Hello… Below are my answers to Code for America’s candidate questions which are also published on the National Advisory Council 2018 Ballot!
Neil Planchon, Open Oakland
Neil has been a dedicated OpenOakland volunteer since 2013. His contributions include serving on its core team, on-boarding newcomers, producing events, fundraising, and co-leading projects. He has focused on expanding OpenOakland’s diversity and project mix by reaching out to local organizations, residents and City of Oakland employees — resulting in new partnerships, ideas, projects, and growth.
For the last year, he has been a NAC member, contributing to foundational documents and processes, planning and attending events, and meeting with Code for America’s leadership. Neil is a Life Coach, founding resident of a Cohousing community, and nature lover. He uses his skills and experience to build, grow, and nurture organizations. He values community, creativity, innovation, resiliency, fairness, sharing, and fun.
The civic tech community is growing up, and I’m committed to helping it get there by:
I’ll continue to be a civic tech ambassador who speaks and spreads the tech-for-good word in City Hall, to local organizations, neighborhood communities, and incoming volunteers. I’ve had lots of success attracting and showing folks how they can increase their civic engagement and participation by convening conversations and in-person gatherings.
I’ve helped produce OpenOakland’s CityCamps and joined other social justice tech event planning teams, introducing hundreds to our movement and to OpenOakland. It’s been very rewarding to watch us grow.
I am looking forward to a lot more Brigade-wide community building, creating opportunities for Brigade cross-pollination, supporting leaders, and contributing to the next round of organizational and foundational structures NAC and CfA have been working on together. And I would love to help with upcoming events!
I have a particular passion for helping Brigades with capacity development, opportunity management, and leadership skills building which are important and needed. I would like to identify, listen to, and support Brigades that have the greatest needs.
Some of my recent learnings have challenged and motivated me to practice good project discernment, and identify what is really needed, works, and matters most. Together, I want to keep us focused on meaningful work, while being aware of our filters, biases, and available resources.
How will you balance your work with your local Brigade with serving on the National Advisory Council?
As an OpenOakland project co-leader, I am committed to attending a couple of monthly meetings. Nowadays, several talented OpenOaklanders take care of logistics and management. I only share in some of our other activities, so my schedule feels quite manageable. I run a life coaching practice and do consulting work with folks who need help with productivity and technology matters. Each of these work activities allows for flexibility with my schedule and quality time for my OpenOakland and National Advisory Council activities.
What’s your favorite strategy you’ve used to build a more diverse and inclusive local Brigade?
As one of OpenOakland’s event producers, I am thinking about how CityCamp benefited, when I invited leaders of local organizations who serve communities which include those that have less access to technology, opportunity, participation and services, to join us at the planning table and to participate at the event itself. Each year, we’ve also successfully partnered with our local government champions who have assisted us with outreach outside of our community. Seeking out event sponsors who value civic tech has also helped us reach folks outside of our usual circles, as has networking with other local Brigades!
As a result, we amplified the civic tech conversation, created space for a wider audience that identified problems, and worked together on solutions. A meaningful and intentional outreach effort has helped OpenOakland grow and contribute to my becoming a better ally.
What should the National Advisory Council accomplish in the next year?
- Continue to grow, nurture and challenge the civic tech ecosystem and movement to be more fair, diverse, and inclusive
- Augment communication and information flow between local Brigades
- Encourage and assist local gatherings
- Build a shared knowledge base of best practices documents to support the creation, maintenance, and wellbeing of Brigades
- Identify ways to support Brigade leaders in managing the feeling of being overwhelmed and avoiding burnout
- Set up celebrations and highlight Brigade successes
- Create training opportunities and conversations about bias and gender equity, project, event, and volunteer management, building relationships with local government, fundraising, storytelling, and whatever Brigades report to NAC as being needed
NOTE: I am on the ballot twice, intentionally, as I am running for a WEST region and an at-large seat. If elected for both, I’ll be given a choice. I’d love your support for both. Voting closes on Feb 9th!