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The success of the Community Sessions is directly proportional to the quality of the planning effort. Getting the right people in the room with the optimal mix of authority, resources, experiences, knowledge, and need takes strategic thought and careful planning. Future Search facilitators/mentors who know from experience what it takes to convene a successful Prosperous Community Future Search session will work with community planning teams to ensure the conditions for success are created for the session.
Communities will receive support through the entire process of planning, convening, and documenting the Prosperous Community Future Search session. They receive:
- Planning support: Two professionals trained in the Future Search methodology will work with each of the community sponsors for a total of six days to plan for the Prosperous Community Future Search session. These two individuals (called "conference managers") will be the community's facilitators for the actual Community session and will work with their assigned community throughout the entire engagement. Planning support includes assistance in thinking through all the necessary details needed to convene a successful conference, including identifying and convening a planning team, helping the planning team identify 60-80 community members who among them, have the resources, experience, information, and authority to act, and helping the planning team think through strategic, administrative, and logistical details that lead to a successful conference.
- Professional facilitation: The team of two managers will facilitate the full 2.5 day Future Search session (usually over a period of three days), using the Future Search methodology.
- Conference materials: At the beginning of the Prosperous Community Future Search session, each participant will receive a workbook that provides instructions and work space for all conference activities. This workbook is theirs to keep as a reference of the their own contributions to the community's future and a baseline with which to monitor progress toward the goals developed during the conference.
- Documentation services: Two documenters will be assigned to document the Community session, capturing on-site the shared history, current trends, ideal future, and meaning, as well as the common ground and action plans that develop during the conference. This documentation is provided to the community as a resource for implementing its "prosperous future" plan and will also be used by program staff for follow up support and evaluation activities, and to support the national roll up.
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