The Commitment to Youth Conferences utilized an "open agenda search conference" model more typically employed in a corporate setting. Following the work of the Madison County Community Council, the Promise Team transferred this model to a community setting. The Commitment to Youth Conferences, or "C2Y events" as the project staff and communities referred to them, brought youth and adults together in discussions aimed at more fully engaging young people in the lives of their communities.
Initial outreach to communities began five months prior to the target dates for community conferences. The Project Coordinator and the AmeriCorps Promise Fellow met with mayors, city clerks, and city council members, as well as the principals and other community leaders who had previously shown and interest in working with and for young people. Ultimately, three communities agreed to work together to host a C2Y event, and one other community made significant progress in planning their own event. A fifth community indicated interest in hosting a community event in conjunction with the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year, which will be funded through the renewal of the PAYOFF grant for FY2003. See following documentation for a complete implementation guide for these events.
In May, 21 residents of Deary, Bovill, and Elk River gathered at Deary High School for the "Commitment to Our Future" Conference. Bob Liming, Executive Director of the Valley Boys and Girls Clubs in Lewiston, presented a keynote address focusing on youth-adult partnerships and the importance of engaging youth in communities. The C2Y participants spent their morning in one of three visioning exercises: Deary community center; Bovill community enrichment; or Elk River community building. The event concluded with action planning sessions facilitated in each discussion group by community development consultants who donated their time for the morning.
Evaluation data suggests that those who attended the "Commitment to Our Future" Conference came away with a better understanding of issues facing youth in their community (increase of 1.08 points on a rating scale of 1-7). Participants also reported somewhat of an increase in their perceived ability to identify and create opportunities to work intergenerationally to address community issues. Those completing evaluations identified "safe places and structured activities" as a significant issue or need in their community. Anecdotal evidence reported in the outcomes suggest that the participants and other community members have already begun to act on their increased awareness of opportunities to engage youth.
Challenges: From the viewpoint of project staff supporting the C2Y events, being an "outsider" to the communities presented a significant challenge, and required active attention to relationship building with community members, and emphasizing the role of "resource" rather than "project coordinator". Much of the outreach for these events took place in the winter, making travel in winter weather a challenge, as well. On a related note, it proved difficult to recruit youth participants from a community where project staff did not have existing ties. The young people who did become actively involved were either home schooled, or attended school in another town and were also perceived as outsiders to some degree. Project staff tried to work on two C2Y events simultaneously and this approach failed, because of the commitment level and time investment necessary to organize in a community where one does not reside is extensive, and precludes one person from working in more than one community at one time.
Keys to success: From the organizer's perspective, the single most critical element of effective outreach is face-to-face contact with community members. Project staff were willing to make the trips across the county to meet with people rather than talking on the telephone and this made significant difference in the outcome of the event. Careful outreach, good listening skills, and "seek[ing] first to understand, then to be understood" - these are the trademarks of good organizing, and the building of strong working relationships in communities.
Outcomes of this event include:
· The Leadership Team, or BoDeary River Group as they called themselves, included three youth and three adults. Two of the three young women served as the facilitators for the C2Y event, and are now working with other youth in the Deary to establish a youth action council, focused on carrying out some of the ideas generated in the planning discussions.
· The Deary Recreation District and Spud Hill Area Economic Development (SHARED) Council recorded an in-kind donation of $7300 for the efforts of project staff and community members in putting together the C2Y event and providing a venue for community discussion of planning for a community center to be build in the next three to five years. Based on discussion and input from the action planning session, the Recreation District commissioners have invited youth from the C2Y leadership team and the community to participate in the planning process. At the time of this report, the commissioners and SHARED Council chair are exploring effective youth-adult partnership practices and will begin implementing them immediately with the goal of establishing some type of youth advisory group to assist them in their planning.
· Bovill community leaders have expanded their community enrichment plans to include young people in all aspects of their activities. This summer, the Bovill Improvement Group plans to conduct an asset mapping project in their community to gather information which will help them develop conveniently located life long learning opportunities. This community-based project grew out of frustration by residents interested in the University of Idaho Community Enrichment program, requiring an prohibitive 86-mile round trip to participate and registration fees which proved in some instances cost prohibitive in an economically depressed area.
· The formation of "Friends of Elk River", Elk River residents committed to improving the quality of life and expanding facilities and activities available to the 20 young people who live in their community. As a direct result of the C2Y action planning session, this group has hosted two community-wide picnics offering opportunities for residents to write their ideas in a space called "The Dream Line", where their suggestions written on colored paper hung on a clothesline. The group met with the mayor of Elk River to explore avenues for implementing their ideas, and have requested time at an upcoming recreation district meeting to present their ideas to the commissioners.
Suggestions for future events
Following the C2Y event in Deary, the Leadership Team reviewed their experiences and developed some suggestions for a follow-up event to be held within 24 months.
Keys to Success:
ü Starting planning 6-8 weeks prior to event allowed enough time to address all aspects of the conference and engage community support.
ü Leadership Team met weekly during the planning process - this proved important in maintaining momentum.
ü It was important that one person takes on a facilitator/leadership role to oversee the project; this helped to coordinate all the volunteer efforts and ensure that all aspects of the conference planning received appropriate attention.
ü Access to postage and mailing and other supplies through a sponsoring organization and grant were crucial to being able to host this event, as funding would likely not have been available through traditional sources within the community.
ü The keynote speaker helped focus the visioning process and provided a good start for the day's activities. It helped to have a keynotes who had experience with one of the issues facing the community.
ü The Saturday morning time slot was a good time for most people in the community to make time for the meeting, although conflicting school events severely limited youth attendance.
Things to do differently next time:
ü Hold the event in either March or October - preferably March so as to stay clear of busy times in the school calendar. Avoid May and June for same reason.
ü Involve student body leadership from the beginning of the planning process!
ü Involve counselors and teachers who live in the community.
ü In general, more youth should be involved from the beginning. Consider contacting each student organization at the school and asking that they each send at least one representative.
The most important thing to remember in the planning process . . .
Ø get commitments from at least 10 (or 1% of total population) youth to participate in the planning and 15 youth (or 5% of total population) to attend the event.
Ø Strongly encourage youth who attend to bring and involve their parents. This will help to increase adult participation from across the community.
One thing to avoid would be . . .
Scheduling on a busy weekend! Begin the planning process early and involve stakeholders in the process of choosing a date for the event. Make sure to check with community members as well as school officials when selecting a date. As soon as the date is selected, get the event on the community calendar and the school calendar in hopes that other events will not be scheduled at the same time.
Commitment to Youth Conference Implementation Kit
"An Open Agenda Search Conference can be used in many settings and for many purposes as noted on the previous page. The following pages have information specific to an Open Agenda/Youth Search Conference. Another type of Open Agenda Conference could use a similar format. Portions of this process can be used for specific activities such identifying stake holder groups and natural leaders among those groups.
There are six phases to the conference. Each is essential to the optimal success of the program/process. The goals of the conference are generally; to open communication between and amongst informed and influential youth and adults, to identify assets and obstacles, to learn skills and organize, and to identify, empower, and support, people and solutions. The outcomes will be specific, measurable, and observable. Individuals invited to participate in the process need to understand that the is a participatory process with additional work required outside the specific meetings and conference. This is especially true for those involved with Phase 2, 3, and 4."
Excerpted from Community Collaboration and Consensus webpage,
See Appendix A for implementation guide.
Implementation Timeline
5-6 months prior Identify stakeholders in community - who are the official community leaders? Who are others in the community who are working with and for youth? Who are the shapers of public opinion in the community? Who has the capacity to mobilize diverse groups in the community in support of this project? Who are the leaders amongst youth in the community? Who sets trends that other youth follow? In generating this list of contacts, work to identify connections between individuals which might not otherwise be evident to someone without a long history in the community. Incorporate and take advantage of these connections in building a network to support the planning and hosting of the C2Y event.
At least 5 months prior Contact the stakeholders and request an opportunity to talk with them about the open agenda search conference idea and its possibilities in the community.
Following is an outline of these conversations:
o Introduction, including explanation of your connection to the community and project, if you are meeting with someone who isn't already familiar with your work.
o What is going on in the community with and for young people and how is this person involved?
o What are the issues facing the community around youth? Or What changes would this person like to see?
o How can the planning team be a resource in this community?
o Introduce concept of Open Agenda conferences, and suggest usefulness relative to the future of engaging youth in the community. Outline human and fiscal resources available to assist the community in hosting one of these events, as well as volunteer needs from within the community.
o Does the person think this would work in their community? What would it take to make it successful? Would they be willing to participate?
o Who else should I be talking to about this idea?
Follow up on each meeting with a WRITTEN thank you note acknowledging the person's time and interest and expressing excitement about working with them as the community develops this idea.
Continue these meetings as long as time in the planning process allows, and/or until the same names begin coming out in response to "Who else should I be talking to about this?"
At least 10 weeks prior Based on interest in the community, and extend of outreach meetings, host a community information session including both youth and adults. Consider asking each adult who attends to bring a young person with them to ensure/increase youth participation.
If the community has conducted the Search Institute Survey of Attitudes and Behaviors, or a similar survey reporting data on risks and protective factors present for youth in the community, the survey results may be used as a framework for suggesting community implementation of an open agenda event aimed at mobilizing the community in response to the survey results. If implementing this event in a community other than your own, include an influential community member as a speaker, and ask her/him to present the survey results. See Appendix B for sample presentation outline.
Before concluding the presentation, provide an opportunity for interested people to indicate their willingness to serve on a leadership team to plan the event. If possible, take time at the end of the information session to set a meeting with this group to be held within seven days.
At least 9 weeks prior Hold first meeting with planning group. Make sure to invite any community members who expressed an interest during the outreach stage, but were not able to attend the information session. Also, make sure that the group is at least 50% youth; if not, work with others in the community and the school system to identify and recruit more youth (targeting especially emerging leaders) to participate.
At this meeting, review planning outline for the open agenda conference and solicit feedback about any adjustments that would need to be made to fit the specific community. For instance (and most importantly), will the community be willing to participate in a 3-day event as per the basic outline? It will also be important to discuss time requirements from volunteers, and timelines for hosting the conference to allow volunteers to consider their own schedules in committing to plan this event.
7 weeks prior Hold first Planning Team working session. The objectives for this meeting include:
o review discussion at first planning meeting (and provide overview for any newcomers);
o create a shared vision of the C2Y experience, develop a workplan for the conference, and possibly identify lead people for major task areas; and
o brainstorm initial contact list (both additional volunteers and names for invitation list) for C2Y conference and make task assignments
See Appendix C for sample agenda/facilitator's script and form for action plan.
At least 6 weeks prior Meet with leadership team (identified as "lead people for major task areas" above). Finalize action plan for C2Y event. If necessary, and group is interested, schedule youth-adult partnership training for this meeting (see Appendix D for list of curriculums which might be used for this training).
Select location and finalize location. After this meeting, contact school and city officials to confirm date and ensure minimal or no conflict with previously scheduled events.
Continue conversations with mayor and superintendent or principal about the city and school district serving as the official sponsor for this event. Finalize this sponsorship BEFORE sending out invitiations, as sponsorship includes issuing the letter of invitation on letterhead from the city, over the mayor's signature. This is an important step and will lend credibility to the event, establish buy-in from the sponsors prior to the event; and ensure insurance coverage for the conference.
4-5 weeks prior Hold second Planning Team Working Session. Prepare a draft invitation letter for review at this meeting; also be prepared to finalize the invitation letter and schedule an invitation stuffing party within 5-7 days of this meeting. Dedicate a significant portion of the meeting to reviewing the conference plan, but you will also need to finalize the budget, decide on a keynote speaker so the invitation can be issued to this individual.
See Appendix E for sample agenda and other materials.
At least 4 weeks prior Mail invitations to community members.
Contact/invite keynote speaker.
Publicity committee should be at work on securing advertising for the event, as well as coordinating with local newspapers and other media to cover the event when it takes place. Hang flyers in public places across the community, including the school and other meeting spots or hangouts.
Confirm food plans and place orders as necessary.
Solicit any door prizes required for drawing during the conference. This is a nice way to show appreciation to community members for taking time to participate in the event.
Work with Leadership Team to identify two or three discussion topics that specific team members (or others in the community) would be willing to facilitate in youth-adult pairs. This will ensure that there is something being talked about at the event, but you also need to allow for youth and adults to bring something they are passionate about to the event to be discussed. In developed this list of 2 or 3 topics, review notes from your conversations during the outreach stage of conference planning and contact those folks who indicated a strong interest in a particular issue or topic.
Individual members of the planning team should be making individual contact with members of the community as a follow-up to the written invitations. Talk with those invited about specific reasons why they were on the invitation list, and issue another personal invitation to attend. This might even include a round of telephone calls to everyone who received an invitation.
2-3 weeks prior If you are abbreviating the open agenda schedule, and will not have time to provide training on action planning to the participants, you will want to consider recruiting professionals to assist in facilitating the action planning. Have facilitators in place within 2 weeks of the event. Provide facilitator's plans/scripts to them about 2 weeks prior to the event, if you plan to standardize the action planning process each group with go through. (See Appendix F, Action Planning Facilitator's Kit for sample.)
1 week prior Final planning meeting with Leadership Team. Finalize agenda for C2Y event. Review plans for set-up, support on day of event, and clean-up crew. Confirm assignments for finalizing plans.
Day of Event Meet with Leadership Team at least one hour prior to scheduled set-up time to review agenda and assignments for the day.
Meet with facilitators and consultants or volunteers responsible for action planning sessions to review outline for the day.
See Appendix G for sample Facilitator's Guide for event.
Not later than Leadership Team Wrap Up Session - review evaluations,
one week following discuss experience and allow time to process through things that went well and what should be done differently next time.
Consider having one member of the Leadership Team (PR Committee?) take responsibility for preparing a final report on the event to be shared through local newspaper or other avenues to inform community about outcomes of the event.
Facilitator or entire leadership team will also take responsibility for follow-up with each discussion group to offer assistance and serve as a resource as they go forward with their action plan.
Send thank you notes to keynote speaker, key volunteers, and organizations donating door prizes.
Appendix E1: Open Agenda Search Conference Model
Open Agenda Search Conferences
Pete Petersen
15 February 2001
For questions about these notes, please feel free to contact Tami Moore at 208-883-2267.
Bring together informed and influential people in the community - not just the "usual players"; elected officials, but also the people in the community who are movers and shakers in an unofficial wayAt least 50% of the participants in this conference are youth (and in the planning group)
200-300 participants is ideal number
Four stages in the planning implementation
Prior to the start of the planning process there are two pre-meeting steps:
meeting with community leaders
mayor or county commissioner(s)
superintendent
discuss the conference and get buy in from these two very important folks - and their commitment to participate (and to allow students to participate during school time)
Pull together a small group of youth (4 or 5 kids); explain concept and get them interested in planning. Tell them that they each need to bring together 5 youth for the planning of this conference. This needs to be a cross-section of the youth in our community - not just your 5 best friends.
At the first meeting, ideally there will be 20-40 people there - about 50% youth
As an icebreaker, have group get in order by birthdate (not year) then split this line up into small groups who stay together for stages 1 and 2 of the planning.
This meeting will last about 4 hours, and takes place during the day - but this is not a problem for the youth because you've already gotten school support - youth participants may be asked to do a report on the process and get credit for participating.
Brainstorm: who are the stakeholder (groups) in our community? What are the cliques at the school?
Break in to small groups, each group taking a group or two and then brainstorm again to Identify the groups as well as the people in each group who are considered informed and influential.
Then, between now and next meeting, folks agree to make phone calls to the people on brainstorm lists - ask each of them "Who are the people in your group who are considered to be the leaders (informed and influential)?" This is particularly helpful, because in the brainstorm session you usually just get a list of the "usual suspects" in the community. This helps you get to the real power brokers in the community.
Also during this first meeting, identify groups to work on:
Name of conference
Artwork/logo
Food
Video Equipment
Computers
Publicity
Stage 2: Second Planning Meeting
Takes place 3 weeks after the first meeting
4-hour meeting; also during school day
** Youth do icebreaker for second meeting
Report on planning assignments for the conference
Everyone reports back on phone calls - should generate a list of about 300-400 names. A invitation to the conference is then sent to every person on this list - ideally, signed by mayor, commissioners, superintendent - all the folks involved in the pre-planning sessions
Conference is schedule for four weeks after second planning meeting
Stage 3: At the Conference
Operates with two guiding principles:
Rule of 2 Feet: if you don't like what we are doing here, you can go somewhere else (and that somewhere else might be outside the conference to work on your issues/passions with another group of people)
Dignity and Respect for all participants
Must have multiple meeting spaces available in each time slot
Provide markers, tape and paper for each group
Days 1 and 2:
Post on the wall somewhere "The Marketplace" - each small discussion group will be posted on this wall with topic, meeting time, and location. In planning the conference, you might wish to contact a few people and ask them to plan a discussion ahead of time to post on the marketplace. Otherwise, you put out the call first thing that morning for people to begin thinking about what issues or passions they want to discuss with others in the community.
Everybody has to be somewhere in a discussion, so the Rule of Two Feet comes into play here: if you don't like the topic(s) offered/discussed, create your own! Post it in the Marketplace and invite others to join your discussion
If the discussion is not completed in one session, go back to The Marketplace and pick another time to continue the discussion.
In each discussion group, youth facilitate the groups and another person agrees to act as scribe to record the group's thoughts/ideas. At the end of the session, the script will go over to a computer available for this purpose and enter a summary of the session:
Topic
Facilitator
Scribe
Who was there?
Summary of the discussion
Repeat this "Marketplace" concept and series of discussions for two days; on the third day, a booklet containing all the summaries is passed out to each participant for their review.
Day 3: Consolidate, Prioritize, Action Plans, Accountability
Conference participants review the summaries of all the discussions; and go through a consolidation process. For example:
There have been discussions about a bike path and about recreation - are these the same discussion, or are they different? The group talks about this until they reach consensus.
After consolidation process, each participant is given five dots with varying point values - these dots are used to vote the ten most important topics from the consolidated list.
If your topic/passion, does not make the top 10, you and your discussion group can still choose to work on this on your own.
Folks in the initial discussion groups constitute the working groups to work on the issues.
Later on Day 3: each working group meets to establish their action plan, including goal, steps to the goal, who is going to do what and by when. Also establish accountability plan. Take plenty of time during this phase to teach goal setting so that folks have skills to be successful with that step.
Stage 4: Accountability and Celebration
This step is CRUCIAL! Because these is usually the point at which things fall apart if accountability is not built into the process.
The Council or whoever put on the conference is the group to whom the working groups are accountable --could be city council, school officials, another community organization, whoever works/makes sense in your community.
After action plans are established, there should be at least three more sessions during which the working groups are working on their action plans, and then the working groups' facilitator(s) report to the council.
Logistics and Wisdom for planning process
3-day event:; 6 hour sessions; typically 2 days, 1 evening
(Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday seems to work well; going into the weekend is not a good idea because it really seems to be negative in terms of getting action plans and working successfully through the accountability phase of the workshop - which is the most important part in seeing the work of this conference through to success)
Biggest cost is food!!
Appendix E2: Community Information Session
Sample Presentation Outline
Appendix E3: First Planning Team Work Session
Sample Facilitator's Script
Agenda
Handouts
White Pine Commitment to Youth Conference
Planning Team Meeting
Friday, March 29, 2002
Bovill Elementary School Gym
Facilitator's Script
.
(10 min) 1. Introductions
Name, town, best thing happen in the last 7 days
Pass out paper to each person - ask them to write name, e-mail or phone number on top . . . I'll tell them what to do with it later.
(10 min) 2. Review/Overview of C2Y Plans
Objective: review with planning committee decisions made at last meeting about Deary/Bovill C2Y conference (and provide overview for newcomers)
Share parameters
$
Youth/Adult partnership!!!
step by step thing
Lynn bubble Army story
(60 min) 3. C2Y Visioning
Objective: create a shared vision of the C2Y experience; develop a workplan for the conference, and possibly identify lead people for major task areas.
Get people in a line according to birthday - then break up into 3 equal groups.
Visioning: pairs, 4s, 3 groups - end up with three statements to share with each other (15 min - 5 min for any artistic types to come up and create a picture of that)
If we make this vision real, what concrete things need to happen over the next one, three, six weeks? (20 minutes including "all on the wall" activity)
Who do what and what resources would be necessary? (20 minutes)
Given your vision and the critical things that you want to do - who else should be involved in the planning? (OK to have a big(ger) group involved)
(15 min) 4. Guest List
Objective: Brainstorm initial contact list for C2Y conference and make assignments -- who will contact who to get more names for the list?
At beginning of meeting, pass out pieces of paper and have everyone put name on top - now, write names of folks that you think should be here
I'll collect these pieces of paper and can then follow up with the contact person and get the listed folks involved.
White Pine Commitment to Youth Conference
Planning Team Meeting
Friday, March 29, 2002
Bovill Elementary School Gym
DRAFT Agenda
.
(5 min) 1. Introductions
(10 min) 2. Review/Overview of C2Y Plans
Objective: review with planning committee decisions made at last meeting about Deary/Bovill C2Y conference (and provide overview for newcomers)
(60 min) 3. C2Y Visioning
Objective: create a shared vision of the C2Y experience; develop a workplan for the conference, and possibly identify lead people for major task areas.
(15 min) 4. Guest List
Objective: Brainstorm initial contact list for C2Y conference and make assignments -- who will contact who to get more names for the list?
Open Agenda Conference Checklist
Meet with community leaders - suggest idea, get ok from interested group
Put together planning group including youth and adults - discuss model and talk about next meeting
First planning meeting: create action plan for community conference, figure who does what and who else should be involved in the planning. Set date for conference? Leave meeting with working groups and task assignments in place.
May need to have committee meetings/working sessions before next meeting.
Second planning meeting: Finalize date for conference. Confirm format (2 sessions (evening or weekend?)? 6-hr day (2 2-hour sessions plus lunch and break)? 4-hour day (lunch at the end)? Review guest list - finalize invitations and prepare to send them out. Invitations ideally signed by mayor(s). Check details: logistics, sessions, PR - other major tasks?
May need to have committee meetings/working sessions before conference.
Conference!!
Welcome
Introduce Marketplace
Small Group Discussion/Dreaming/Visioning
Working Groups Form
Report Out
Action Planning
Closing
Follow-up: share results with community; accountability of working groups
Commitment to Youth Conference Action Plan
Committee:
Who's interested:
Appendix E4: Youth Adult Partnership Curricula
Youth Adult Partnerships
Sometimes it takes more than enthusiasm and commitment to make youth-adult partnerships successful. Several very good resources are available to assist communities and other organizations in providing training to help adults become better mentors and partners for youth and provide important information for youth interested in building their skills in project planning and implementation.
C2Y staff and volunteers made use of several youth-adult partnership curricula available through the National 4-H Council and state 4-H program offices. Other very good toolkits and resources are available. See, for example:
Betts, Sherry and Rochelle L. Dalla. Realizing youth Potential Together - A Professional Development Training Kit. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1996.
Carter, Ruth. Youth and Adults as Partners - A Professional Development Training Kit. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1996. (Contact: 520-425-7179 or rcarter@ag.arizona.edu)
Creating Youth/Adult Partnerships: Training Curricula for Youth, Adults, and Youth/Adult Teams, National 4-H Council (Contact: 201-961-2800 or cyd@fourhcouncil.edu)
Lofquist, William A. The Youth Opportunity Planning Process - A Systematic Approach to Involving Community Groups in Strategic Planning. Associates for Youth Development, 1990.
Resource Center for Youth and Their Allies. Tips and Guidelines for Allies to Young People. Somerville, MA: Youth on Board.
Sazama, Jenny. Youth Governance: 14 points to Involving Young People Successfully on Boards of Directors. Somerville, MA: Youth on Board.
Youth as Resources. Washington, D.C.: National Crime Prevention Council.
Youth Issues, youth Voices: A Guide for Engaging Youth and Adults in Public Dialogue and Problem-Solving. Pomfret, CT: Study Circles Resource Center.
Appendix E5: Second Planning Team Work Session
Agenda
Draft C2Y Agenda
Sample Budget
Sample Invitation
White Pine "GET A NEW NAME" Conference
Second Planning Committee Meeting
April 15, 2002
7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Agenda
15 minutes 1. Committee Reports
Advertising/Marketing Committee
Food Committee
Program Committee
30 minutes 2. Conference Plan
Agenda (see attached draft)
Topics
Suggestions from previous meetings:
jobs for kids
recyclingtree committee
recreation district input
Prioritizing visioning ideas before action planning?
Speaker
10 minutes Budget
10 minutes Invitation letter
10 minutes Door prizes
10 minutes Get a new name for the conference
5 minutes Set next planning meeting?
White Pine "Get a New Name" Conference
Deary School
Saturday, May 11, 2002
DRAFT Agenda
9:00 Welcome
Speaker - importance/value of youth-adult partnerships and community service
9:30 Introduction/Information
Market Place
10:00 Visioning Conversations
Possible Topic 1:
Possible Topic 2:
Possible Topic 3:
Other topics per participants' interests
12:00 Lunch
12:30 - Report out on Visioning Conversations - Consolidate to working groups
1:00 Facilitated Action Planning Sessions
2:30 Closing Session
(speaker(s) makes closing remarks?)
3:00 Clean-up
White Pine "GET A NEW NAME" Conference
Deary School
Saturday, May 11, 2002
DRAFT Budget
Advertising 100.00
Food 400.00
Door Prizes 100.00
Supplies 50.00
Printing/Mailing 75.00
Miscellaneous 25.00
** funding for speakers may be available through the Association of Idaho Cities' Peer Exchange Program
Commitment to Our Youth
Welcoming neighbors from
Bovill, Deary, Elk River
Community Event
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Deary High School
9:00a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Leadership Team
Michelle Burrows, Elk River
Jan Eck, Bovill
Hannah Fischer, Deary
Doris Hansen, Deary
Judy Miller, Elk River
Mindy Mozingo, Deary
April 23, 2002
Dear Neighbor:
If you could change one thing to get young people more involved in our community,
what would it be?
The White Pine school district includes young people from Deary, Bovill, and Elk River, so we need input from people in all three communities to answer this question.
We want you to join us for an important event because you are a very valued part of our community. Please join us for this 3-community conversation to be held in the cafeteria of Deary High School, on May 11, 2002. The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m., and end at 3:00 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to gather ideas from the citizens of Deary, Bovil, and Elk River about how youth and adults can work together to improve our community.
During the meeting you'll have a chance to discuss ideas and issues about the community with your friends and neighbors. There is no set agenda, so please bring your ideas with you! We start out by discussing all these ideas, and spend the afternoon developing action plans. This action planning step ensures that your dreams will actually happen in the future.
We hope to see you there on May 11. We'll be providing lunch, and there will be drawings for door prizes throughout the day. Youth are strongly encouraged to come and share their ideas, because they are the community's future. So, please bring yourself, your family, and your friends to this first-ever event!
We'll see you on May 11!
Brad Dorendorf Russ Foster Jim Martin
Mayor Mayor Mayor
City of Bovill City of Deary City of Elk River
Appendix E6: Action Planning Facilitator's Kit
Action Planning Facilitator's Kit
To assist the working groups in translating their ideas into a concrete plan, the Open Agenda Conference agenda should include ample time for action planning. In the traditional model, the groups go through training on action planning. The Bovill-Deary-Elk River communities opted to reduce the conference schedule from three days to six hours. In this streamlined agenda, three community development professionals volunteered their time to facilitate the action planning phase, in lieu of specific training and a more group-facilitated process.
If you choose to have facilitators for the action planning phase, you may wish to contact service clubs, university cooperative extension educators or other faculty members, or others in your community with strategic planning or project development experience and invite them to assist with your event.
Whether the facilitators come from outside the conference, or group members emerge to facilitate their own planning process, conference organizers should provide adequate direction and appropriate materials to each group to complete the action planning process. We would strongly encourage you to develop an action planning model and ask each group to follow the same process, so that the final action plans for each working group are consistent, and easy to work with for the leadership group who will be supporting the follow-up activities after the conference is over and work has begun to implement the plans from the conference.
At the Commitment to Our Future conference, each facilitator received a copy of the Conference Facilitator's Guide (see Appendix G), which outlined the action planning model each group would use. If you choose to use this same model, which includes the nomial group technique (or "dot-voting") for generating and prioritizing action steps, you will need to provide the following materials in each facilitator's kit:
Strips of colored dots, cut into 3-dot segments (1 for each group member)
Index cards (provide 5 cards per group member)
Action Plan worksheet (see next page) to be completed by each group
Manilla envelopes marked for each small group in the planning stage
After the initial identification of 3 ideas to act upon (see facilitation plan), the larger discussion groups will be divided into small groups of no more than 5 people each. Assuming that you have 3 discussion groups with 15 people in each group, you will assemble a supply kit for each of the small groups as follows:
Working Group 1
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Working Group 2
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Working Group 3
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§ One facilitator's script § 15 strips of 3 colored dots each § 3 manilla envelopes marked 1-A, 1-B, 1-C § extra note cards § extra action planning worksheets § pencils/pens § 3 manilla envelopes containing materials detailed below for each small group
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§ One facilitator's script § 15 strips of 3 colored dots each § 3 manilla envelopes marked 2-A, 2-B, 2-C § extra note cards § extra action planning worksheets § pencils/pens § 3 manilla envelopes containing materials detailed below for each small group
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§ One facilitator's script § 15 strips of 3 colored dots each § 3 manilla envelopes marked 3-A, 3-B, 3-C § extra note cards § extra action planning worksheets § pencils/pens § 3 manilla envelopes containing materials detailed below for each small group
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Small Group 1-A
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Small Group 1-B
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Small Group 1-C
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Small Group 2-A
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Small Group 2-B
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Small Group 2-C
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Small Group 3-A
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Small Group 3-B
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Small Group 3-C
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § 1 action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § action planning worksheet
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§ 5 sets of 5 note cards § action planning worksheet
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Refer to the Facilitator's Guide for more specific directions on this action planning model.