Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Outreach topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission plans county-fair booth and community "coffee chat" to gather public input
Summary
Members agreed to host a coffee-chat outreach series and staff an Arlington County Fair booth to solicit public feedback on suggested policies (pay-equity designations, reproductive-health safe-haven, improved public restrooms); Janine and Courtney will handle Eventbrite and county newsletter distribution and Lisa will provide final materials.
The Arlington Commission on Women moved from internal priorities to outreach planning on Tuesday, agreeing on steps to present proposed initiatives at the Arlington County Fair and to host a community "coffee chat" this fall.
Commissioners discussed two potential coffee-chat dates (Sept. 12 and Oct. 3) and recommended a mid-morning time window (suggested 9–11:30 a.m.). Janine agreed to create an Eventbrite registration and Courtney will circulate the finalized flyer through the county's official newsletters. "Once we've done the flyer, we hand it off to Courtney. Courtney will get it in the official Arlington newsletters," the chair said.
For the county fair, members refined a "chips in a jar" public-feedback format that will let attendees prioritize initiatives. Proposed options to appear on fair materials include: an equal-pay designation for businesses or bid-preference measures; declaring Arlington a reproductive-health "safe haven" to protect providers and patients from out-of-state interference; and more and better public restrooms with changing tables and free menstrual products. Members agreed not to endorse a specific private vendor on the fair materials but to include examples so the public can see what each initiative would look like.
Commissioners also sorted staffing for fair shifts (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) and discussed giveaways (buttons and stickers). The group assigned follow-up tasks: create a flyer, build Eventbrite, produce social-media posts and provide a QR code for in-person contact. One member volunteered to design the flyer in Canva and another offered to produce social text for Janine to post.
Other community-outreach items discussed included a possible cosponsored screening of the film Iron Jawed Angels with AAUW at the central library and ideas for repeated coffee-chat events across the year as a follow-up mechanism to the fair.
Next steps: Janine to set up Eventbrite within a week; commissioner volunteers to create a flyer and social posts; the commission will publicize the coffee chat and fair presence across county channels.
