To The Editor:

The civic partners for the 2011 Fall election season’s Conversations with Candidates and the Potsdam Dissolution Programs would like to thank those who made this year’s broadcasts possible.

Our grateful thanks to Dan Dullea of the Center for Excellence in Communication, and his students in Digital Video Production and Mass Media Communication at Clarkson University.

Dan, your expertise, dedication and commitment to this civic journalism project made it all possible. In addition, he devoted many additional hours to this project above and beyond class time in order to post the videos to YouTube and make sure as many as people as possible had access to them. His belief in civic, and civil, participation has been a lynch pin of this effort for several years.

Thank you to Jon Deane, program manager at WCKN, the pubic access station housed at Clarkson, who met every scheduling request with a “Yes, we can do that” attitude.

Thank you to the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce who joined us this year as a co-sponsor for the Potsdam Dissolution voter education programs.

Thank you to the candidates who agreed to sit down for conversations with their fellow citizens so we could all better understand the issues, their positions and backgrounds.

Thank you to the citizens who gave so freely of their time and talents to help us find out who each candidate was and where they came down on each issue. They were Sue Cypert, Miles Manchester, Robin McClellan, Jim O’Neill, Bob Burns, and Susan Rice.

Thank you to the public officials and citizens who joined us to look at the questions surrounding the Potsdam Dissolution Study. They were Town of Potsdam Supervisor Marie Reagan, Village of Potsdam Administrator David Fenton, and Dissolution Study committee members Alexandra Jacobs and Michele Arnold.

Bob Burns graciously acted as the discussion leader for these shows, bringing to the table his many years of experience as a former village trustee and village administrator.

And lastly, thanks to all the voters who took the time to learn about the candidates and the issues in order to cast an informed vote. This community-based project to promote civic participation in the democratic process is an example of how voter education can and should work.

Donna Seymour,

Communications Chair

AAUW-St. Lawrence County

Potsdam