Save the Date: Sunshine Week Community Open Government Summit Set for March 15, 2023

Fritz Mulhauser | January 25, 2023

Plan to attend the in-person return of the Coalition’s annual “Summit” meeting for everyone interested in District of Columbia government transparency. Join us on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at the Open Gov Hub, 1100 13^th St., N.W., 8^th floor.  

See the richness of our past summit sessions, in write-ups available here.

We come together to celebrate with citywide colleagues our shared vision, that open government can fuel informed citizen engagement and lead to better decisions by agencies and elected officials.

Food and refreshments will begin the evening, followed by presentations, panels and conversation. We’ll shed light on accomplishments of last year, challenges ahead, and how to build coalitions to press for fast, fair and free public access to D.C. government meetings, data, and records.

Sunshine Week each year is observed in mid-March as the 16th is the birthday of James Madison, one of the Constitution’s authors, who once wrote:

“[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.”

He also wrote: “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge” is “the only Guardian of true liberty.”

Details of the program to follow.