Expert Tips: 8 tips for conducting successful community meetings in support of your land use project

Except for very rare circumstances, community meetings are a terrible idea! We implore you never to hold a community meeting or forum! It is too easy for a community meeting or forum to turn into an anti-whatever your project is rally and an organizing event for your opponents. If you already face opposition or there is skepticism about your project, smart opponents will work overtime to pack the room with angry or skeptical voices that will prevent you from effectively advocating for your project. Remember how all of those health care town hall meetings went – angry and belligerent opponents dominated the meetings and the media for days. Community meetings and forums can only hurt your project.

A much more effective tool is to hold one on one or small group meetings with residents. Individual meetings are more beneficial because they allow you to build a personal relationship with residents. You can also more accurately identify and alleviate concerns and prevent opposition from forming and/or turn opponents into supporters.

If there is a situation where you absolutely must hold a community meeting or forum (which to repeat, we recommend against) here are our 8 expert tips to help you make the meeting as successful as possible.

1. Do not conduct community meetings! We just wanted to repeat that once again. The only time when we even consider recommending that a client conduct a community meeting or forum is when the developers project is in an extremely rural area where smaller meetings may not be feasible (in this circumstance we would still recommend conducting one on one meetings instead of a larger community meeting).

2. Get everyone to sign in. A community meeting is a prime opportunity for you to gather contact information of supporters and opponents. Make a sign in sheet that captures names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. You will need this information so that you can thank people for attending and personally follow up with people after the meeting.

3. Identify supporters in advance and make sure they show up to the meeting. If you are going to salvage a community meeting or forum, you must have as many supporters in the room as possible. These supporters need to be regular citizens – elected officials and stakeholders are nice, but they will not be effective in preventing the crowd from turning against you. Packing the room with your supporters will prevent organized opponents from taking over the meeting and turning the crowd against you. If you are taking questions/comments from the crowd, make sure that your supporters are vocal with positive questions/comments. If you don’t have real supporters identified who are going to show up – go back to Expert Tip #1 and don’t schedule the meeting in the first place.

4. Keep your presentation to less than 15 minutes. It does not matter how big your project is – no one wants to, nor will they, listen to a developer talk about how wonderful their project is for an extended period of time. After 15 minutes you will lose most people. Keep the presentation simple – limit the technical details and try to focus on how the project benefits the community. Don’t talk about a feature of your project unless you can also talk about how that feature benefits the community. If there are essential details that you cannot squeeze into 15 minutes, work with your supporters before the meeting to ensure they ask a question that you can answer that will include the necessary information.

5. Use video testimonials in your presentation. Testimonials are the most powerful tool you have to win over skeptics. Most developers will start a presentation by talking about their company and how great it is. The audience hates this and they don't care – don’t do it! When you talk about how great your company is, it is bragging. When someone else talks about how great your company is, it is an endorsement. Get a cheap video camera, then go to where you have developed other projects and get video testimonials from regular citizens (no elected officials or business owners – John & Jane Q. Public). Make sure the testimonials you gather support the claims you make in your presentation. Play the video of these testimonials at the end of your presentation – and yes, this does count towards your 15 minutes.

6. Use a neutral moderator to keep the meeting under control. Using a neutral moderator to control the flow of the meeting and help field questions from the audience can help to reduce the change a rowdy opposition group takes over the meeting. Since your project is probably already the source of controversy, a member of the project team should not be running the meeting. Try to find a moderator that people in the community respect such as the head of a civic organization. Do not select an elected official or anyone that may be perceived as benefiting from your project as the moderator.

7. Follow up with attendees. You should send everyone who signs in a thank you card. Anyone who asks a question or makes a comment should receive a personal follow up phone call, or even better, a knock on their door. Thank them for their comment/question and find out if they have any other questions you can answer. This will help you to build a personal relationship with supporters and disarm opponents. Ideally, you should make a follow up phone call to everyone who attended.

8. Set up an advocacy center to capitalize on support you gain. If you followed Expert Tip #3, you should have plenty of supporters at the meeting. Before the meeting starts, set up an advocacy center were supporters can sign a petition or support card in favor of your project and write a letter to the editor or to the local decision makers expressing their support for your project. When the meeting ends, try to capture more letters/petition signatures from people as they leave – if the meeting went well, you may have new supporters that you can capitalize on.

Again, we stress that don’t hold community meetings/forums! It will be more take more of your time and be more difficult to hold one one one or small group meetings, but the payoff will be much bigger. However, if you have to hold a large community meeting or forum, for the best results, follow our 8 Expert Tips for conducting successful community meetings.

Comments or questions regarding an Expert Tip? Contact Leigh Mayo, President & CEO of Land Use Experts.

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