When Governor Hogan of Maryland announced the closing of public schools statewide on March 13, 2020, we at PEA like almost everybody, had no idea what to expect in the weeks and months to come. On that day, Steve facilitated the first virtual steering committee meeting ever held by the Purple Line Corridor Coalition. The…
Last week, PEA had the great honor of facilitating the National Summit for Democracy in Washington, DC, hosted by two organizations, Stand Up Ideas (SUI) and Protect Democracy (PD), committed to the defense of American norms, ideals, and institutions. The intent of the summit was to “convene an ideologically diverse group of activists and advocates…
Most communities hold public meetings throughout the year, but very few of them are well organized or structured to be effective or achieve meaningful results. Often, public officials invite public comment on policies or plans but without framing well what are the issues in play, what kind of information needs to be provided to bring…
Ensuring Inclusive Representation in Who Attends Public Meetings Proclamations are often made about the importance of diverse voices being a part of public processes. Then there is the counter retort that “We advertise public meetings, but nobody comes!” Often planners and policy-makers don’t know how to recruit diverse groups of people to public meetings, and…
Core to our belief in public engagement is that people should have the opportunity to influence the decisions that impact their lives. The fact is too many public meetings do not have any significant influence on the end result – a policy change or new plan. Good public engagement does not waste time asking citizens…