Community Mediation Services Participates in Town Hall Meetings

Community Mediation Services has participated in several town hall meetings recently, including for Benton Park Neighborhood and Lindenwood Park Neighborhood. Both of these meetings were organized by the respective neighborhood associations, and invited residents to discuss potentially controversial changes to their neighborhoods, including new businesses, rezoning, and possible changes to infrastructure. With each of these proposed changes came the potential for creating factions among the residents, some of whom were anxious about how the changes would impact the character of their neighborhood.
The neighborhood associations invited Community Mediation Services to facilitate their town hall meetings for several reasons: They realized that those in attendance would want to be heard. They recognized that some neighbors might seek to dominate the conversation. They decided that as the neighborhood organization presenting the topic for discussion, and as members of the neighborhood with a stake in the proposed changes, the task of keeping order at the Town Hall Meeting should more appropriately be left to CMS.
CMS provided effective facilitation for the town hall meetings, helping to organize questions from the crowd, but also helping to keep the dialogue civil.