A resident committee is forming to work out what Gray's Creek actually wants for its own future: incorporation done right, county planning tools, or the status quo, watched closely. This page is its home. Until the committee exists and speaks for itself, this page records how it is being formed, who can join, and the ground rules it inherits.
The last two months proved Gray's Creek will show up for its own future. The committee is how showing up becomes deciding.
The committee is open to anyone who lives or owns property in the Gray's Creek community, whatever they think about incorporation. That is not a courtesy; it is the design. A committee of the already-agreed would repeat the mistake that put the petition on hold: a plan finished before the community was in the room.
What the committee is for: agreeing on how Gray's Creek decides (ground rules, meetings, votes), studying the three paths against the survey results and real documents, and bringing a direction back to the community to choose. What it is not: a successor to either side of the petition fight, a body that signs anyone up for anything, or a vehicle for any pre-written plan, including one from this site.
The neighbors who run Gray's Creek Facts have made one commitment in public and repeat it here: once the committee is formed, we hand over the volunteer list and step away. The record on this site stays public, and the same documents-first standard will apply to whatever the committee produces. If it earns scrutiny, it will get it here, exactly as the petition did.
The date, time, and place are not posted publicly. The invitation goes directly to everyone who has put their name and email in below.
What is already decided is the format, because the format is the lesson of July 16, applied in reverse:
This first gathering is a working session for the people organizing the committee, not a public event, so its details are shared by direct email with the committee list only. Want to be in the room? Put your name and email in below and the invitation comes to you. Once the committee is formed and adopts its rules, its regular meetings follow the openness those rules set. If you can offer a venue that holds a few dozen neighbors, say so in the form below; that is the one logistical gap still open.
As promised: the agenda, on this page, before anyone walks in. The date, time, and place go by email to the list, along with the full document packet, so nobody is asked to vote on anything they have not had days to read.
Why this committee exists, what the evening is (rules and process) and is not (choosing a direction for Gray's Creek). Sign-in and note-taking noted at the top.
Name, what part of Gray's Creek, and one sentence: what do you want protected?
The one-paragraph draft is read aloud, amended from the floor, and adopted.
A walk through the circulated draft; amendments moved and voted one at a time; the rules adopted as provisional, meaning any member can move a change at simple majority through the second meeting. A volunteer secretary is confirmed.
The process explained: nominations open that night, short written statements due by a deadline the room sets, the vote at the second meeting. If the convener is nominated, another attendee leads this item.
The former petition committee has said publicly it plans its own workshops. Whether and on what terms this committee works with that effort is this committee's decision to make. A neutral options brief is circulated to the list ahead of the gathering; the room discusses, then decides that night or sets the decision for meeting two.
Anything the agenda missed. Three minutes per speaker if the line is long; items land on the next agenda.
Date set. Minutes of the first gathering published within 7 days; the next agenda published at least 5 days ahead.
Four documents, emailed to the list with the invitation: the Proposed Rules of Process (membership, quorum, how decisions get made, and how the community, not the committee, validates any direction), the chair selection process on one page, the neutral options brief for item 6, and a vote sheet: every motion the evening can decide, worded exactly as it will be read aloud before hands go up.
Ground rules for the evening, read at the top: one conversation at a time; the convener recognizes speakers; argue positions, not people; supporters and opponents of the former petition sit here as equals; disagreement gets recorded in the minutes if the disagreeing member wants it there. Nothing is decided that night except how we decide.
This list exists for one purpose: forming the committee. It is never published, never shared, and it is handed to the committee once one exists.
Nothing is decided from a stage. Drafts are published in full before anyone is asked to endorse, sign, or vote. If a document is not ready, the ask waits.
Agendas in advance, minutes after, disagreements on the record. Anyone inside the community is welcome, including everyone from both sides of the petition question.
Surveys, open meetings, and votes decide among the paths. Not this site, not the loudest voice, not a finished plan from anyone.
One neighbor-run list. We email only when something material happens — a new document, a meeting, or a decision. No campaign mail, ever.
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