All students are required to virtually “attend” a public meeting and draft a minimum 1,500 word analysis of the meeting. Public meetings can include but are not limited to select board, school board, zoning board, recreation boards, legislative sessions, etc. It does not matter where you attend the meeting, as long as it relates directly to public business (e.g., city/county council, local school board, zoning commission, etc).

At minimum your write-up should address the following:

A description of what transpired during the meeting (form of leadership, structure, room set-up, number of people present, their various roles, summary of issues, content of meeting, and so on).What issues were addressed? Were there problems confronted? Concerns identified? Issues raised? Problem-solving methods? Citizen involvement? Your own involvement?What did you observe about the role of public input? Were there members of the public in attendance? Did they speak? Why is this relevant to discuss? Any additional discussion of how the content/format of the meeting relates to the course material.Why are public meetings important, both in general and specifically as it relates to the operation of local governments? Anything else you think is worth noting.

Information on meeting schedules/locations can be found on city (Links to an external site.)/county (Links to an external site.)/regional (Links to an external site.) government websites. Info on meetings in other cities is likely found on their official website.