Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 04/19/2021

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Appendix A Class Demonstration Report Project Leaders: Max Dickson, Olivia Dorow Hovland, Nellie Jerome, Sam Neill, Liz Scherber, Josh Pansch Activity Purpose The natural resources group practiced a chalkboard engagement activity and mock Environmental Policy Board meeting in class on November 9th, 2017. The purpose of the demonstration was to practice each in a real life setting, gather feedback and improve our recommendations prior to presenting to Ramsey. One problem we are trying to solve for is a lack of effective communication to residents about the value of natural resources: specifically, education that articulates threats to environmental resources. One way of solving this lack of effective communication is by engaging with the community in places they will already be. Many public engagement activities expect the community to go to places outside of their day to day lives like a public board meeting at city hall. The chalkboard activity was meant to engage with community members not typically represented in these meetings. In order to solve our problem around education we need to build outreach to more than just a few residents. The purpose of this type of engagement activity is to lift the level of knowledge and interaction with everyone in the community instead of just the few attending public meetings at city hall. Our second engagement meeting was an Environmental Policy Board meeting meant to follow the chalkboard activity. We created this type of activity to meet the purpose of the second part of our problem that there is a lack of effective communication to developers about the loss of natural areas/open space from the view of the residents. We view the Environmental Policy Board as an advocate for the concern of the community about protecting and enhancing the natural and rural environment of Ramsey. The chalkboard activity is there to gather the input of a diverse group of people and the purpose of the board meeting is to summarize and express the point of view of the community. The content and result of the board meeting should be an accurate representation of feedback gathered at the chalkboard activity. Activity Description Our first activity was a chalkboard engagement session where members of our project group acted as the Environmental Policy Board and engaged with our classmates as if they were the Ramsey community. This practice session took place as if it was at the Ramsey Happy Days festival. Our recommendation will be for members of the board to use this activity to get into 18