I began working earlier in the week to schedule an interview with a member of the MAP (Montevallo Acceptance Project) steering committee. Ms. Elaine Stephens, a notable member of the committee, was in contact with me and offered to do an e-mail interview. I sent her the questions we created and she was prompt in answering them. Since I am currently off campus for Spring Break, I will have to print and sign consent forms once I am back on campus. Thankfully she was able to sign and email her scanned consent form back to me along with her interview answers.

Today, I have been reviewing the documents I originally collected regarding the NDO. This includes mostly City Council meeting documents/minutes. Most of them are incredibly descriptive, and will make up the majority of the content on the page for the Conflict/Resolution. They detail dates of forums, panels, and comments made by constituents at City Council meetings, which allow for a better understanding of how this all came together.

I am hoping to have a complete posted draft of the page by later this evening, posted to the Progress & Resistance website under a new page. I feel confident that the chronological order of events will allow readers to understand the conflict from beginning to end. I am still searching for more information during 2017, as the majority of the conflict/resolution played out quickly in 2018, even though the initial NDO was proposed to City Council in 2016.

As for interviews, the only two interviews I have on hand now are Dr. Eckelman and Ms. Stephens’. We will have to reformat the interview tab, considering we do not have any opposition opinion as of now, and I don’t expect that we will receive any. We will be sure to note information which I found within the City Council documents.

I am working on interviewing Erin Green, a peer from the University who serves as the President of Spectrum (the University of Montevallo’s LGBTQ+ group). I believe his input will give a larger picture of the impact this NDO had upon the University student life.

I am so far pleased with the information I have been able to collect and will continue drafting throughout the day today, and tomorrow.

My only question for this week is this: If names are located within the (public) City Council documents, is it still okay for us to include these in the documents we post to the website? I obviously don’t want to target anyone in particular, but for instance, the names of City Council members in opposition alongside their comments in the public minutes records?

Hope everyone is having a good Spring Break (even though I know some of y’all have already had yours, hopefully it’s been a decent week for everybody!)