I want to see you on April 3!
VCOG's conference next week is a great opportunity to mix and mingle with others committed to open government in Virginia
If you’ve followed VCOG over the years, you know that our annual conferences are jam-packed with timely and informative panels, experts in the field and advocates of all stripes. This year is no different.
At our April 3 conference, we will have presentations on using AI for civic engagement (Marcos Huerta), on access to records regarding the use of animals in research (Will Lowrey), and on the historical treasures you can find at your local courthouse (Chaz Haywood and Megan Pullen).
We’ll have “explainers” to review three big FOIA cases that have recently made their way through state and federal courts (Joshua Heslinga, Ian Kalish and Lin Weeks).
Three Gen Z JMU journalism students will sit down with their student media advisor (Brad Jenkins) to talk about their expectations when it comes to accessing government records and meetings.
And because Virginia has more data centers than any state in the country, we’ll have a panel discussion about the transparency of development projects (Eric Bonds, Elizabeth Marshall and Amy Trotto).
Our keynote speaker is Chaz Nuttycombe (and how often do you have ONE person named Chaz in your panel lineup, much less TWO!?). Chaz has made a name for himself over the years as a Wunderkind of election forecasting for state-level legislative races. Recently, though, he has set his sights on creating State Navigate, which describes its mission as “assist[ing] the public in navigating their state legislatures and advocating for accountability among legislators throughout the process.”
The conference is also when we recognize our annual open-government award winners. This year, our citizen award winner is Citizens for Fauquier County, the plaintiff in a FOIA case about access to the mayor and town manager’s emails about a proposed Amazon data center in Warrenton, and that resulted in a win at the Court of Appeals.
Our media winner is Samuel B. Parker of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, who has made extensive use of FOIA to shine a light on the City of Richmond’s former and current mayors and city councils. And our government award winner is Sen. Danica Roem, who has made FOIA one of her top legislative priorities and who has pushed against all odds for reform of FOIA’s fee structure.
As always, we’ll have boxed lunches catered by locals, plenty of snacks (I love snacks) and lots of time to network. If you’ve been to one of our conferences before, you’ll know we like to meet at unique or historical venues around the state (we were in Yorktown last year). This year, we’re in Court Square Theater, a working theater in downtown Harrisonburg.
The cost is $35 for VCOG members and $45 for non-members. Students are $25.
But don’t wait…The deadline is Monday, March 31.
I hope to see you there!
We have some pretty wonderful donors and sponsors. If you see one of them, give them a hug.