONA in the future in conjunction with Texas Forums. CivicSee www.texasforums.org/ or click here for info on The Deliberative Democracy Handbook or register here for a Democracy Challenge Forum.

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Forums and related get out the vote activities are part of PfCONA's Pflugerville VOTES! project. PfCONA website has included contact information and links to candidate material so residents may compare candidates and plans to do so again. Contact Jeff Sims, PfCONA Vice Chair (jssims@cox.net), about Pflugerville VOTES! signs for your yard or neighborhood entrances. They have blanks so you can include early voting and election dates.

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E-mail from Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations (PfCONA)

www.pfcona.org, info@pfcona.org

PfCONA's efforts include being a clearinghouse of information for the Pflugerville community and to foster collaborative efforts, workgroups, and forums to develop solutions for the community. Ask how your business or organization can become involved in PfCONA's "Welcome to Pflugerville" project.