This morning I had a pretty fun and unusual experience - contributing a graphic recording to a meeting of the City of Calgary's Priorities & Finance Committee down at City Hall.
But before I tell you about that, I just have to reminisce about another time I drew pictures at a political gathering. I think it must have been in 1996, I had occasion to attend a session of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in Edmonton. I was sitting up high in some gallery or other and... because it's what I always do... I drew a picture. Of the Speaker of the House. I think the Speaker at the time was Stanley Schumacher. Here it is.
Well, I don't remember all the details, but suffice to say, someone looked up and noticed me doing this dastardly deed, and pretty soon some security guards came up to ask me to stop drawing. The sketch was confiscated! I was (politely) asked to leave! Pages were passing notes all around the floor as MLAs shook their heads in dismay (and surprise). Apparently, it was against the law to draw in the "Leg" (that's short for Legislature, and it's pronounced "Lej").
Except, as it turned out, it wasn't against the law - not quite. As I learned later, every provincial government in Canada had such a rule: no drawing during sessions. So the Alberta Legislature was quick to put the sketching to a stop. However, when someone checked later, it was discovered that this wasn't actually law in Alberta. Apparently this had never come up before (hadn't any gallery-sitter like myself ever gotten bored and started doodling??), and the law had never officially been passed. I was told that, after this, the law would be passed forthwith. So, thanks to this picture, a nice new Albertan law. I wonder if that actually did happen. I didn't stick around to find out. But I did get my sketch back (along with some gracious apologies when everyone realized I was just a bored art student and not some sneaky reporter trying to capture the hidden details of the Assembly's inner workings).
That was a far cry from today's committee meeting at the Calgary City Hall, during which anyone and everyone in attendance was free to tweet, photograph, message, and otherwise create artistic recordings of the proceedings.
Which brings me to the graphic recording stuff.
Except, as it turned out, it wasn't against the law - not quite. As I learned later, every provincial government in Canada had such a rule: no drawing during sessions. So the Alberta Legislature was quick to put the sketching to a stop. However, when someone checked later, it was discovered that this wasn't actually law in Alberta. Apparently this had never come up before (hadn't any gallery-sitter like myself ever gotten bored and started doodling??), and the law had never officially been passed. I was told that, after this, the law would be passed forthwith. So, thanks to this picture, a nice new Albertan law. I wonder if that actually did happen. I didn't stick around to find out. But I did get my sketch back (along with some gracious apologies when everyone realized I was just a bored art student and not some sneaky reporter trying to capture the hidden details of the Assembly's inner workings).
That was a far cry from today's committee meeting at the Calgary City Hall, during which anyone and everyone in attendance was free to tweet, photograph, message, and otherwise create artistic recordings of the proceedings.
Which brings me to the graphic recording stuff.
The Priorities and Finance Committee is chaired by the Mayor and includes six Aldermen (although any aldermen can sit in). The public and the media can attend the meetings, but aren't allotted time to speak or ask questions (although they can be invited to speak). To find out the official list of functions performed by the committee, you can take a look here. Today, however, I was there to help out a City Administration team called the Engage Resource Unit. These folks have been working for quite a long time on the issue of civic engagement: in other words (theirs), they’ve been asking how they can make it easier for Calgarians to provide input into City decisions. Their project was up for review, and so they were among the people presenting their reports to the Committee today. My job was to draw pictures during their presentation and the subsequent Q & A.
Why would the Engage Review team think of doing something like this? Partly just to illustrate the fact that there are multiple ways to present information, and that sometimes a creative approach can make information more accessible to a wider audience. (I did some graphic recording for them at their recent event Continue the Conversation, of which you can see a very nice little video here.)
Good, in theory. I'm not sure how well I was able to illustrate the lightning-paced presentation and discussion that ensued - with a lot of content to capture, there wasn't as much time to draw. I think I recorded the question-and-answer part well enough, but I'm not sure how clearly I was able to convey the content of the presentation. My other challenge was not knowing how to pace myself - was this going to be a ten-minute rubber stamp, or a day-long debate? I'm actually not sure how long I drew - over half an hour, but under an hour, I think. Here's the picture that was there when the discussion ceased (and the initiative approved - congrats, Engage Review!):
Why would the Engage Review team think of doing something like this? Partly just to illustrate the fact that there are multiple ways to present information, and that sometimes a creative approach can make information more accessible to a wider audience. (I did some graphic recording for them at their recent event Continue the Conversation, of which you can see a very nice little video here.)
Good, in theory. I'm not sure how well I was able to illustrate the lightning-paced presentation and discussion that ensued - with a lot of content to capture, there wasn't as much time to draw. I think I recorded the question-and-answer part well enough, but I'm not sure how clearly I was able to convey the content of the presentation. My other challenge was not knowing how to pace myself - was this going to be a ten-minute rubber stamp, or a day-long debate? I'm actually not sure how long I drew - over half an hour, but under an hour, I think. Here's the picture that was there when the discussion ceased (and the initiative approved - congrats, Engage Review!):
I didn't stay for the whole meeting, but did enjoy getting to be there for the approval of a few other awesome-sounding agenda items, such as the Plain Language Policy, summed up here by the Herald's Jason Markusoff (who was also present, taking more organized notes than mine); and the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative, which happily enjoyed the Committee's overwhelming support, and which Mr. Markusoff wrote about here.
Luckily, I had the chance afterwards to colour things in, tidy things up, and try to make the whole mad scramble a bit more visually appealing. Here are some details:
Luckily, I had the chance afterwards to colour things in, tidy things up, and try to make the whole mad scramble a bit more visually appealing. Here are some details:
Well, it was an experiment, and I'm honoured that the City administrators and Council invited me to contribute to their process. It might turn out that civic committee meetings don't make for the ideal graphic recording conditions, but I do feel pretty excited about the possibilities of merging a traditionally dry, bureaucratic organization like a civic administration with an emerging and essentially weird practice like graphic recording. I guess that might say something about this administration. I think the fact that Mayor Nenshi conducted the entire meeting while wearing a St. John's, NB team jersey just speaks to that. (And by the way... what team was it? What sport??? I was too busy writing everything down, to even notice!)
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