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Intercultural Practice and Equity · Public-service practice
Most of what decides who can take part in a meeting is settled before anyone walks in. Four lessons on design, access, facilitation and follow-up, ending with a checklist you fill in for one real meeting.
40–45 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning
A standing meeting has a design nobody chose. What that design assumes, who it filters out, and why counting attendance proves almost nothing.
Why access requests always arrive late, what has to be decided before the invitation goes out, and how to write an invitation that does the work instead of passing it on.
Open discussion is a style, not a neutral default. Turn-taking, pace, decision method and report-back, and what each one decides about who is heard.
The planning checklist: eight lines filled in before the invitation goes out, kept with the agenda, and written so someone else could pick it up.
Choose one meeting you already own. Fill the planning checklist in before the next invitation goes out, keep it with the agenda, and send one line to the people who attend saying what changed and why.
A meeting is a design. It has a length, a pace, a way items reach the agenda, a way turns get taken and a way decisions get made, and almost none of that was chosen on purpose. This module takes that design apart. It looks at who the standard hour was built for, at the access arrangements that have to exist before the invitation goes out rather than after someone asks, at the facilitation choices that decide whether contributing depends on speaking first, and at the follow-up that decides whether anyone comes back. It ends with a planning checklist you fill in for one real meeting you own.
Attendance is the easiest thing to count and the weakest evidence of participation.
Keep the planning order and the eight checklist lines in view while you set up a standing meeting, a workgroup session or a community engagement event.
Fill the checklist in for the next meeting you own, and keep it with the agenda rather than in your own files.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
Minnesota's advisory council on disability policy, access and rights, including guidance for state agencies on accessible public meetings and events.
U.S. Department of Justice guidance on the Title II effective-communication obligation, auxiliary aids and services, and primary consideration of the person's expressed preference.
Minnesota's accessibility standard for state digital content, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines it follows and practical guidance for documents, presentations and online events.
Practical checklists for accessible meetings, presentations and online events: the venue, the speakers, the slides and the recording.
Why involving disabled people early produces better results than testing at the end, and how to plan that involvement.
Minnesota's division serving Deaf, DeafBlind and hard of hearing residents, including information on interpreting and communication access.
National standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including language assistance, community engagement and partnership practices.
The design reference for this curriculum: multiple ways to engage, culturally responsive materials and accessible instruction.