Terri Buckner Sep 12, 2006 8:54 am

I am looking for a methodology to use in conducting public meetings around environmental programming decisions to be implemented by local governments. In most of our public hearings, the public is asked to react to a short menu of options identified by elected officials and/or staff. For this program, we would like to engage the various public sectors (residents, business owners, nonprofits, etc) in discussions of benefits and barriers to a full menu of programming options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If you have accomplished something similar, I would love to hear how you

1) advertised the meetings to the various sectors within your community to ensure attendance by a reasonably representative sample and
2) structured the meetings so that everyone from the various sectors understood the options and felt comfortable expressing their opinions.

Thanks, Terri