A screenshot from GGWash's 2020 ANC commissioner training.  Image by the author.

Last night, Greater Greater Washington hosted our 2020 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner training. Many thanks to the eighty-something attendees for their smart questions, thoughtful replies, and knowledge-sharing.

Next week, we’ll share, via the publication and email, a more thorough followup. But, before the weekend, we wanted to publish the recording for those who couldn’t attend. We’ve also uploaded an audio link. (This recording is unedited as we wanted to get this published ASAP!)

A shoutout to Robb Dooling, Nick Cheolas, James Harnett, and Zach Teutsch for sharing their expertise as former commissioners, outgoing commissioners, and current candidates, and a huge thanks to everyone who joined us last night.

If you’re interested in running for ANC commissioner in your neighborhood, you should get started…right now! More information is available via the Office of the ANC and the Board of Elections. For election- and paperwork-related questions, call or email the Board of Elections at (202) 727-2525 or candidate@boedc.org.

After the Aug. 5 filing deadline, we’ll share more resources specific to running as a write-in candidate. We will circulate our questionnaire to candidates, on which we’ll base our endorsements, in late summer. If you have questions, email abaca@ggwash.org.

Here are some of the most relevant posts about ANCs that we’ve run recently (and some, not-so-recently): Nick, who joined us last night, wrote this awesome piece about why he isn’t running again — but why you should. Here’s our kickoff post on ANC elections this year, what current commissioners have to say about the vagaries of the District’s most hyper-local elected office, and details on petition pickup.

There’s also former commissioner Justin Lini’s excellent explainer on ANCs, from 2018. And, you might want to take a look at our 2018 ANC voter guide, which includes our endorsements as well as responses to the questionnaire that we sent to candidates then; this is similar to what we’ll produce for ANC endorsements this year.

Alex Baca is the DC Policy Director at GGWash. Previously the engagement director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the general manager of Cuyahoga County's bikesharing system, she has also worked in journalism, bike advocacy, architecture, construction, and transportation in DC, San Francisco, and Cleveland. She has written about all of the above for CityLab, Slate, Vox, Washington City Paper, and other publications.