ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a practical approach for evaluating the quality of public participation--an approach that can be used by decision makers and agency staff who are responsible for planning or carrying out the activities. The goals guide the implementation of participation activities and provide a measure for evaluating their effectiveness after the decision-making process is complete. Government agencies and participants devote dollars, time, and energy to public participation activities. Public participation means different things to different people. The iterative nature of planning for public participation is apparent. A group evaluation might lead to a revision of procedural guidelines, but at the very least it would provide valuable information that would improve the planning of future participation activities. The ultimate usefulness of the evaluation is not the "final score" but dialogue among the evaluators to identify ways to improve the quality of decision making.
