Diana Langshaw

• Trustee, Ross Township Board
• Ross Twp. Zoning Board of Appeals
• Treasurer, Four Township Water Resources Council
  Kalamazoo County
• Environmental Health Advisory Council
• Horticulturalist, Ross Twp.

• Become informed of the issues and have as much background on them as possible.
• If you have a group of people interested in the same topic, work together.
• Take part in as many informational, governmental and interest group meetings as you can.
• When you receive a survey in the mail, respond to it.
• Change does not take place by attending one meeting; an individual or group has to stay involved over a period of time. Too often people only participate when an issue impacts "their back yard," and quite often the process is well underway by this point. Many, many of our meetings have no citizens present.
• When you present your issues at a commission or board meeting, be organized. Use notes so that you don’t just repeat yourself, and give a brief summary to conclude your comments. Commissioners and board members will be especially impressed if you show that you can see both sides of an issue.
• If you want to be heard you need to treat others with respect. When an individual or group begins to threaten governmental officials they have the tendency to stop listening.
• Officials are just citizens from the community. Your input is very important. You definitely don’t have be a professional to say something