Town meetings & Study Circles

[Rebekah Tanner <foxgull@foxgull.com>]

Town Meetings can be great! However, I would like to offer another methodology: Study Circles.

These are multi-session meeting of a self-selecting group of concerned citizens who determine to engage in a democratic (as in "of the people" & "majority rules;" not the political party....) adult (self-)education process. I recommend this Web site for those wanting to know more:
http://www.studycircle.org/

This organization is very helpful and the proven method they offer has transformative potential ... and I know this ***first hand*** We (Mohawk Valley Library Association -- http://www.mvla.org) used study circles in both years of our "Resources for Economic Viability in Susutainable Agriculture" (http://www.mvla.org/revsa/) project and are reaping the benefits of the transformed attitude of our local agricultural community. The catalyst for our project was that farmers felt they contributed tax-dollars toward aninstitution that had no role in their lives, that they felt did not serve them, and we have seen this negativism begin dialog that is resulting in cooperative partnerships in local economic development.

Study Circles tear down the us-them mentality because all present choose to be there as fellow learners.

Yours,
Rebekah Tanner