I attended the first meeting for the Coalition for Intelligent Votes by Informed Citizens (CIVIC) last night. There were just over 30 residents of the Kingman area in attendance. Included in the group were a former city councilman, a couple of planning and zoning commissioners, at least one attorney, a few REALTORS, a local developer, a local clergyman, and more (including this blogger - slash - REALTOR - slash - potential candidate for city office).
So what cause does this group rally for?? Who are they against?? Who do they want to see fired??
Actually it is nothing like that at all. Cullen Linn and a few others are the brains behind this group of various individuals whose purpose is to...
(1) provide a venue for members and visitors to explore the various facets of important topics that face the local and national public; (2) increase the involvement of the general public in matters affecting the public; (3) increase voter turnout; and (4) help ensure that citizens casting votes are doing so based on factual data and carefully formulated ideologies rather and misinformation.
Their work is certainly cut out for them, however the above is a very noble undertaking in my opinion. Of the 30 or so in attendance many were what I would consider the younger generation. I'm 36 years old and I'd bet that I was the average age of the group (there were a few 'elders' that probably skewed the average age up). That in itself was tremendous in my opinion.
For a minute here, a little back story about Cullen Linn. He happens to be my wife's son. I don't think of myself as a 'step-father' or anything like that. Cullen obviously has a great Mom (I married her after all) and Cullen's Dad provided all the father-figure any son would ever need. At best for Cullen and his brother (Bob), I hoped to be nothing more than a pal when I entered their life. I'm very fortunate to have been accepted by both young men as a part of the family in many ways. I have the utmost respect for them and truly feel that success in life will find them because they both will work for it. In fact I envy them a bit, I never had the focus these two had at that age.
Cullen is also very intelligent (however I can still kick his ass in Trivial Pursuit... but that's just trivial). I believe he is exploring an idea with the CIVIC group and has surrounded himself with others that are on par with his vision. If anyone or any group can pull off their stated purpose noted earlier... it is these folks (and again, many are young and in their 20's).
The message of CIVIC is one of non bias.
The power of the Group shall be derived from its intent not to directly alter the opinions of its members or the general public, but to ensure that those individuals receive as much of the information surrounding a topic as i necessary to properly formulate their own decisions. To that end, the Group shall not endorse any political candidate or legislation or otherwise take sides on a political topic.
It was easy to observe the thirst for more information on local topics i.e. Kingman Crossing, building impact fees, growth, etc.
I believe the plan is to bring resources of information to the group for discussion. This may mean representatives of various groups and government officials. It was clear that the goal wouldn't be to support anything, but the means to an end for relevant information.
The group plans to meet every third Tuesday of the month. The meeting place at this time is at the Powerhouse here in Kingman. If this group sounds like an interest to you, click on Cullen's link at the beginning of the article and email him. You could also email me or leave a comment here and I'll pass your email off to Cullen and the others. There will also be a website dedicated to the group within a few weeks time. For now there is no cost to be a part of the group, but they will take anonymous donations to help offset any costs.
At the moment I'm hardly what I would consider 'apolitical', so I didn't volunteer to be part of the governing board. But I plan on attending future meetings. I'm obviously in favor of any group who has, as part of its mission, the goal of increasing voter participation.
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