Page 181 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

giving them context on what the method was. You should deliver on a promise that those citizens (from the wider engagement) are being listened to by other people like them. c. Submissions A common way to receive feedback from the wider community is to make a submission process available to anyone – and actively distribute it to active interest groups known to government. This allows anyone interested in the process to have a direct line to the participants. One way of improving the usefulness of submissions is to provide a template that offers 3-4 questions that submitters answer. • • • • Who should participants hear from to become informed? What questions should participants ask of expert speakers? What is your answer to the remit? What do you think participants should consider? Why? These questions draw out useful pieces of information from the community without requiring the participants to read through pages and pages of free-form opinion on the topic. d. Requested additional information Fundamental to any mini-public-like deliberation is the ability for participants to ask questions, receive answers and request information from sources of their choosing. The best way to do this is for participants to make information requests and ask questions and then provide answers between meetings. In small groups, they should find agreement around information gaps, what questions they need answering and who they trust as a source. This allows the government agency (primarily the body answering most questions) the time to gather all the answers and provide them before the next meeting. The group should be clear about their questions and why they are asking them. 179