A Sudden Desire to Engage the Community??

Captain's Log, Stardate 030509

Beamed down to planet DO501 to attend the minimally publicized "Special School Board Meeting: Community Engagement Task Force Meeting to Discuss Boundary Changes Process".

Observation: The leaders of this district, who call themselves the "School Board" are indeed a curious people. Following an unsightly period of civil unrest last year at this time, this group decided to embark on a quest to engage the rest of the planet, who they refer to as "the Community". These leaders developed a subgroup (the Community Engagement Task Force, or CETF)within their ranks who were charged with developing a set of protocols by which they could interact positively with members of "the Community".

The CETF brought forth their recommendations approximately 6 months ago (in planet DO501 time units), yet no action has been taken on any of these recommendations. Suddenly, out of the blue, the CETF was re-convened with the express purpose to identify the process and criteria for future boundary changes within the district and then how best to disseminate this information to members of "the Community".

What prompted this sudden apparent interest in engaging "the Community"?

The "School Board" has proven to be a relatively predictable bunch. Our current theory for the heightened interest in "Community " engagement may be related to a ritual on this planet known as "Election Season". It appears that the ruling terms of 3 of the 7 members of the "School Board" are about to expire. A democratic selection process for the 3 seats will take place on Tuesday April 7, 2009. They call this the "Spring Elections". From our scanning probes, we have learned that a member of "the Community" has risen from the ranks to challenge the incumbent leaders for one of their seats.

We believe that the "School Board" will be working quite diligently over the next few weeks to re-cultivate the strained relations with "the Community". Our data suggest that they enjoy their seats as members of the ruling class and are nervous about the prospects of having one of the common "Community" members join their elite ranks. We find this development quite interesting and plan to continue our monitoring of the situation.

Captain out.