AmericaSpeaks Issues New Impact Video

I was pleased to see AmericaSpeaks has now issued an updated video that promotes their approach, using recent examples of their efforts to illustrate the power of their participation model. This could be a useful way to quickly convey the value of public participation.

However, my sense is that this is a video that is more useful to the 'choir,' folks like us who already 'get the value' in this approach, and that it may have less impact on those with limited knowledge of public participation processes. If used in combination with their previous piece on "Citizen Engagement in Governance", I expect we could provide useful information to policy-makers and other leaders (both public and private) who are considering participatory engagement processes. The previous video, which runs a bit longer, provides depth regarding the elements of their approach and the values that are embedded in their design... the marketing piece really doesn't give us much of this substance, only that it has been effective in the eyes of diverse policy leaders.

Thoughts? Other resources for fairly promoting engagement processes are also appreciated.

World Café - Seven Design Principles

This simple presentation by Samantha Tan conveys the seven core design principles behind a successful World Café process. We ought to be able to incorporate such ideas into many of our learning and decision-making events, shouldn't we? Where do you see opportunties in your work around engagement? What are some challenges that make it difficult to implement?

-Harry

"traditional expectations of a public hearing"

This morning I read an article mentioned in a local blog. An excerpt from the actual article is pasted below. It seems that the DOT, for whatever reason, used what they called an 'open house' instead of a public hearing. I am not sure I would have used the term 'open house' to describe their method for collecting public input, but apparently they chose to only collect public comments in writing or dictated to a court reporter. The two arguments made against this method was that public comments weren't made in the presence of the public, and they weren't made directly to decision-makers.

The DOT method described does have one benefit to the public, that of being able to make comments when convenient, not necessarily when someone else has scheduled a meeting. But most public hearings provide that opportunity already by allowing for written comments. So, it sounds like the DOT thought they could just replace the hearing part of a public hearing with dictations made to a court reporter.

I am surprised that the DOT would think they could use a method which is clearly worse than a public hearing (Before this, I would have had a hard time coming up with something worse than a public hearing!). Of course the public comments should be public. It would also be pretty tough to argue that public comments are being taken seriously when the comments aren't made directly to decision-makers. (I can't even begin to say anything about the DOT guy's town hall comment.)

What bothers me the most about all is that the situation is causing the public hearing to be held up as the ideal for public participation despite the fact that we have come so far in developing much more participatory methods. We should be moving forward not backward when it comes to public participation.

Article Excerpt:

Public Hearings That Actually Include the Public

But Gonyo said the biggest victory came from Adelman’s finding that the DOT’s “open house” format doesn’t match “traditional expectations” of a public hearing.

“The format that WisDOT used did not permit members of the public to publicly express their views directly to WisDOT representatives or to other members of the public,” Adelman wrote. Instead, residents could “either dictate their comments in private to a court reporter or complete written comment forms.”

DOT’s Jambois said that “open houses actually provide a more welcoming way for the public to state their views,” especially when compared to this summer’s Town Hall meetings on health care. He said open houses are used across the country because they comply with Federal Highway Administration guidelines for public hearings.

Barr, the plaintiff’s attorney, said that the court should determine the definition of an adequate public hearing. “Just because the agency publishes guidelines for itself does not mean that those guidelines are legally adequate,” Barr said.

Deliberative Polling - An Alternative to Town Hall Meetings

This past Sunday's NY Times features an Op Ed titled, "Town Halls by Invitation," from James Fishkin, Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. He bemoans the recent 'town hall meetings' over health care reform legislation, and their carnage for those of us seeking full engagement in participatory democracy. His proposal for deliberative polling represents an intriguing alternative for us to consider. The Stanford Center has been involved in a wide range of deliberative polling experiments over the years, with excellent results. Citizens participate in a much more informed, less polarized manner, and politicians get engaged input from a more representative sample of constituents.

In our recent Learning Community meeting, we wondered whether citizens might be engaged in the participatory process other than as crisis response; this approach may offer an important pathway towards such engagement.

-Harry

Hello fellow public participators,

I am asking for your help. I have a school district that seems ripe for some effective public participation activity. There is an element of the community that has never felt a part of the district (this goes back to the 1960s when this community first joined the district). This spring the board decided to close the elementary school in this district (the reasons don't really matter at this point). In response, this community is working to detach from the district and is attempting to become part of a different district.

There are community and board members who still harbor feelings from the 1960s decision. And some think there was an agreement made that the community elementary school would never be closed (though no documentation of this decision can be found--seems to be one of those "gentlemen's agreements if it does indeed exist at all).

In addition, there has been high turnover in the superintendent over the few years. There has been four in the last five years.

I would like to help the board and district with this issue and would like to know what you all might suggest. I have no firm ideas at this point, but I do think some kind of community dialogue need to occur.

A recent article in the New York Times had a great quote in it. The article looks at twitter and its use in churches. One of the churches in the article, Trinity Church in Manhattan, opened up their Good Friday service to twitter, and displayed the twitter messages live during the service. As it happened, there was some ‘mischief’:

“The trouble began in the second hour.

Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.”

Here is the church’s excellent response:

“If someone chooses to interact with us mischievously, that’s fine,” said the Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, the church vicar. “The opposite of engagement is not mischief, but apathy.”

What a great answer.

Open Government Initiative Seeks Input

The Obama Administration is seeking widespread input regarding the best ways to implement the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government that the President issued in Jan 2009. The Open Government Initiative is collecting dozens of ideas, several of which have bene put forth by organizations such as AmericaSpeaks, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, IAP2, World Café, and others who have been deeply involved in public participation initiatives. You can participate directly in this important activity: http://opengov.ideascale.com/

If you visit the sites of the organizations identified above, they will suggest specific initiatives that may be worthy of your consideration. AmericaSpeaks has a particularly comprehensive list, but there are LOTS of great ideas being generated -- check them out!

-Harry