Coalition Sunshine Week “Summit” 2024: Save the Date – March 13

Fritz Mulhauser | January 24, 2024

Join us for the Coalition’s popular spring event for the community and all friends of open government. It’s in person only, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

We’ll meet at 1050 Connecticut Ave., N.W., 10^th floor (corner of L Street; Metro Rail Red Line Farragut North).

Expect food and refreshments, talking how transparency has helped drive action, community voices lifted up with information access, legal action updates, ideas and plans proposed for the coming year, and elected officials invited to join. Special focus on issues in the clashing crime bills in D.C. Council and the apparent U-turn on the highway to improved access to police records promised in 2022 police reform legislation.

Mid-March is the Sunshine Week celebration by open government friends nationwide, honoring the birthday of James Madison, considered the founding father of government transparency, one of the designers of the U.S. Constitution, and 4^th president (1809-17).

“[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Letter from James Madison to W.T. Barry (August 4, 1822), in The Writings of James Madison (Gaillard Hunt ed.).

Check back for prgram details. The event is free.