The 26 people that met last Thursday night in the Sunshine Center sat in a large circle and equally discussed the events of the last 90 days or so. The discussion included everything that has transpired and gone on. When people asked questions other people answered them. Some folks made suggestions for motions and actions to be considered while others began discussing the implications of each potential motion and or action. In the end the group settled on the motions that all could agree upon.

These motions are being written up even as I type this posting. Once written up, several volunteers will make copies and distribute them to all 26 for comments, edits and corrections. They will be collected and retyped. Then they will go back to the 26 for another review and edit. Once this is done they will be collected again and then put into one large Position Paper with introductory comments explaining what the position paper is all about.

Then, the 26 will hit the pavement going to every member of North Shore and even a few extra non-members hoping that they will join as well. We will give each member a copy of the Position Paper, talk to them and ask if they will sign the petition. Once all of the members of North Shore have been contacted and spoken to in this way we will put in our official request for a Special General Membership meeting. By signing our petition each person pledges to come to this meeting and vote in favor of at least one or more of the motions. Hopefully the vast majority will vote for all of the motions. We will see!

When the next bit of news, on this issue, is ready for posting I'll post it.

By Steven D. Lange

selective democracy

why no input from other than the 23 before the manifesto is issued? promises to be a one-sided version of the ''truth'' to which you so eloquently spoke.

Who is special?

Please post the names of the 23 people that will be pounding the pavement. I try never to open my door to strangers, even in this idyllic neighborhood.

By Shy Neighbor

To: Select Dem.

In one sense, yes the group was selected with some thought. Twenty three were originally invited. Two of the 23 were not able to show up. Eventually 26 showed up. Five other people who heard about the meeting and who were not originally invited were allowed to attend. We had no problem with that. Mind you, all I thought was necessary to begin with was 10 to 15 people. But as you can see many others asked to be involved and others just came and the group grew to 26. Now of those 26 only seven had any involvement, in any sense of the word, with the issues that have recently happened here in North Shore over the last 90 days or so. The other 19 were outside of it all as far as I can tell for the most part. What I wanted to achieve, and did achieve, was a broad group of interest, backgrounds and individuals. When these people spoke or asked questions it was with a sense of trying to learn what had happened over the last 90 days and they spoke with a sense of reasonableness and fairness. Exactly what I had hoped would happen.

You know, you anonymous folks keep posting that I am whitewashing the truth. There are others out there that have been affected by all of this and they are out there speaking on the issues as they see it. I have no control over that. Besides, when we come to the next Special General Membership meeting, if we do not have good motions for folks to vote on they won't vote for them. If we have good, logical and fair motions that seem to address the issues, then people probably will vote for them. End of story.

Besides, if I had invited only five or ten people to this group you would be just as critical of me. It would appear that no matter what I do folks like you will criticize me. I expect that to happen. I am prepared for that to happen.

And lastly, I have repeatedly stated here on this web site that we will bring our positions and pre-written motions to every North Shore member that we can find. We are going to go to them where they live. This includes you if you are a member. This includes Greg Burton, Carl Luvgren, every body.

Now, how much more democractic can we be?

By Steven D. Lange