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“I’ll take ‘Public Involvement’ for a thousand, please, Alex…”
posted by Dennis Madsen on August 5th, 2009
When an employee first starts at Urban Collage, one of his or her earliest crucibles is participation in a public meeting. Our firm has done literally hundreds of workshops, in a wide array of formats, for communities large and small, and for audiences both accommodating and, shall we say, ‘opinionated’. Learning how to moderate without directing, and how to inform without biasing, are key skills for a Collager. But another challenge is how, after scores of meetings, UC can keep the public meeting format fresh and interesting. How can we avoid the process becoming formulaic, while maintaining its usefulness and dynamism?In Prattville, Alabama, we tried out a new tack…
The Prattville Comprehensive Plan began in the Fall of 2008, and continues through September of 2009. An integral part of the process, as with almost any comp plan, is the public participation. A stated goal from the City was that the community outreach be both engaging and effective, and that community members should feel like their input was heard and included. This charge was most evident in the third public meeting – the Design Workshop. In that meeting, UC needed to get input from the community on a wide variety of questions and issues, at a wide range of scales. The question was how best to format a workshop – one that would be both diverse and specific in its topics – so that the attendees felt engaged without getting overwhelmed. We needed some smart thinking to solve the problem… and where else can you find smart people but on Jeopardy!
The popular game show became an inspiration for the workshop, primarily because its use of categories helped UC organize the questions into understandable sections – “Crystal Ball” asked participants to look into the future for their vision of Prattville; “Getting Around” provided a series of transportation questions; “Missing Pieces” asked folks to locate things that the City would need as it grew; and of course “Pot Pourri” was everything else. The format not only allowed us to jump from topic to topic (thus avoiding anything getting overworked or stale), but it also provided a level of comfort (who doesn’t know how to answer in the form of a question?) and no shortage of fun.After all, the word “workshop” has “work” in it; “Gameshow” has “game”!
There was even a Final Jeopardy question… but in this case, the winner was the City and people of Prattville.
“I’ll take ‘Public Involvement’ for a thousand, please, Alex…”
posted by Dennis Madsen on August 5th, 2009When an employee first starts at Urban Collage, one of his or her earliest crucibles is participation in a public meeting. Our firm has done literally hundreds of workshops, in a wide array of formats, for communities large and small, and for audiences both accommodating and, shall we say, ‘opinionated’. Learning how to moderate without directing, and how to inform without biasing, are key skills for a Collager. But another challenge is how, after scores of meetings, UC can keep the public meeting format fresh and interesting. How can we avoid the process becoming formulaic, while maintaining its usefulness and dynamism?In Prattville, Alabama, we tried out a new tack…
The Prattville Comprehensive Plan began in the Fall of 2008, and continues through September of 2009. An integral part of the process, as with almost any comp plan, is the public participation. A stated goal from the City was that the community outreach be both engaging and effective, and that community members should feel like their input was heard and included. This charge was most evident in the third public meeting – the Design Workshop. In that meeting, UC needed to get input from the community on a wide variety of questions and issues, at a wide range of scales. The question was how best to format a workshop – one that would be both diverse and specific in its topics – so that the attendees felt engaged without getting overwhelmed. We needed some smart thinking to solve the problem… and where else can you find smart people but on Jeopardy!
The popular game show became an inspiration for the workshop, primarily because its use of categories helped UC organize the questions into understandable sections – “Crystal Ball” asked participants to look into the future for their vision of Prattville; “Getting Around” provided a series of transportation questions; “Missing Pieces” asked folks to locate things that the City would need as it grew; and of course “Pot Pourri” was everything else. The format not only allowed us to jump from topic to topic (thus avoiding anything getting overworked or stale), but it also provided a level of comfort (who doesn’t know how to answer in the form of a question?) and no shortage of fun.After all, the word “workshop” has “work” in it; “Gameshow” has “game”!
There was even a Final Jeopardy question… but in this case, the winner was the City and people of Prattville.