I am working with a community who are interested in forming a residents group in their area.I will be meeting withthem next week and I was thinking of doing World Cafe as a way to connect them as they dont know each other.
I would like to know whether anyone has used the world cafe for a first resident meeting with the community if so did this work?
what questions would youask for a first meeting?
Hi Kerri -
I've used World Cafe in lots of different situations.... I think it can be an incredibly effective tool to get folks talking and listening to each other. For your situation, I would want to know who are the people that you want talking to each other and what do you hope will come out of the discussion.
If you start with those two pieces of information, then you can start thinking about the questions you would use for that first meeting.... For me, it's really valuable to focuse on what questions you want to ask and spending time drafting and re-drafting them. Questions can be so powerful...
Here's a great resourcefrom the World Cafe folks...
Thank you Deb that is very helpful
I developed a World Cafe for a local neighborhood group 2 summers ago and again last summer. The intent was to get community members talking with one another in a different format - this particular community has TONS of meetings where people are talked AT but the actual residents of the community are mostly passive recipients of 'downloaded' information. Each cafe had a slightly different theme but they were both very successful in getting people to think together, connect and develop a sense of how they would like the community to be different, along with identifying commitments that community members would make to build a stronger community.
The questions that are developed and the atmosphere you create are key to the success of the process.
Hi Kerri! How did it go? Eager to hear how world cafe worked for a first resident meeting, or if you went with another meeting method which you chose.
Ron
