Last night I introduced an item onto the councils agenda, communication via email. This all came about from my blog musings a week or so ago titled Too much Information. I had thought that this idea of us receiving papers and minutes via this new fangled email thing would have been a dead duck but no. Janette Jenkinson proposed an amendment to my proposal which allowed members to opt for hard copies, by post if they wanted them.
As our deputy mayor had only just bought her first computer, which I believe was still in the box she will opt for hard copies until she gets up to speed. Brenda Marr was another who is reluctant to use her new computer as it would mean paying for a broadband connection. I personally don't see the point of a computer without it being connected to the net. Although of course you don't need broadband to get email, we've been doing it on 56k modems for the last 20 years haven't we. Ah well.
Then we've got Norman Bishop Rowe who wants to jot down his notes on the documents, and didn't seem to want the expense of buying a ream of A4, and going to the trouble of printing the document off to scribble on it. Ah well.
But at the vote they all agreed to pass my motion, so from now the council will save a few pennies on paper and quite a bit more on not having to pay postage on a giant pile of papers every two weeks that then go to the recycling centre. A giant step for UTC.
I am amazed that council members rely on paper communication. Of course it does cost to have broadband but it gives us so much to enjoy. Apart from saving on costs of postage and paper, it brought me friends all over the world, helped with studies, finds me anything I want to know, encouraged me to write and be creative. And I can see what my grandchildren are up to by going on facebook!
ReplyDeleteMaybe access to a computer should be a requirement of being a councillor?
How can the luddites keep up ?
ReplyDelete