PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Dunbar/Jones believes public and stakeholder participation is essential to the long-term success of any planning or design process.  Our project team utilizes a number of public participation techniques to generate meaningful input from workshop participants.  Our work plans are designed to provide for and foster an interactive collaborative process.  Interaction with stakeholders and the various 'publics' utilizes the following techniques:

Consensus-Building Techniques

• Fact-finding, research, data collection, and economic projections.
• Survey research • qualitative/quantitative.
• Key-person interviews, focus groups, community workshops, and surveys.
• Leadership group facilitation.
• Nominal group facilitation.
• Political and business community strategies.

Nominal Group Technique  (includes the following three premises)

Independent Generation of Ideas:  Each member of the group is given the opportunity to reflect on issues at hand, independent of the other members.  After this internal process has been completed and documented by the individual, the group is reunited.

Round Robin Discussion:  Each participant is encouraged to present to the group one of the ideas from his or her index list.  This idea is recorded on a large presentation board and the process continues around the group until all ideas have been put forth.  The advantage of round robin participation is that ideas are separated from personalities, thereby alleviating individual inhibitions for participation.  This process also allows the group to cover a wide range of ideas, with each individual having an equal opportunity for participation and presentation.

Presentation of a Written List:  The written list is a very useful tool as it provides instant reward for the group, yet maintains anonymity for the participants.