COC Facilitates Contentious Community Meeting

How do you design and facilitate a community meeting on a controversial subject with 175 people who have strong and often conflicting opinions and still keep it civil and productive?  Elaine Cogan and Alisha Dishaw of Cogan Owens Cogan met that challenge recently in Union, a small community southeast of LaGrande in eastern Oregon.  The subject was an application from a national company to establish a wind farm on private property on Antelope Ridge above the city.   Working with our client, the Oregon Department of Energy, Elaine and Alisha employed several successful facilitation techniques that allowed opportunities for all who cared to express themselves within a respectful, welcoming environment during a 2 1/2 hour meeting in the town’s elementary school gymnasium.   Interested?  Read more at http://www.lagrandeobserver.com/News/Local-News/Hundreds-turn-out-for-wind-farm-hearing-in-Union.