Holding Meetings that Matter: Involving and Compensating Community
Thank you for joining for Part 3 – the final blog post in this series. If you haven’t read Part 1 of this blog series on planning, or Part 2 on steps to take before, during and after meetings, I recommend reviewing them for best practices on prepping and holding effective meetings. In this last post, we’ll delve into a common stumbling block in the facilitation process: ensuring the equitable involvement of key communities affected by the problem your group is addressing.
When working on social or environmental issues, involving individuals and organizations representing affected communities should be a priority.
These participants bring a unique perspective and understanding of the issue and the barriers everyday people face which industry, government agencies and policy makers just don’t have. Community is key to uncovering unintended consequences, gaining buy-in on the solutions to an issue, and helping with implementation and communications to residents once a path is set.
Community members and community-based organizations deserve to be compensated for their involvement and all the value they bring.
Compensation should be planned into the meeting facilitation budget and agreed to upfront when participants join a meeting or advisory group via a signed Memorandum of Understanding (or MOU), which states expectations for both the participant and meeting organizer. Do not ask community members or nonprofits to participate for free. This is inequitable and devalues their time and expertise. Community-based organizations juggle many priorities with limited resources so be patient if it takes a few follow-ups to get their attention and paperwork in place. They also have limited staff and budget so can’t be involved in every effort. Offering compensation can help them prioritize yours and ensure ongoing engagement throughout the process.
Determine which participants are eligible for compensation.
Generally, it’s most appropriate to compensate individual community members who bring a specific point of view or expertise on an issue as well as nonprofit community-based organizations who provide services related to the issue or represent affected communities. Industry participants and public sector participants, who typically cannot receive payment, are not usually compensated.
Compensation for every process will be unique depending on the level of involvement required, but here is some guidance.
One compensation model I’ve used is $75 per hour. Note, I usually assume some time outside of meetings for participants to prep and follow up with others in their organization. I typically estimate an additional hour per meeting, so if your meeting is 2 hours, compensate for 3 hours at a rate of $225 per meeting. Time spent on additional work outside of meetings, such as preparing a presentation, also needs to be compensated. Depending on the meeting timing and location and the participants you need to engage, you may also consider compensating for travel costs or childcare.
All compensation information and circumstances should be included in the MOU signed by participants upfront.
With the exception of direct travel expenses like mileage or gas, preferably, participants aren’t required to provide or prove anything additional to receive compensation. This is to reduce burden on them as well as your own paperwork and tracking. Ideally, it’s more of a “yes/no” confirmation. For example, did the person attend or present? If so, then compensate them at the agreed amount. When working for an outside client, use a compensation sheet as a backup document with participant names and the level of involvement to invoice the costs to the project.
Final Thoughts
While involving community is the last topic in this series, it is certainly not least. Doing this well can be absolutely vital to the success of your engagement effort. For readers who joined for all three parts of the series, I salute and thank you as fellow proponents of running meaningful and productive meetings. I think we all know when we’ve been in a well-run meeting, or one that ran over or just didn’t feel like a good use of our time. I sincerely hope this blog series has given you nuggets to apply to meetings you’re responsible for running, so your participants feel valued for the expertise they’ve shared and the time they’ve invested with you.
