By Kyle Sharp, Associate Editor, Communications and Technology
Meetings covering controversial topics don't always have to turn into a shouting match.
Steve Schumacher, agriculture and natural resources agent at the Belmont County office of Ohio State University Extension, developed a meeting plan to help ensure that public meetings are educational, not confrontational.
The plan, "Education With Controversial Environmental Issues," was created when Schumacher learned that Extension was to moderate a community gathering in Barnesville, Ohio, about the use of sewage sludge on farmland. The issue had received a lot of local media attention and a large crowd was expected. The rhetoric and mood of attending groups indicated the potential for a free-for-all, Schumacher said.
To prevent this, Schumacher followed several steps that allowed for a focused, educational meeting. The recommendations could help any gathering that covers a controversial issue, he said. The steps are:
- Be sure to have adequate and respected resources to back you up before getting involved. Schumacher had Randy James, coordinator of the Ohio State Extension Waste Management Team, as an unbiased, reliable opening speaker.
- Take leadership in planning the educational event. Schumacher made phone calls and negotiated before the meeting to get all groups to agree on the purpose.
- Plan to conduct a solid, unbiased educational meeting. All interested parties were present at the meeting.
- State clear objectives. Barnesville objectives were to provide a forum of discussion, share educational information and help people make decisions based on accurate, credible knowledge.
- Convey Extension's role in public policy education: to make highly technical information available to people in an understandable form, provide unbiased information, help create a forum in which all stakeholders provide input and provide education for clientele.
- State the ground rules for the meeting up front. Rules were: everyone will have a chance to speak and the meeting will not end until they do; paper is available so questions can be read and addressed; direct questions to the moderator and the moderator will ask the appropriate panel member; and everyone will have the chance to provide their opinion but is expected to do so in a mannerly and friendly fashion.
The plan's effectiveness earned it a Flagship Program award from the Ohio State University Extension Environment Task Force. The award program recognizes excellence and innovations in environmental education efforts that exemplify the national mission statement of Natural Resources and Environmental Management: "The NREM Program educates a diverse people to make decisions and take actions to improve the quality, productivity and sustainability of natural resources."
Other Flagship Program award winners will be highlighted in future issues of Environment.
All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.
Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Adm. and Director, OSU Extension.
TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868