Students will attend at least one local government meeting (city, county, or school board). Students should use these meetings to observe how participation is conducted (how the meeting process is used) in addition to identifying key points of policy substance(s) and learning about the policy issues that impact the community. Try to consider the issues being discussed from the perspective
of the public administrator. This paper is to be a critical analysis. Do not assume that any one particular person is right (public administrator, politician, or citizen).
Evaluate what is being said and analyze the behaviors and decisions. When attending the meeting, you should be paying attention to who the public administrators are, how they behave, the decisions they make, interactions with the public, and why the decisions that get made are made.This assignment is worth 200 points. To demonstrate “proof” that you attended the meeting, you are required to take a selfie of yourself watching the meeting. This will be worth 10 points
in the grading rubric.
Example of questions to consider when attending a public meeting include:
• Where was the meeting held? Who was in attendance? What was important about either the location or the attendees? Who were the public administrators?
• What logistical issues (either mentioned during the meeting or thought of on your own) are relevant or
create barriers for the problem/topic being discussed?
• Were members of the public in attendance? If they were and had the opportunity to speak, how was their input received? Why do you think it was received that way?
You can find a meeting to attend by looking at the public calendar for Leon County, City of Tallahassee or the Leon County School Board. Yes, you may attend an equivalent meeting in another city or county. The ONLY acceptable meetings are a regular city commission, county commission or school board meeting. The intent of this assignment was for you to attend this meeting in person, but due to current COVID restrictions, in-person meetings are not being held for most municipalities. For this reason, you may use an online meeting/recording of a previously held meeting.If you have any questions about if you have chosen the right type of meeting, email the instructor. If you write the paper on a meeting that does not fit the requirements, you will receive a 0 for the paper. If the title of the meeting has any words in it such as workshop, hearing, advisory or committee, you are not looking at an appropriate meeting. It must be a regular city commission, county commission or school board/school district meeting. Just because a meeting is listed on a public calendar of meetings does not mean it fits this criteria, so check carefully.
Further instructions and a template will be provided in writing to the class and posted under the assignment in Canvas. You need to use the provided template and questions to guide the writing of your paper. This course uses APA format, which means your paper should have a title page, running head, and page numbers. See the template for further instructions. The grading rubric will also be available under the assignment in Canvas. You should review both before attending your meeting.