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 Brief introduction to consensus decision-making, followed by group discussion of our experience on childcare in and around the Metrocrest and how it affects us, adversely or otherwise.
12:15-12:30 Confirming the next meeting.

We may only just get into the waters of this topic at this meeting. I want to be respectful of everyone's time, 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 that consensus decision-making will be unfamiliar to the group. I will take a few minutes at the start of the meeting to inform expectations and mention some of the key roles that I'm aware of in consensus decision-making without lecturing on them or enforcing them. I feel it is more important for everyone at this initial meeting to have time to be listened to and that group roles can be determined in future discussions.

https://www.consensusdecisionmaking.org/
However, I do recommend reading this website and watching Tim Hartnett's primer video on the process before attending if one has time, 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 an 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 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 any needs and concerns that are uncovered at this meeting.