State or Regional Meeting Toolkit
Conference Organizing Questions

Introduction to the Meeting Resource Toolkit

Access to baccalaureate level education is a joint responsibility of sending and receiving institutions of secondary or higher learning as well as of state and federal regulators. Over the years, policies, practices and attitudes have arisen that have the effect of limiting or discouraging access to baccalaureate level education.

To address the problem of access to the baccalaureate degree, a grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education provided an opportunity for collaboration between the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), the two national organizations representing the majority of public institutions. The two organizations collaborated on three major tasks:

• Survey of persistent problems and promising practices
• National invitational conference
• State/Regional meeting toolkit (“Meeting-In-A-Box”), including resource materials

As a first step in addressing the issue of access, AACC and AASCU commissioned a national survey to identify persistent problems and promising practices. Based on the results of that national survey, AACC and AASCU sponsored a national invitational conference around these issues in May of 2003 in Washington, D.C. Out of the conference came a strong recommendation to encourage local, regional and state engagement on the issue of access to the baccalaureate degree. Participants suggested that the key to resolving access issues is to focus on states. It is state policy and practice, rather than national policy and practice, that have developed to restrict access, and it is within state policy and practice that most informed educators believe solutions can best be found. A Meeting-In-A-Box resource toolkit was developed to help facilitate local, regional and state meetings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

AACC and AASCU recommend the use of face-to-face meetings with all the stakeholders to identify persistent barriers and seek new solutions. The following suggestions may help facilitate the development and conduct of such meetings.

Q. What should the meeting be about?
A. The focus of such a meeting could be on identifying problems, searching for common ground, and seeking possibilities for collaboration. Most important, the outcome of the meeting could be the establishment of a high level commitment to creating a framework for ongoing collaboration.

Q. Who should convene the meeting?
A. Major stakeholders, such as two- and four-year colleges, could collaborate to sponsor the meeting. Other potential stakeholders include local P-12 school leaders, other community and technical colleges, other baccalaureate granting institutions, the state department of education/school board officials, higher education system leaders, and leaders of state higher education coordinating boards. This list is not all inclusive. For instance, in those areas where faculty is unionized, it may be appropriate to include faculty union leaders as well. Local or state elected officials who have a known interest in this subject might also be called upon as a sponsor.

Q. Who should be invited to the meeting?
A. It may be helpful to invite technical specialists and operating managers who deal with the issues related to access to baccalaureate level education at the various stakeholder institutions. Their detailed knowledge of the issues will ensure that important perspectives and likely consequences are considered in the process. Potential external funders might also be invited to host the meeting.

Q. How should the meeting be organized?
A. A local meeting might be structured around working groups with a minimum number of presentations. A focused general session presentation could precede working group conversations guided by structured questions. Working groups of 8-12 people, with a facilitator and a recorder for each working group, is a very workable size. The groups should report back to the full conference. Sample job descriptions for facilitators and recorders are provided in the resource section of these materials.

Q. Should we use a professional facilitator for this meeting?
A. Your budget will likely determine whether you use a professional meeting facilitator. Whether you pay someone or not, it is a very good idea to have someone worry about presentation, sequencing, discussion flow and interpersonal dynamics for this meeting. This person need not be a subject matter expert. In fact, explaining your upcoming meeting to a non-subject matter expert can help you avoid ambiguity and rough patches in your initial planning. The national meeting employed the services of a facilitator from AmericaSpeaks (http://www.americaspeaks.org), a nonprofit organization that specializes in consensus-building types of meetings.

Q. How many people should be invited to this meeting?
A. The number to invite will depend on the size of the geographical area to be covered, the number of institutions that are in the region, and the number of other stakeholders needed to be involved.

Q. How many working groups should we have?
A. The resource section offers a review of the literature, results of a national survey on these issues (and a summary of those findings), and a publication that synthesizes the results of the AACC-AASCU national meeting. Your decisions can be informed by these materials and tailored to your own circumstances. Here are possible discussion topics that might be the focus or one or more working groups.

1) Political and Resource Support

a) Assess the level of political demand to improve access to baccalaureate level education.
b) Identify short- and long-term resources necessary to improve access.
c) Identify short- and long-term political supports necessary to improve access.

2) Removing Policy and Practice Barriers

a) Identify existing barriers.
b) Develop methods to limit or remove barriers.

3) Moving beyond articulation agreements to educational cooperation agreements

a) Describe the benefits and limitations of articulation agreements.
b) Identify mutual actions (by a sending and a receiving institution) that are likely to improve access to baccalaureate level education.

4) Recommend long-term state and institutional structures to promote access to baccalaureate level education and develop a model agreement that will encourage and sustain collaboration on these issues

Q. How long should the meeting be?
A. A 1 ½ day meeting seems to work well to provide sufficient time for group work and valuable networking among participants. Your goals will influence the length. The sample agenda in the resource section may help you think through this question. An opening reception or meal can help develop a sense of camaraderie for the participants. Including an overnight stay gives participants a chance to absorb the substance of their discussions, develop creative suggestions, and allow some collaborative work outside the formal work sessions.

Q. Where should the meeting be held?
A. A neutral site, such as a hotel or convention center, is helpful. If the cost is prohibitive, choose facilities operated by an organization, perhaps one of the stakeholders, with perceived neutrality.

Q. What should the meeting environment include?
A. The environment should include the following:

• a seating arrangement conducive to discussion, with unobstructed sight lines to any speaker or screen in the front of the room (half or crescent rounds probably will work best)
• Clearly readable name badges are a must; table tents are a plus.
  o A/V that supports any presentations or allows for reporting out so that all can see the suggestions being made is helpful—Power Point presentations are more effective than overheads, for example.
• Use flipcharts to capture the working group discussions; be prepared to post the pages around the room.
• Head tables are not necessary, but a table next to the podium for speakers’ materials is helpful.
• A podium microphone and a couple of handheld wireless microphones that can be passed around the room capture the exact wording and speaker intonation.
• Serving food (besides simple snacks like cookies or fruit) in a different room help keep the discussion room fresh and participant alert. The menu should take into account foods that stimulate thinking, don’t sit heavily on participants’ stomachs, and include a mix of hot and cold beverages. Query attendees about any food allergies or other special circumstances.

Q. How should the meeting be promoted?
A. Letters of invitation to named individuals from the organizing leadership is an effective approach to maximize attendance. When promoting the meeting, first considerations are target audience and expected outcome. In other words, whom do you want to influence and what do you want them to learn and do? Audiences would include stakeholder institutions, local and state educational leaders, state legislators/policy makers, others identified as having an interest in or ability to influence this issue and institutional constituents. Readily accessibly online background on the issue and the event should supplement the direct letter of invitation. Identifying news angles that will interest local general media—radio, television, newspapers—might be considered if you are interested in news coverage. It is helpful to convene a meeting of public relations and marketing professionals from all of the various stakeholder institutions to brainstorm news angles, dissemination strategies, and ways to leverage the event for individual participant’s promotional purposes. Be aware, however, that for most reporters a “meeting is a meeting,” and they will be most interested in innovative thinking, specific actions, and identifiable outcomes.

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