March 31, 2009, 1 e-mail

E. M. wrote:

Hi everyone,

You are receiving this email because you have concerns about the Metrolinx project and because you have expressed interest in the April 21 meeting that will convene ‘stakeholders’ to develop a coordinated response/strategy. If you prefer to be removed from this list, just send me a quick note.

General Update

As you well know, the Metrolinx initiative is a massive undertaking to change transit infrastructure in the GTA and Hamilton regions. Much of this vision is good. Some of it is bad. And parts of it are really terrible. Communities and groups up and down the tracks have concerns about the environmental impact of diesel, the noise of the trains, the chaos of construction, the impact on cycling infrastructure and the location of stops.

Unfortunately, right now we are disconnected. Several groups have started to engage directly with Metrolinx while others are just discovering the project, and still others have no idea of the potential impact. This makes it extremely difficult to have our voices heard. We think that working together is the first step in redirecting this project in a way that serves the needs of our communities.

The April 21 Meeting

We propose a meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 7:00pm-9:00pm, at Mary McCormick Recreation Centre, 66 Sheridan Avenue (Dufferin/Dundas area). The purpose of this meeting is to begin coordinating our efforts under a shared banner.

Specifically, we imagine about 30-45 people in the room, representing communities and groups with concerns about the Metrolinx project. We’re not looking for “as many people as possible” from each group – we’ll need numbers in later stages. Right now we need a few (1-6?) representatives from each group so we can work with a manageable number on the 21st to start pushing things forward.

In terms of meeting design, we imagine 6-10 tables with different themes and a facilitator at each table. The themes could include: Media Strategy; Legal Strategy; Website/Information Management; Brand/Logo; Key Messages etc. The facilitators will stay put for the evening, taking notes and guiding the conversations. Others will rotate through a couple of the tables depending on their interests. Then the facilitators will report back on the discussions and we can begin to consider next steps. Hopefully this will be a collaborative process that allows people to focus on their key concerns.

Request for Help

I’d love to hear from some of you who would be willing to help coordinate this meeting. Ideally, we’ll have representation from the different groups. Please send me a note if you are willing to help – I imagine a teleconference (potentially) and some email exchanges in advance to iron out the meeting details, themes, and to assign roles. We’ll need 6-8 people to pull this off.

Next steps

Please schedule the April 21 meeting in your books. In the meanwhile, if you are part of a community group, please see if you can identify a few other folks who can join us on the 21st – again, anywhere from 1-6 people from your community/group. You can send me email addresses and I'll keep track of the list.

Once the volunteer coordinators have had a chance to chat we’ll be back to this list with an update on the agenda

Who is receiving this email?

I have bcc’d everyone out of respect for privacy and email overload. I suspect we’ll need to create a mailing list at some point, but this is the type of thing we’ll confirm on the 21st. In the meanwhile, here are the groups on this list (apologies for misspelling):

• Brockton Triangle Residents Association
• Weston Community Association
• DIGIN
• TRAC
• South Junction triangle Residents Association
• Evergreen
• Sorauren Park
• Roncesvalles Residents
• Railpath group
• Toronto Cyclists Union
• Celos

If you think a group is missing from this list and should be at the meeting, please send me a note or make an introduction so we can bring them in too.

Who the heck am I/are we?

My name is E. M. and I am part of the fledgling Brockton Triangle Neighbourhood Association, located in the Dundas/Brock area. Our community has recently “awoken” to the Metrolinx project and we have scheduled a meeting with Metrolinx (April 1) and with our City Councillor, Adam Giambrone (April 15) to learn more. We think the next stage is to begin working in partnership with all of you to strengthen our voices.

Thank you!

E. M.

on behalf of the Brockton Triangle Neighbourhood Association

p.s. you may be interested to read this article in today’s Globe. Apparently Metrolinx is ridding itself of municipal involvement in order to expedite the project. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090331.wmetrolinx31/BNStory/National/home