You and your fellow Delegates are working toward a Shared Goal:

For Akron residents to have greater access to safe, well-maintained, and affordable housing.

You’re going to work toward that goal using something called deliberation. 

Here's the simplest way to understand it: Deliberation is what happens when people slow down, really listen, and think things through before making a decision.

Deliberation isn’t a quick chat, or a hot take, or a comment section.
It’s a careful conversation that unfolds over hours and weeks, where Delegates with different experiences, concerns, and opinions work through a complicated problem together.  

In politics, our differences are often used to divide us.In deliberation, your differences are a strength, if you use them well.

Think about it: if you’re trying to solve something complicated, you probably don’t want ten people around the table who all think the exact same way. 

When people who see the world differently take the time to really listen and reason together, the result is usually wiser than what any one person would land on alone.

Deliberation isn’t rushed or chaotic, and it’s not about who talks the most.
The goal isn’t to get to an answer fast. 
It’s to think carefully as a group and build your Collective Wisdom to find the best answers you can.

When the founders of the United States designed our system of government, they assumed people could deliberate, carefully and rationally, to solve our shared challenges. 

That’s the work you’re about to begin.