Boston Civic Summit a Success

Clearly civic engagement has arrived as a major issue. 700 people convened in Worcester last November for the Mass. Civic Engagement Summit and now 400 spent their Saturday at yesterday's Boston Civic Summit. Co-chaired by City Councilor Maureen Feeney and James Rooney of the Mass. Convention Center, yesterday's event united civic activitists from across Boston's neighborhoods.

I was only able to attend part of the day due to other commitments. Ron Bell, Governor Patrick's Director for Community Affairs, got the lunch crowd energized with his remarks. Tom Sander, Executive Director of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, effectively related concepts of social capital to the concerns of the neighborhood activists in the room.

Interactive technolog used by America Speaks to facilitate the afternoon session allowed participants quickly get a sense of who was in the room and their common ideas and concerns. I had to leave early but am looking forward to hearing more about the final results of that "21st century town meeting".

It was also encouraging to see that the event was covered in today's Boston Globe, though Universal Hub published first, live from the Summit.

We at SCI look forward to working with others there to follow-up on the energy and ideas from the event. One idea is that the the MassCivicAction website we set up for the state summit could be a resource for follow-up to the Boston summit. Congratulations to the organizers on a successful event!