Proposal for Chip Mill Study Public Forums.] Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 13:09:09 -0500 From: Danna Smith <lorax@CITCOM.NET> Add to Address Book Subject: [Fwd: Proposal for Chip Mill Study Public Forums.] Organization: Dogwood Alliance To: chipwatch@justicemail.com Reply To: lorax@CITCOM.NET Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 11:19:23 -0500 From: Mary Lou Addor <Addor-ML@are1.cals.ncsu.edu> Add to Address Book Subject: Proposal for Chip Mill Study Public Forums. To: chip-public@listserv.ncsu.edu Reply To: Addor-ML@are1.cals.ncsu.edu ------------ Chip Mill Study Public Forums ------------ To the wood chip production study public forums committee: Following our discussion during lunch at our December meeting in Chapel Hill the study team has settled on a plan for public information forums. The purpose of the forums is to educate citizens about the wood chip production study, and gather feedback about citizens' interests and concerns about the study. Three rounds are planned in three locations in North Carolina. The first round will be held this spring, and will introduce citizens to the study. The format of the first round will encourage dialogue between the researchers and participants. The second round, planned for the early fall of 1999, will be informational only. Here we will provide an update on the current status of the study. We may use a process other than convening meetings to disseminate this information in the second round. Ideas include a targeted mailing to people who attend the Round-One forums and/or an informational video to be made available to Cooperative Extension offices and others. Round Three will be held at the conclusion of the study and will be the time when the research team presents its findings. Again the format of the third round will encourage meaningful dialogue between citizens and the researchers. Dates and Locations for Round-One: March 22, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m: Marion, NC (or vicinity) March 23 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.: King, NC (or vicinity -- King is north of Winston-Salem) April 26 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.: Wilmington, NC (or vicinity) Meeting locations are still being worked out. I will be coordinating these meetings through the Cooperative Extension Service offices in each county. We hope to have the logistics sorted out by next week. Meeting Format: The forum will be structured around four activities: (1) an introduction to the study; (2) a dialogue with the researchers about the various study components; (3) a facilitated discussion to provide feedback about the study; (4) a summary and wrap-up. A description of each activity follows. Activity #1: Forum participants will be greeted at the entrance to the main meeting room and assigned a color code. The color code will determine the group the with which they participate in activities 2 and 3. The study introduction will be held in an auditorium-style meeting room. Following a welcome and orientation, the study principle investigators (Cubbage and Richter) will briefly introduce the study's background, purpose and methodology. Activity #2: Following the introduction, the participants will be divided into three groups identified by color code. Each group will, in turn, visit three "stations" where researchers will provide information about the study components and answer questions. The three stations and the researchers assigned to each are: (1) Community Impact Assessment - Sarah Warren, P.B. Aruna, and Anthony Snider (2) Ecological Impact Assessment - Dan Richter, George Hess, and Jim Gregory (3) Forest Impact Assessment - Fred Cubbage, Bob Abt, and Rex Schaberg The presentations/discussions will last 1/2-hour. Each group will rotate to another station every 1/2 hour. Activity #3: At the conclusion of the research presentations, participants will remain in their color-coded groups and engage in a facilitated discussion in which they can provide feedback to the study team. The facilitators will use an "affinity process" to gather and organize the feedback. In the affinity process, each facilitator will ask his/her group the following question: "What are some issues that need to be addressed by the North Carolina Wood Chip Production Study?" The wording of the question is purposefully vague so that it generates a wide range of ideas. Each participant is instructed to generate several ideas and write each on a separate post-it note. The notes are posted on a wall or flip chart. Next, the participants are instructed to arrange the ideas into natural groupings. Once all the ideas are placed into groups, the principal themes and individual ideas are discussed. These discussions will be summarized and presented at the wrap-up session. Activity #4: The entire group of participants is reassembled. The principal themes and ideas generated in each small group will be presented. The session will conclude with a discussion about how the research team will use the information provided in the feedback session. The meeting time will be divided as follows: 6:00 - 6:10 Welcome and forum orientation (describe how the forum will be structured) 6:10 - 6:30 Brief introduction of the study (purpose, time frame, etc) 6:30 - 8:00 Research stations (1/2-hour each) 8:00 - 8:40 Facilitated feedback session 8:40 - 9:00 Feedback summary and wrap-up Steve Smutko and Mary Lou Addor ----------------------------------------------------- Steve Smutko Dept. of Ag. & Resource Economics Natural Resources Leadership Institute Box 8109 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8109 Voice: (919)515-4683 Fax: (919)515-1824 Internet: steve_smutko@ncsu.edu www: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/PIE/nrli --------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mary Lou Addor [mary_addor@ncsu.edu] Natural Resources Leadership Institute North Carolina State University Box 8109, 332 Nelson Hall Raleigh, NC 27695-8109 P: 919.515.9602 F: 919.515.1824 NRLI Web Site: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/PIE/nrli/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~