Location: Fletcher Free Library

Our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, fought a war, and founded our country, largely over the issue of improper representation. Subsequently, they drafted our Constitution to better provide this representation.

So how are we doing today?

We'll discuss why large numbers of Americans feel we have major, well documented, problems with the structure and financing of our political system that combine to result in improper representation of broad citizen interests by Congress.

You'll each be loaned an iClicker device and we'll use audience response technology to record and present our collective judgments about the following and more: • What current practices are damaging to our receiving proper representation?

• Are we on track to diminish or lose our form of democracy?

• Is real reform most likely to come from Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, or from citizens and legislatures through Article V as provided by our Founders?

• Is effective reform by statute or by constitutional amendment more likely?

• Is it fixable without collaboration across all ideologies?

• What must effective reform include?

We all have an interest in getting this right, so please come and participate.

Rick Hubbard is a retired Vermont attorney, former economic consultant, and recent author of The Democracy Amendments. He lives in South Burlington.