Public Listening: Getting a Pulse on Childcare in Our Community

This meeting is open to anyone that has kids in the Metrocrest (Addison, Farmers Branch, Carrollton) or a perspective on childcare in the area that they feel would benefit this group. We will meet at Meeting Room 1. There is no need to bring anything but yourselves.

Agenda:
10-10:30 Nametags and a light breakfast of Bialys from yours truly. No food's allowed in the meeting room, but the library offers an outdoor patio that we can eat on before we begin the discussion proper.
10:30-12:15 Introduction to consensus decision-making and its roles, followed by sharing of group experience on childcare in the Metrocrest and how it affects us, adversely or otherwise.
12:15-12:30 Confirming the next meeting.

We may only just step into the waters of the central topic at this meeting. I want to be respectful of everyone's time, especially given I hope most of the attendees will be parents, so I have only made the discussion period two hours with some time given at the end to confirm the next meeting.

The term 'public listening' is something I derived from our existing function of 'public comment' where citizens can speak on a topic to their council members for a few minutes, but will generally not receive any feedback during a council meeting. The format, while I understand its reasons, made me ask, where is the political space where people can talk and have reciprocal dialogue? Where is the function where people can lend their perspectives to be part of solution-making? Hence the need for public listening.

I am assuming consensus decision-making will be unfamiliar to the group, and I will take the time to explain it along with its key roles without lecturing on them, before we get into group discussion.

https://www.consensusdecisionmaking.org/
I recommend reading this website and watching Tim Hartnett's primer video on the process before attending, though, of course, it is not required that you do so.

Given I am not a parent, I will primarily be a facilitator rather than active participant in the group dialogue. The primary goal of this meeting is to determine the group's attitude and perceptions around childcare in our community through the sharing and listening to individual perspective. We need a shared awareness of this topic and its effects on the group, to understand where the issues, if any, may lie with childcare in our communities. Future meetings may then be dedicated to building proposals around our group's needs and concerns in that area.