Drought Fact Sheet #12

How Do You Put On a Drought Education Forum?

Forums Can Attract Additional Involvement and Support
A community forum is an extremely valuable drought planning tool. A forum provides community members an opportunity to share the concerns they may have regarding their water resources while promoting a thoughtful dialogue for many points of view. This dialogue may inspire creative ideas and the development of realistic solutions. To be successful, considerable time and energy must be committed to the planning and execution of a community forum. However, if implemented properly, your forum will result in an important understanding of the issues and an opportunity to improve your communitys ability to deal with a drought. This fact sheet provides some important planning steps to get you started and additional details can be found at http://publicforum institute.org/involved/host.htm. Designate a Committee and Coordinator A steering committee should consist of individuals with broad representation in order to gain buy-in for the forum. Volunteers on this committee will be responsible for all aspects of event planning, from determining the forums primary focus and arranging all meeting logistics to cleaning up after the forum and sending out thank-you notes. One person should be selected to coordinate the overall planning process and serve as the primary contact. Define Your Purpose or Goal Assemble the committee and decide what you want to achieve. A forum can be a vehicle for educating citizens and sharing information regarding their current and future water supply and quality. A forum can also be used to encourage cooperation between citizens, industries, farmers, and others, while exploring solutions for immediate water supply issues or concerns. Identify your goal and decide on a message, primary topic and title for your event.

A Education Forum is a great way to involve your community in the drought planning process.

Who, When, Where and How Once you have established your purpose, determine whom to invite, when the event will take place, and where it should be held. Drought affects people from all facets of the community, and they should all be represented. Ignoring or leaving out a specific interest group early on is a sure way to have your Drought Plan challenged down the road. The forum committee should identify a potential list of stakeholders that includes various interests in your community. This may include policymakers, influential members of the community, special interest groups, tribal groups, watershed councils, agriculture, municipal planners, as well as water professionals. When scheduling your event, plan around major community and area events to ensure a large turnout. The location you select should be neutral and accessible to community participants. You will also need to decide how the forum will be operated. One way to conduct a forum is to use a facilitator who will ask open-ended questions and guide the discussion. Another way is to invite

panelists to discuss the issues and invite the public to listen and comment on the discussion. A combination of these methods may also be used. The format you select depends on the your purpose. When using a facilitator, it is important to choose someone neutral who has experience presiding over meetings and can solicit audience participation while keeping within time constraints. Some ideas for a facilitator are local news personalities, public officials, educators, or a professional facilitator. Be sure the facilitator you choose is articulate and understands current water resource issues and the people involved. Inviting panelists to participate in your forum can enhance discussion among diverse groups with different perspectives. Panelists might include local water rights examiners, local industrial representatives, elected officials, and water resource professionals. Remember to be inclusive when choosing panelists and invite individuals who represent different cross-sections of the community. Invitations and Publicity Getting the word out about your event is crucial. A community forum can be a media event that draws attention to your cause and results in additional participation and support. Start with printing an intriguing flyer containing the name of your forum and the date, location and topic and distribute it well in advance. Send out press releases to the local media. Many times your local newspaper, television station or radio station will donate free advertising to your cause. Creating and distributing media kits would be useful to the media, potential panel members, policy makers and other community members you invite. Media kits are basically folders of information and background sources that your invitees can reference to better understand the topic to be discussed. A combination of these tactics offers the best chance of bringing together a large turnout. Forum Logistics In order for the forum to run smoothly, proper planning for the actual event is imperative.

Determine what tools would help convey important ideas and facts. Some supplies you might consider obtaining before your event include banners, nametags, pens and pencils, microphones and audio/visual tools such as an LCD projector. A sign-in sheet should be placed at the forum entrance with room to write an organization name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. You may choose to photograph, videotape or even broadcast your forum on your local community access cable network. If the forum is productive, a great deal of information and ideas will be brought up. It is very important that someone is in charge of capturing what is said during the forum. This may be the facilitator, or someone else who listens well, and is not planned as one of the speakers. Flip charts or blackboards are helpful in capturing ideas as they come up and are discussed. After the Forum The real work begins after everyone leaves the forum. Soon after the event, the forum committee should reconvene to evaluate the event and send out thank-you cards to volunteers, donors and sponsors. Also, a follow-up plan should be determined. Valuable information was gathered and exchanged during the course of the forum and should be put into an official forum report. If possible, the report should be shared with all forum participants. Local agencies, public officials and other organizations can then use the information when developing a Drought Plan. Communication between all forum participants should continue well after the event to further the ideas and programs started at the forum. A forum promotes respectful relationships through the sharing of ideas and concerns. When community members are afforded the opportunity to learn, contribute and be heard, it validates your Drought Plan and increases the likelihood that it will become a reality. The NARC&DC would like to thank the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service for their assistance in the development of this fact sheet.

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March, 2006