7846

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7846
• Author: American River Management Society
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1994
• Copyright Material: NO

43

. Identify total extent of basin, then break into components. Show publics where they fIt into the
process.

Structuring an Effective Public Meeting

Issues

Today we see more public involvement efforts than ever before; it is admirable that agencies and individuals
within them are taking more time to share and obtain information from the public. Public Involvement is not
always easy; it is sometimes a thankless job, and if operated poorly can have negative ramifIcations. However
the benefits of a quality public involvement effort can far outweigh the difficulties. Including people in the
decision making process is one of the most effective ways to ensure that they will accept and support the
solution, and can be one of the biggest assets to a river manager, in helping to ensure the long term
sustainability of a river corridor or basin.

There are many facets of creating a quality public involvement program but we should spend just a few
moments discussing what appears to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks -- that of structuring an effective
public meeting. Lets face it, we are a meeting society, if you are in middle management you will spend more
than 50% of your professional lives sitting in meetings, if you are an administrator you may spend more than
80% of your time in meetings. If you are a river ranger you understand that attending any meeting means time
away from the river and there better be a very good reason for it. The public feels no differently -- everyday in
the United States there are more than 11 million meetings, of which probably 6 million shouldn't have been
held; they were poorly planned and/or left participants feeling exasperated and feeling their time and money were
not being well spent. We cannot over emphasize the importance of taking the time, before going to the public,
to structure meetings effectively.

One of the major problems is simply not being prepared -- not knowing or thinking clearly about what we want
from a meeting or how to get it The second problem is not preparing the public -- we should think of them as
just coming from the 6 million bad meetings - they need to be prepared for a good meeting. They need to be
prepared to listen, they need to be prepared to share. The third problem area is not establishing or following a
specific decision process - that is, falling down in the implementation of the things we said we would do at our
public meetings.

Ideas I Solutions

The fU"St thing we can do to begin addressing these problems is to be prepared. Pre-meeting planning is the
single most important thing we can do to ensure a good experience for ourselves and the public. It should
nonnally take at least 3 hours of planning for each hour of meeting; therefore if you are planning a one-day
workshop you should assume that it will take you three days to prepare. We also need to be sure to defme the
purpose of the meeting - make sure we know exactly what needs to be accomplished and what is needed from the
public. For instance, is the purpose of the meeting to share information, or generate issues, are we asking for
one solution, or a listing of several alternative solutions? This sounds simple but is often overlooked and
commonly causes confusion in meetings. We need to clearly state the meeting objective(s) and then make sure
that everything on the agenda logically relates to that goal. Another critical element is to determine who is
going to facilitate. Neutral and active facilitation is an essential ingredient in a good meeting. Arrange it so that
the facilitator is in charge of the meeting and can concentrate on the content and process of the meeting. Have a
different person there to be responsible for representing the agency's concerns, this will help create an open and
non-threatening environment for your participants and will help ensure the meeting runs smoothly.

We need to prepare the public for a good meeting by helping them set their expectations. If, at the onset of a
meeting people understand what the goal is, how they are going to interact, and how the information generated
will be used, we wiD find that they participate in a more positive and constructive manner. Meeting materials
such as agendas, handouts, and information sheets should be developed and distributed well ahead of time. The

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Rivers Without Boundaries 1994