[Massplanners] Hybrid Meetings

[C B]

Hi All!

Those are great questions!  Thought I would plug MAPC's Hybrid Engagement
Hub, which I think answers some of those questions (
https://www.mapc.org/resource-library/hybrid-engagement/).

Based on my experience while I was at MAPC (full disclosure: I'm not
working there anymore), here's what I would recommend/what I have seen be
successful:
- How many staff person(s) do you have facilitating the meeting?

- *at least one in person and one virtual.  It is also beneficial to have
one person who is responsible only for tech, I think many of us have
experienced the difficulty of juggling facilitation and tech for hybrid
meetings.*
- *Some communities who have had great success with this have worked with
their CATV folks, so I would recommend doing that if you can!*

- Is the Chair responsible for facilitating any of the virtual portion?
Otherwise, who is facilitating the virtual portion and the in-person
portion of the meeting?

- *Excluding any requirements you might have about who facilitates, I would
recommend having one facilitator who does both virtual and in person
facilitation, switching between in-person and virtual speakers (both for
the board members and for public comment).  If the chair is 1) the person
who usually facilitates and 2) adept at switching between in-person and
virtual, then I would recommend that person being the facilitator.  So for
example, at the beginning of public comment/Q&A I have let attendees know
that I would be switching between in-person attendees and virtual attendees
(unless for example there are no questions from virtual attendees, in which
case I just continued with folks in person) *

- Have you had technical issues during a public hearing?

   - If you weren’t able to address the issue in short order, was the
   hearing continued?
   - Again if technical issues arose and no immediate solution presented
   itself, was everything else subsequent on the agenda continued as well?
   - *Most of MAPC's meetings are not publicly noticed hearings so I don't
   have much to add about this, but we definitely have had technical issues
   that have complicated or delayed meetings.  I would imagine that if there
   is lots of interest from the public that a continuation would be prudent
   but I think that is more dependent on state and municipal requirements than
   anything else.*


Please always feel free to reach out to MAPC's Community Engagement
Department (even if you're out of our region!) if you have any questions:
communityengagement at mapc.org

Christian Brandt, AICP
Formerly: Interim Community Engagement Director, MAPC
Currently: Urban Planner III, City of Alexandria VA

On Thu, Jun 8, 2023 at 10:33 AM Eric Twarog via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> Good Morning:
>
> The City of Greenfield is also interested, thank you.
>
> Eric
>
> On Thu, Jun 8, 2023 at 10:29 AM Joseph Giniewicz via MassPlanners <
> massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
>
>> Good Morning,
>>
>>
>>
>> We’re hoping to get feedback from other communities that have implemented
>> a hybrid meeting format for Land Use Boards (i.e. Planning, ZBA and
>> Conservation) and would like to hear how your experience has been (both the
>> positive and the negative) as well as how you have addressed some of the
>> immediate questions that come to mind, such as:
>>
>>
>>
>>    - How many staff person(s) do you have facilitating the meeting?
>>    - Is the Chair responsible for facilitating any of the virtual
>>    portion? Otherwise, who is facilitating the virtual portion and the
>>    in-person portion of the meeting?
>>    - Have you had technical issues during a public hearing?
>>       - If you weren’t able to address the issue in short order, was the
>>       hearing continued?
>>       - Again if technical issues arose and no immediate solution
>>       presented itself, was everything else subsequent on the agenda continued as
>>       well?
>>
>>
>>
>> Any feedback and best practices that you could share would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Joseph Giniewicz, AICP
>>
>> Town Planner
>>
>> Town of Westford
>>
>> 55 Main Street
>>
>> Westford, MA  01886
>>
>> 978-692-5524
>>
>>
>>
>> All email messages and attached content sent from and to this email
>> account are public records unless qualified as an exemption under the
>> Massachusetts Public Records Law
>> See http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/preidx.htm.
>>
>> --
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>>
>
>
> --
> *Eric Twarog, AICP, Director*
> City of Greenfield
> Department of Planning & Development
> 20 Sanderson Street, Room 203
> 14 Court Square (Mailing Address)
> Greenfield, MA 01301
> (413) 772-1549
> eric.twarog at greenfield-ma.gov
> --
> MassPlanners mailing list
> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
> http://masscptc.org/mailman/listinfo/massplanners_masscptc.org
>


-- 
*Christian Brandt*
*67 Willow Street, Somerville, MA 02144*
*christian.w.brandt.12 at gmail.com <christian.w.brandt.12 at gmail.com> *
*208.596.2895*
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