What is the course overview?
The workshop presents the basic principles to plan effective meetings and achieve meeting goals, and identifies a variety of innovative techniques to facilitate effective participation in different meeting settings. The techniques described during the course include: Revolving Circle (a.k.a. Samoan Circles or Conversation Circles), World Cafe, Card Storming, Nominative Group Technique, Open Space Meetings, Appreciative Inquiry and FutureSearch Processes, Focused Conversations, Deliberative Polling, Study Circles, and Workshops. Participants receive information on each of these techniques, as well as website and book references for further exploration.

Who should take this course?
Are you still holding meetings that resemble a dry presentation followed by public comments at a microphone? Would you like to get more people engaged and involved in the topic and with each other? Then this course is for you! Public meetings can and should be informative, engaging, and fun for all participants. Creating more effective meetings helps both EPA and our communities.

What are the course learning objectives?
Participants who complete this course will gain skills on how to:

• Plan effective meetings to achieve meeting goals; and
• Develop techniques to facilitate meeting participation.

What are the logistics?
This four-hour workshop provides participants with a fundamental understanding of what makes meetings work and how to plan for a successful public meeting. Maximum course size is 25 participants.

Doug Sarno teaches this course. He is a civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience in Superfund and environmental cleanup. He has devoted much of his career to improving environmental decision-making and effectively engaging diverse groups of stakeholders in complex and controversial decisions.

Is there available background material?
Participants receive the following:

• Detailed manual
• Information on each of the meeting techniques
• Website and book references for further exploration
   

Previous Events (click to view/hide)

Atlanta, GA Event Details   May 30, 2018 - May 30, 2018