Purpose:
In order to engage citizens in the creation of meaningful, innovative public policy solutions, it is critical to first create a corps of informed and engaged citizens. Cultivating a shared, regional culture of progressive civic dialogue will go a long way towards creating an environment from which citizen-created public policy can be used to enhance the regional common good. Through our “NEOCL FORUMS" Northeast Ohio Citizens League will break through emotionally-charged partisan barriers by creating a new shared civic space for meaningful, progressive, outcome-oriented civic dialogue.
What:
“NEOCL FORUMS” are monthly forums dedicated to educating citizens on public policy issues that affect the entire of Northeast Ohio. These community forums are unique in their adherence to the following principles:
· We believe that citizens are eager to develop an in-depth understanding of regional policy issues, and should be encouraged to contribute to policy discussions by interacting with regional experts, thought leaders, and one another
· We believe that in order to create a common regional identity, Northeast Ohio’s citizens must have a common knowledge base and understanding of the critical public policy issues facing our region as a whole
· We believe that information-sharing is maximized through the empowerment of individual participants to share perspectives and opinions through a combination of small and large group settings
· We believe that open-minded and inquisitive citizens thrive in an interactive, non-partisan environment, and a culture of civility and respect, honesty, and authenticity
· We believe that positive, effective group work is a learned skill
Format:
Welcome – 10 Minutes
Speaker Presentation – 15 Minutes
Speaker Q/A – 15 Minutes
Small Group Session 1 – 30 minutes
· Brief roundtable introductions
· Discussion facilitated by the following three questions:
o “In a perfect world, what is your ideal solution to the issue being discussed, and why?”
o “What are the challenges that you see to realizing your civic vision on this issue?”
o “What additional information do you need, either from the speaker, or from additional sources?”
Small Group Session 2 – 30 minutes
· Discussion facilitated by the following question:
o “What unified policy recommendation would your table put forward?”
Report Back to Large Group – 40 minutes
Evaluation & Wrap Up – 10 minutes
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Comments (2)
will.goldstein said
at 3:52 pm on Aug 8, 2008
Just to follow up with a few comments on this quick draft - what you see here represents a fantastic meeting that Sudhir and I had on 8/7/08. The purpose of the series is three fold: 1) to educate citizens on regional public policy issues (likely to fall under the heretofore identified subject areas of regional governance, education, and healthcare); 2) to foster a culture of positive, progressive, civil, civic dialogue that engages citizens from across the Northeast Ohio region; and 3) to encourage citizens to become involved in League activities, or membership.
To that end, we are suggesting holding a forum once a month, but that will rotate through Cleveland, Akron/Canton, and Youngstown. That way, we will really have four quarterly forums in each of the three major metropolitan areas in NEO. The reason for this rotation is to 1) ensure that we are truly engaged in a regional effort, and 2) to provide an opportunity to explore and understand how public policy issues are discussed, viewed, and understand in different parts of our region.
Keep in mind while considering this forum series the ultimate purpose of our venture: to engage citizens in the creation of innovative public policy solutions. With that in mind, this should only be viewed as one, first, step in what will no doubt become a large offering of events focused on informing and engaging citizens. The process (format) described above is unique in that it focuses more on inviting participants to be inquisitive, creative, and engaged than it does on them simply absorbing information from a speaker. More than anything, this first forum series will help us define our tone, our culture, and our process. Therefore we need to be very thoughtful and purposeful as we put it into action - it won't be enough to just get bodies in a room!
will.goldstein said
at 4:02 pm on Aug 8, 2008
Another note: "NEOCL FORUMS" is just a placeholder. We will come up with a fascinating, exciting, mind-bendingly incredible name as we move along ;)
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