Three years ago, a group of community leaders came together to focus on factual and in-depth news within our local community. A once-a-month public meeting called The Community Forum was birthed to present local issues with a meaningful, one-hour focus on a single topic.

Topics range from Fire Insurance Rates, to Nevada Irrigation District’s Infrastructure, to Ensuring Free and Fair Elections. Each Community Forum hosts a panel of specialists who govern, control, or manage the important decisions and direction of each topic.

Meetings are held at our Sierra College-Nevada County Campus Auditorium on the final Friday morning of each month. They are free to the public, with complimentary convenient parking at the campus and signs directing guests to the auditorium. If you would like to be included on the email mailing list, please send an email to termcateer@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

In fact, the January 23rd Forum is devoted to the topic of Affordable Housing on will be held from 10:30 to 11:30 am in Building N12 on our local Sierra College campus. Back by popular demand on Tuesday, February 24th from 4:00 to 5:30 pm, is a special forum devoted to understanding the future of Artificial Intelligence.

Local business leader Ed Sylvester, who helped found the Forum noted, “The Forum fills a needed void in our community by providing in-depth coverage of local topics and allows the public to ask questions to local decision makers. It is amazing to see the quality and knowledge base of leadership in our local community at each of these forums.”

The Community Forum has no budget and all those involved are community volunteers whose sole goal is to provide Nevada County residents with factual information on relevant topics. The Forum is grateful to our partners at The Union Newspaper, KNCO Radio and YubaNet who help publicize and cover our monthly events.

Sessions are moderated by a rotating group of experienced journalist volunteers who ask pointed, thought-provoking questions. That group includes longtime residents Lorraine Jewett, Carol Scofield, YubaNet’s Pascale Fusshoeller and myself. We reserve time at the end of each Forum for audience members to pose questions to the assembled panel of experts and decision-makers. 

Sylvester stated that the leadership of the Forum Board of Directors was rooted in local leaders including former County Supervisor Ed Scofield and his community involved wife, Carol; along with Judy and Monty East, Sierra College Dean Karen O’Hara, and local journalist Lorraine Jewett.

“Other thanks go to Sierra College,” said Sierra College Foundation Chair Judy East, “because it provides the venue, free parking, and staff that videotapes the forums. Everyone is invited to view previous Community Forum sessions on the Sierra College website at www.sierracollege.edu/visit-sierra-college/nevada-county-campus.”

Your participation is invited and encouraged. As Ed Sylvester noted, “In these days of divisiveness, we intend the Community Forums to be a unifying experience for our community.”

An informed and involved community has always been a hallmark of Nevada County and Community Forums are one more tool in our community-unifying toolbox.

Terence K. McAteer is a Grass Valley resident and the retired Nevada County Superintendent of Schools.