DC Restaurant Week Jan. 13 – 19 2014

This is my twice yearly public service blog about Restaurant Week in DC (January 13-19). Do you take advantage of this? Restaurant Week takes place twice a year, once in the frigid cold of the post-holidays and then again in the dog days of August. Times when diners are likely to be few. For allRead… Read more »

Four Ways To Have A Better Time At A Party

The end of the year brings a rush of social, semi-social, and non-social events. With the crush of other obligations, it’s hard for me to get into the season. However, necessity is a mother, and over the weekend I found myself relearning four ways to have a better time at gatherings. Number one is DoRead… Read more »

Civic Data Challenge Winners Announced

Earlier this year, the National Conference on Citizenship announced the 2013 Civic Data Challenge, a competition for civic groups to turn raw civic data into tools that their communities could use to increase civic participation. And earlier this month, the winners were announced! We hope you’ll take a moment to join us in recognizing andRead… Read more »

Recording of today’s Tech Tuesday with Dave Biggs of MetroQuest

We had a great Tech Tuesday event today, with about 100 people participating in a stimulating webinar led by Dave Biggs, Co-Founder of MetroQuest. Thank you, Dave, for the great presentation — and thanks to everyone who participated! MetroQuest public involvement software is recommended as a best practice by the APA, TRB, FWHA and otherRead… Read more »

What’s on your organization’s Christmas list?

Hopefully your organization isn’t on the naughty list… I have a daughter who is missing all of her front teeth; however she has opted against asking for front teeth for Christmas and is pushing Santa Clause for a Princess Diary with Lock and Keys. I think many organizations are hoping Santa brings them more stableRead… Read more »

KCMO: Making Room for Experimentation

Ever since the the highly-publicized failure of Healthcare.gov, the news has been full of government technology horror stories — overdue contracts, bloated budgets, broken bidding processes, and malfunctioning software. While such cases are not infrequent in government IT, they are not the whole story. As a recent NPR report pointed out, a small but growingRead… Read more »

Agriculture, Energy Departments Give Universities Bioenergy Grants

The departments of Energy and Agriculture have issued $8 million in grants to support research projects aimed at producing non-edible feedstock for bioenergy generation. USDA and DOE awarded the money to seven U.S. universities as part of a joint initiative designed to spur production of biofuels and other sustainable bioproducts, USDA said Thursday. “Innovative researchRead… Read more »

Ten Films from Ten Years of DC Shorts

The DC Shorts Film Festival has a special holiday gift for cinephiles everywhere – ten years worth of short films from the festival are now online and free to view. Watch more than 330 films from the comfort of your laptop. It’s an incredibly diverse range of short films, from every genre, and from allRead… Read more »

SUCCESS RULE #29 How to Form a Mastermind Alliance

In previous rules I discussed the need to be self-aware of the seeds you sow – your goals, dreams, vision, New Year resolutions, etc. – and what it is you think about. To help, it’s important to have many different sources that continue to remind and reinforce those thoughts and hence your success. In ToolRead… Read more »

Greening the Government: Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for State and Local Governments

If you work for a state or local government agency, you may find it hard to believe that the US Federal government went green before it was hip. The signing of Executive Order 12873 in 1993 marked the launch of the EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program (EPP). While procurement for smaller governments can be aRead… Read more »