Michael, An America Speaks event was held in Maine, USA a few years
ago, to look at health care issues, as part of the development of a
state health plan and health insurance programs. I volunteered to be
one of the facilitators, partly on my own time, partly with my
community coalition coordinator hat on.... let's see what my memory
will dredge up!
I went through the training (perhaps 2 hours, plus reading the manual
and all). There were two locations for the gathering of citizens, one
in northern Maine (Orono, I think) and one in Portland Maine. They
were connected with teleconferencing technology, so people in both
places could see each other and the welcome by the governor and
others was seen live at the same time. (There was one winter date
set, a blizzard hit, so it was postponed... I think just to the next
day.... which reduced the numbers, but I think there were 150 or so
at the Portland location.)
Everyone who came to participate was, ideally, to have read a booklet
they had received in the mail some time before the event. This gave
them the "facts" about costs, some "best practices" being used in
other places, and a list of options they were going to get to discuss
and vote on. (I did not like the preplanning of the voting options.
In most cases, I could not have happily voted for any option
presented, wanting to see combinations or options not on the list.)
In a gym at a community college, at round tables of 8 people, each
person had a small voting pad (it looks like a handheld calculator,
with a numerical keypad), and one person (a participant volunteer)
had a laptop to use to take notes on what people at the table said.
(What was being typed went live to a group of trained people in the
room reviewing that input, and they identified themes that were
emerging.) The facilitator did not have either one, but helped with
the sharing and listening process. (There were also wandering techies
who helped with any tech problems, and content experts who could be
called over to explain health system stuff people didn't understand.)
It was a day (maybe 9am to 3pm) of rounds of discussion and then
voting, with coffee breaks, bag lunches, and so on. I do love it that
the issues caught on the laptops resulted in a couple of emerging
themes being added to the preset voting lists, and one of the ones
that came from the participants was a "top three" in the final
voting. (I think there were questions after the event about just want
the citizens meant when they used certain words.... maybe those
catching the emerging themes misinterpreted what they were seeing,
because of varying uses of the same words.)
It was fun to see the opinions of those in the room turn into numbers
and graphs on the spot, but I didn't feel energized by the process,
for whatever that's worth.
Diane Brandon
di...@keysregion.org
www.keysregion.org
On Sep 24, 2007, at 10:01 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
Dear colleagues in the USA,
a couple of people in Berlin are looking into the possibility to
start something akin to "America Speaks" in these parts. There will
be a small meeting tomorrow...one never knows what will come of it.
Looking at the website of America Speaks gives me some information.
Much more important to me would be to hear something from some of
you who have been part of this. After looking at the videos, its
already clear to me that its not closely related to open space. I
am curious what your impressions, experiences, opinions, etc. are
especially against the neutrality claim of America Speaks (whenever
I hear that someone is neutral it starts confusing the hell out of
me, for instance).
Have a wonderful day
Greetings from a warm late summerday in Berlin
mmp--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.org www.michaelmpannwitz.de
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