In today's world, the act of coming together has never been more important. Talking - and listening - to our neighbors is a crucial first step toward creating a more connected, engaged, and successful community. We create better plans for a better future when residents, nonprofits, businesses, and government come together to make contributions that add up to greater solutions than we can achieve individually. That's where A Seat At The Table comes in.
A Seat At The Table will bring together individuals and organizations of diverse perspectives to create that better future. In October 2018, you can be a part of this exciting, county-wide initiative to explore the steps we can take to make our communities stronger, safer, and more dynamic in this period of unprecedented growth and change. Big ideas can spring from small conversations, and people invest in what they help create.
WHO IS HOSTING A SEAT AT THE TABLE?
The Steering Committee is comprised of the Bozeman Area Community Foundation and Future West. With nearly 100 nonprofit leaders and 14 local government departments already on board, this initiative is shaping up to be the largest and most diverse opportunity for civic engagement in our history!
HOW WILL A SEAT AT THE TABLE WORK?
A Seat At The Table is a community-wide conversation about opportunities, issues, and challenges that we are facing. Neighbors will come together, share a meal or coffee, and talk about their concerns, ideas, and hopes for the future of Gallatin County. Our A Seat At The Table planning team will invite community members and organizations to host a table in October. It can be a coffee, brown bag lunch, dinner, potluck, or picnic. Eight to twelve guests per table is ideal. A Seat At The Table is about using the collective wisdom or our communities to create a better future.
These conversations can be held all over the community: schools, places of worship, homes, business settings, and more. Each host will be trained and provided with a toolkit on facilitating conversations. Prior to our A Seat At The Table initiative, our planning team will host a workshop on civic dialogue called Gracious Space, in partnership with Leadership Montana. Hosts will also be provided a consistent structure for their conversations and direction on how to capture all the shared perspectives.
WHO WILL PARTICIPATE?
During A Seat At The Table, community members all over Gallatin County will host conversations, collect feedback from those conversations, and share that feedback with the A Seat At The Table planning team. Online surveys will also be used to capture feedback from those unable to participate in one of these conversations. We will then partner with Montana State University to synthesize the collected data.
THEN WHAT?
After A Seat At The Table, our team will report themes from the data to the participants and the larger community. We will also provide our local governments with the key findings from the conversations to inform their planning for the future. Our initiative's website will feature information about our hosts, FAQ's, the data we collect, and ongoing updates, all of which will help inform next steps on how to achieve our collective goals as a community.
JOIN US IN SUPPORTING A SEAT AT THE TABLE IN TWO WAYS:
1. Become a supporting partner! We are excited about this initiative's potential; to fulfill its promise, it needs the financial support of community members. Please invest today for the future of our communities!
2. Become a host! We are looking for a diverse set of hosts to facilitate conversations during A Seat At The Table.
READY TO SUPPORT THE PROJECT? WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.
We'd love to hear from you about how you want to make A Seat At The Table a success! Contact Bridget Wilkinson at bridget@bozemanfoundation.org or Randy Carpenter at randy@future-west.org for more information.
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