Write a report from public meeting
Instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnYE1c3KxVA Introduction This assignment requires students to: (i) attend a public meeting, where views of stakeholders about one or more environmental topics are presented and discussed, and (ii) prepare a report from the meeting. Environment is interpreted broadly. Environmental includes planning, such as planning for housing or infrastructure (such as roads, bike tracks, footpaths, terminals to recharge electric cars, public transport, cemeteries), environmental impact assessment of proposed developments, water management, adaptively reusing historic buildings, Indigenous or non-Indigenous cultural heritage, energy policy, (native and introduced) wildlife management, weeds, threatened species, management of contaminated lands, National Parks, etc. Purposes of assignment The purposes of the assignment are to: 1. Learn about community engagement including stakeholders’ views on one or more environmental topics, especially in the context of managing and resolving environmental conflicts. 2. Learn about public meetings, their function and how they are run. 3. Learn about preparing a report to brief an organisation about the range of views of stakeholders on one or more environmental topics, as expressed at a public meeting. In your report you are encouraged to link with theory, concepts, examples, reading and your wider knowledge. Report Scenario. The scenario for the report is as follows. You work for an organisation, such as a State or Territory Government agency, whose job it is to manage, and (if possible) resolve one or more contentious environmental conflicts. A public meeting about the topic has been organised by a community group, a board, a local government agency or a similar organisation. Your organisation wants to know how the meeting is run, the range of stakeholder views on the contentious environmental conflicts, and whether any conflicts are resolved at the meeting. You are asked by your employer to attend a public meeting in which one or more contentious environmental topics will be discussed, and to report back to your employer about: (i) the characteristics of the public meeting, (ii) the views of stakeholders about the environmental conflicts and topics, as expressed at the public meeting, and (iii) the outcomes of the meeting, including whether any agreement or resolution was reached on any conflicts (or disagreements), or was there movement towards resolution of conflicts Layout of report. The report from the meeting should be a maximum of 3,000 words, not including tables, figures, caption (of tables and figures), references and appendices. Please use 1.5 spacing, and 12 point, Times New Roman font for the report (except for headings and sub-headings which can be in larger font). Use headings, and sub-headings, to structure your report. Suggested headings for the report are given below. You may use tables, figures (i.e. graphs, maps, diagrams, photographs), and dot or numbered points in the report. Tables and figures must have a descriptive caption and must be referred to in the text of the report. Dot or numbered points must be introduced by one or more sentences. Report. The report should address the matters listed below, noting that not all the matters below will be relevant to all meetings, and the matters below will not necessarily require equal space. You will need to write succinctly to cover the points below and stay within the word limit. We are looking for quality in your report, not for quantity of words. Suggested headings for the sections of the report are shown in bold below. You may add other heading and sub-headings under the headings to improve the layout of your report. Title of the report Description and purpose of the meeting - Provide the date, time and location of meeting. - State whether the meeting was online, face to face or a combination of both. - Provide the name/s of the people or organisation/s who organised and convened the meeting. - State whether the meeting was a single event or a recurring meeting. - Provide the number of attendees at the meeting (estimate if the meeting is a large meeting) - State whether there was a chair (chairperson) or facilitator for the meeting. If so, provide the name and affiliation of the chairperson or facilitator. - Describe the purpose/s of the meeting (can refer to the meeting agenda – see below). The purpose/s of the meeting might be to provide information and/or to consult with stakeholders to discuss and possibly resolve one or more conflicts (or disagreements) and/or did the meeting other purpose/s. - Briefly outline the format of the meeting. Potential formats might be one or more of the following – a chaired meeting with a brief presentation on each agenda item followed by a brief discussion of each item, one or more speakers giving detailed presentations followed by questions from meeting attendees, or questions or points of view from attendees at the meeting to a person or a panel of people. Content of meeting - Describe the topics which were discussed at the meeting, and why they were contentious (if they were). Briefly summarise the range of attendees' (stakeholders’) views on the environmental topics. Briefly describe any disagreement or conflict that you observed at the meeting. - If many topics were discussed at the meeting, you may only cover some topics (to cover them in enough detail given the word limit). If you are only covering some topics, then you should write something to the effect: ‘many topics were discussed, here I will only cover the following ……’. In general, you should cover environmental topics and you may also wish to pick topics which were contentious. - State whether any environmental (as broadly defined above) conflicts or disagreements were resolved at the meeting. If anything was resolved, briefly describe what was/were resolved, and the factors which helped their resolution (if these factors are unclear give hypothesises). If environmental conflicts or disagreement were discussed rather than resolved, describe why this was the case. If there was no disagreement or conflict, then discuss what led to agreement (if this is unclear give hypothesis as to why there may have been agreement). - Briefly describe the outcomes from the meeting. If there were no outcomes from the meeting, state this. Assessment of the meeting - If there was a chair or facilitator for the meeting, discuss the style of chairing or facilitating, the aspects of their style which worked well, and what could have been improved. - Comment on whether the location and the layout of the meeting room were conducive to productive and useful communication between attendees (stakeholders). If reporting on an online meeting, comment on whether the online system worked was conducive to productive and useful communication between attendees (stakeholders). - Describe which aspects of the meeting format worked well, and did not work so well. - If disagreement or conflict occurred, describe how it was dealt with by the chair or facilitator and others at the meeting, and describe the results of these actions. - Other comments on the meeting... You can draw on your own experience in attending other meetings and/or watching online meetings, in preparing your report. You can and should link with concepts or examples discussed in class, reading and your wider knowledge. Attach the agenda for the meeting, if available, as an appendix to the report (not included in the word count). Translate the agenda into English if it is in a language other than English. If there was no agenda for the meeting available, then state this clearly. 10