america speaks

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Thanks, Diane for this detailed report. I will use this information that 
you shared with the people I am meeting with tomorrow. And I will share 
what we come up with.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Diane Brandon wrote:
> 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
> diane at 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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