Transparency Is The Friend of Good Public Stewardship

The ALS Registry Act, which many of us worked hard to have passed in 2008, allowed for the formation of an "Advisory Committee" which could exert a lot of influence on the direction of this huge government project.

In the past there has been an annual, invitation-only meeting of people who seem to serve the role of such an Advisory Committee. The selection of attendees is tightly controlled by the CDC and the ALS Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (the latter two are paid contractors on the project).

We receive the written reports from those meetings many months after they occur.

And to this day, a lot of very reasonable people find the deliverables from this project to be of questionable value and effectiveness relative to the price tag.  That makes the annual meetings very important.

• In 2013 we really challenged the veil of secrecy around the annual meeting.  We could not find out attendee names in advance.  We could not view proceedings live.  
• By 2014 the CDC decided to webcast the proceedings after a lot of prodding in social media.  This was a huge step in the direction of transparency where we could view the actual conversations and group dynamics and competencies live. There was no mechanism for us to submit questions, but we were happy with the positive baby step toward transparency.
• One day of the 2015 meeting was also webcast and again, some sunshine was cast on the questions that were (and were not) asked and the answers that were (and were not) given.  The second day was blacked out for some reason.

After repeated inquiries about the 2016 meeting dates and webcast information, we got the following message yesterday from ALSsystemadmin@cdc.gov :

The dates for ATSDR’s Annual ALS Surveillance Meeting are August 3 – 4, 2016. The meeting will not be live streamed this year. The meeting will be recorded and posted on the National ALS Registry website at a later date following the meeting. The posting of the recorded meeting on the National ALS Registry website will be announced on the Registry website home page and through CDC social media channels.

This is troubling.  Now the CDC doesn't want us watching live.  Why?  Live proceedings can provide energy and conversation that can be quite valuable.  Why stifle that?

My response to the email was

The lack of a webstream of the annual meeting this year is very disappointing and a step backward in transparency.  I hope that those who made that decision will reconsider in the spirit of transparency and good public stewardship.
Thanks very much.

Please take a moment and send your thoughts to ALSsystemadmin@cdc.gov today. It's important. Thank you.