For the current week’s forum information, please see the announcements. Forums start at 11:45 and last for one hour. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.
A listing of the dates, speakers, and topics for Public Affairs Forums is below.| Date | Speaker | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/5/2012 | Karl Rabago | Electric Transportation and the Clean Energy Utility: Challenges and Opportunities | Karl R. Rábago is vice president for distributed energy services with Austin Energy. At Austin Energy, Karl leads the utility’s energy efficiency, green building, and Austin Climate Protection Program. As one of the nation’s leading clean energy innovators, with experience in virtually every sector of the electric utility industry. He sees an inevitable and desirable melding of the electric service industry with electric personal transportation and mobility solutions. He will lead a discussion of Austin Energy's strategies for accelerating electric transportation and clean energy resource deployment. Issues addressed will include the impact of electric vehicle charging on the grid and how this challenge can be turned into an opportunity to usher in the utility of the future. |
| 2/12/2012 | No Forum- Valentine's Day | ||
| 2/19/2012 | Thorne Webb Dryer, Editor of the Rag Blog and Alice Embree Contributing Writer to the Rag Blog | The Rag Lives! The History of The Rag, Austin’s Underground Newspaper of the Sixties and Seventies and the Rag Blog of Today | Thorne Webb Dryer and Alice Embree will discuss the role The Rag played in shaping leftist politics in the sixties and seventies. The Rag was widely known for its unique blend of leftist politics and its advancement of free speech, promotion of civil rights, recognition of women’s issues, and opposition to war, all tempered by humor. The Rag was the rallying point of the Austin counterculture and was a launching pad for a number of well known Austin writers, artists, and photographers. Clips from documentaries of Rag years and the student movements of the sixties and seventies in Austin will be shown. |
| 2/26/2012 | Ms. Guadalupe Q. Sosa, Board Member, Austin Community College District | Education | Lupe Sosa emigrated from Mexico to San Antonio at the age of 13. Her mother worked as a domestic to support and educate her four children. Lupe learned English while attending school and helping to care for younger siblings. Marrying early, mothering six children, she began her career with the State of Texas in clerical jobs before earning a college degree and working as an accountant, an auditor, and a manager with the state. As a citizen, she built support for our new South Austin campus of ACC. Now on the ACC board, she supports a Southeast campus, as well. |