There is something about summertime that encourages us to sit back, take stock of things and reflect on the year so far and where we plan on going, once it cools down a little bit at least.It is, for some people, a vacation, for others an early morning jog down Wyoming watching the sun rise, or sitting on a beach down the shore watching the sun set, or maybe just enjoying a cold drink or a book on a patio in the warm evening air. But whatever it is, however each of us, no matter how briefly, takes stock of things, it is a crucial phase of our yearly routine and evolution. And it’s no different at Village Hall.
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July 25th 2011 South Orange BOT Summary
Below, you can find my summary of the July 25th Regular Meeting of the South Orange Board of Trustees. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or feedback!
July 11th 2011 South Orange Board of Trustees Summary
Click below to view my brief video update from the July 11th 2011 Special and Conference Meetings of the Board of Trustees. Visit southorange.org for the full meeting video and minutes of our meetings! Here is the text from the email that went out this morning, with one correction: There is a lot happening in South Orange these days, and not just in Village Hall: The farmer's market has started, and is every Wednesday from 2-7pm in the parking lot off of Sloan Street Every Friday and Saturday night there is live music on both Sloan Street and in Spiotta Park, starting at 7:30pm. Wednesdays at 7:30pm at Floods Hill check out the summer concert series, organized by SOPAC. Art classes at the Baird on a daily basis. More here. (These art classes were mistakenly reported as free, but they are actually part of the adult school's large lineup of programming and classes in the community) And Tea Time with Torpey is officially back - I'll be providing a written update in the last News Record issue of the month. If you missed last Thursday's, you can read the full text here on the blog.And don't forget, if you have...
Tea Time with Torpey is back!
This is the text of my column that appeared in the most recent issue of the News Record. “Tea Time with the Village President” Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but this is nonetheless a great opportunity to keep folks updated and informed about what is going on in South Orange. In addition to this column, which will appear in the last issue of each month of the News Record, I am keeping a blog on my website and Patch, doing video updates after the Board Meetings, looking into restarting an update show on SOMAtv in addition to micro-updates on Twitter and Facebook and office hours every Tuesday 4:30-6:30pm (to start). This builds off of the already great set of resources that are available to residents by watching the full meetings on southorange.org or on TV, or reading the minutes of any of the meetings, which are posted on the website (which will be going through a total redesign very soon). “How’s it been so far,” you ask?
First Farmers' Market of the summer!
Today is the first farmers' market of the summer in downtown South Orange. Every Wednesday from 2-7pm check out the offerings from local farms off of Sloan Street! Thanks to Main Street for oganizing this and many other events!
6.27.11 BOT Summary
Hey everyone - View the video below for the June 27th 2011 Regular Meeting of the South Orange Board of Trustees. Visit southorange.org for the minutes and the full video of the meetings! Download the audio file here to listen to the update or take it with you!
6.13.11 BOT Summary
Hey everyone, had a full evening of meetings last night, and below you'll find a quick video update of the Board of Trustees Special and Conference Agenda Meetings. To find more details of the discussions: View the full video visit: http://www.southorange.org/videoViewer.asp View the agenda or minutes visit: http://southorange.gotdns.org/weblink7/
The Future of Democracy
As an auditorium filled with people began typing, tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, texting and sharing, you knew it was the start of another Personal Democracy Forum. The conference is so heavily live-tweeted, that this year the hashtag (which is used on Twitter to signify the topic of a given tweet) #pdf11, became a nationally trending topic - in other words it was one of the top 10 keywords in the United States for part of the first day. And for good reason... Speakers at this year's conference at NYU's Skirball Center included US Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Egypt pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd Al Fattah, Beth Noveck, former White House Chief Technology Officer, and Dan Sinker, professor and @MayorEmmanuel creator (a full list of speakers here). Topics ranged from creating participatory budgeting at the federal government, opening voting data, protecting internet user's privacy, revolutionizing journalism, supporting democracy in Egypt and Tunisia with new media and connecting resources to those around the world most in need. I don't want to dive into all the talks because not only were there too many to list here (though here is a list),...