The Gaston County Citizens’ Caucus to meet February 24th in Gastonia

GASTONIA, N.C. - Feb. 21, 2015 - PRLog -- GastonVotes.com, a non-partisan website focused on local politics and issues, has formed a “Citizens’ Caucus”. The group will hold their first meeting later this month at Arts on Main in Downtown Gastonia, NC.  Their goal is to provide an open forum for citizens throughout Gaston County to share ideas and express differing points of view, in order to solve local issues. The Citizens’ Caucus offers an opportunity for those desiring more local involvement but may not know how, to organize and work together to address “street-level” problems in Gaston and the surrounding municipalities.

The initial meeting will be an introductory gathering to establish the structure, format, and initial goals of the organization. “We want to see this grow organically, with everyone’s input.” said David E. Turner, who is leading the effort. “The challenge will be convincing everyone to leave some of their ideologies at the door, allowing them to sit with others they may disagree with on controversial, social issues and discover ways they can work together to resolve shared areas of concern that will benefit all.”

Overcoming the Social Media “Shouting matches”

A lifelong resident of Gaston, Mr. Turner stressed that his goal is to have a balanced, working group representative of all viewpoints. “Social media has heightened a problem in our neighborhoods where people rarely discuss politics with those outside ‘their bubble’,” said Turner, “Every discussion quickly devolves into an ideological shouting match and it reinforces the idea that everyone is an extremist and no one is listening”.

After the initial meeting, the Caucus will meet at least every other month and will function much like that of an official government committee. Members will present issues and explore ways to improve or resolve them. After research and discussion, the group will actively contact local elected officials for consideration of their proposals.

Initial areas of focus will include, but are not limited to: upcoming local budgets, taxes and services, as well as the ongoing discussion over school closings/new builds. The “image problem” of Gaston County and other items from the Alliance for Growth report released in December will also be included.

What: Citizens’ Caucus Meeting

Where: Arts On Main Commons Room

212 W. Main Ave. Gastonia, NC 28052

When: February 24th, 2015 6pm-7:30pm

About GastonVotes.com :

GastonVotes is a non-partisan information website focused on local politics and issues. The website provides easy to access information and media from all municipalities in Gaston County as well as the Board of Education and County Commission. GastonVotes is part of a new network of local information websites called the MyGaston Network and also includes GastonEats.com, GastonMusic.com and DowntownGastonia.com

About Loray Media:

Loray Media is a web services consulting company in Bessemer City, NC owned by David and Karen Turner, providing website design, hosting and social network marketing services to the region.