This newly revised two-day course will increase your ability to design, conduct, and control meetings in public forums. This course is designed to increase your ability to plan and facilitate a meeting (or a series of meetings) that minimize conflict and enhance problem solving. Collaboration is often cited as a good way to address coastal resource management issues, but the collaborative process is complicated, requiring a systematic approach. This course provides the skills and tools to design and implement collaborative approaches. The skills will be useful even when attending, but not running, a collaborative meeting.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Determine if a collaborative process is appropriate
• Select people with the skill sets needed to fill each meeting role
• Learn and practice facilitation skills
• Use appropriate process tools and techniques to address the meeting objectives
• Manage conflict in meetings by understanding group dynamics
• Identify disruptive behaviors in group processes and practice strategies to deal with them

This course is taught by national trainers from NOAA's Office for Coastal Management and is a special offering in this year's training schedule. (14 CM AICP credits/ CEP points)

Lunch is provided.

Instructors:  Ann Weaver joined NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management in 2004 as a program and training specialist. Her responsibilities include conducting trainings on public issues and conflict management, project design, and evaluation, and coastal community planning and development.  Ms. Weaver obtained her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Washington, and her master’s degree in biology at Florida Atlantic University. She has extensive experience as a trainer in the public and private sector.

Gwen Shaughnessy brings a background in marine biology and non-traditional education to NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management (OCM), which she joined in 2011. In her current role as the Climate Adaptation Specialist in the OCM Engagement, Training, and Education Program, Ms. Shaughnessy is the national coordinator and lead trainer for a multi-day climate adaptation training course.  Building capacity in local communities to better understand the risks, strategies, and choices for how to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate is a focus of Ms. Shaughnessy’s work.