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BACKGROUND
Often the cornerstone to a community
is found in its leaders and decision makers. Therefore, it would
not be wise to plan an educational program without first consulting
the leaders for input. They tend to have an influence on the community
patterns of growth, community habits and situations, and general
trends in the population. This is not anything new. Extension
has strived to include community leaders in their programs since
the beginning and particularly attempt to use the leaders in an
advocacy and advisory role. Many of the current advisory leaders
across the United States are, have been or will be community leaders
and decision makers. Therefore, if careful forethought has been
given to the make-up of the advisory council, we have an edge
in this area.
However only involve a small handful
of the potential leaders and decision makers are involved in our
Extension programs or advisory councils. Therefore, it is important
to go beyond who we have and attempt to canvas the community for
more input from this group. Why you ask? This group contains individuals
who are knowledgble about the community and can accurately identify
priority needs and concerns. While it must be knowledged that
this input may be biased by their age, position, area of residence,
family…, their input is still too valuable to exclude.
INTEREST
APPROACH
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Tell
a story (or ask the advisory members to share one) about how
one individual in your community totally "turned the
tide" on how the community viewed or did something. Usually
there are many local stories in this area: |
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Perhaps
someone was the first to buy a new car, a new type of tractor
or open a new industry. |
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Perhaps
a innovative daycare center or community action program. |
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Even
maybe something as simple as the color they painted their
house or how they kept their lawn. |
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Perhaps
they earned respect from the way they conducted their business
and personal affairs and the community began to look at them
as setting a precedence. |
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After
they have had a chance to share their stories, ask how one
person can influence so many? Do these people have magical
powers? Are they natural leaders or risk takers? |
LESSON
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Have
the advisory council brainstorm a list of local leaders in
the community, county or state. Record their responses on
a chalkboard or flipchart. Make the list as long as comprehensive
as you can. |
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Once
everyone is satisfied with the list at hand, ask the following
questions (and add names to the list as they arise): |
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Have
we included all the political leaders we can think of? |
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Have we included people from each major category of people
we reviewed in the Existing Data lesson? |
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Are there other people who have a high influence on many people
in the community but are not currently serving in a leadership
capacity? |
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Are there people in the community that command a great deal
of respect from most residents? Social power? Advice givers?
Business leaders? Youth leaders? Civic Organization leaders?
Volunteer Organization leaders? |
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Inform
the participants that we are on a mission to uncover what
these community leaders have to share about our programs.
Since we have a roomful of community leaders, there is no
better place to start than here. |
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Have advisory members pair up in groups of two and distribute
the "Interview with a Community Leader" handout. |
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Review the "Tips for Face-to-Face Interviews" handout
and have one member from each group practice one of the suggestions
on the handout. |
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Ask
them to interview each other using the "Tips" and
"Interview" handout. Each should record the other's
input and turn in their responses to you. |
APPLICATION
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Look back over the brainstorm lists and assign each advisory
member to interview leaders. Suggest at least two or three
each, but they can do as many as they like. Write down which
advisory members are interviewing which leaders. |
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Using the blank copies of "Interview with a Community
Leader", have each advisory member contact the people
they were assigned and conduct the interviews. Suggest that
they do a thorough job of recording the responses to the interview
questions and that they may want to take along a cassette
recorder so they can review the interview later for details.
Much of this depends on how well they know the person being
interviewed. |
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Ask
them to be prepared to share what they found out in the interview
at the next meeting and use it in a discussion about Extension
programs and directions. As the advisory members are disclosing
what they found out, take notes to create a "Key Informant
Summary" for use in a later lesson. |
REFERENCES
Black,
J. (2002). Tips for conducting in person (face-to-face) interviews.
Retrieved June 27,
2002 from Write to Inspire Web site: http://www.writetoinspire.com/article1092.html
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