The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

On Monday, June 8th Sarasota County takes another step into digital communication with its first virtual Town Hall Meeting . The subject is the county budget, and the panel, including county officials and local citizens, will be televised and shared on the web. More details about the event, which begins at 6:30 p.m., are here , and a brief public service announcement is here . Besides being televised, the virtual meeting will have open channels to allow citizens to participate in the conversation. One such channel is a new blog, called  Sarasota Community Conversations , that will enable those watching to comment in real time (and later, if you wish) on the conversation.  The blog is a citizen's effort, by and for Sarasotans interested in bringing more voices into key conversations about the most important issues facing the county in this challenging time. At  Sarasota Community Conversations  you'll find links to county resources relevant to the budget, as well some introducto...

"...we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions." Here Comes Everybody : The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. The 12th Annual Florida Neighborhoods Conference brought some of Florida's most dynamic people together in Tallahassee this past week for three days of conversation, networking, exploration and celebration. Imagine the energy when you combine hundreds of grassroots activists, many of whom have been the catalysts for major change in their communities. They talked, schmoozed, toured, learned, argued, danced and partay-ed. Sen. Bob Graham kicked things off with a hilarious account of how his career began somewhat inauspiciously when he got kicked out of his third pre-school. Along the way he said: "We are past the point of top-down government. . .. We're now in an era where our solutions ...