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SERVICES

Your program is important. Let GTS help you give it the special attention it deserves!
Use one or all of our quality services:

Conference and Workshop Services
Project Management
Consulting
Options for Engaging Citizens

CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP SERVICES

Use one or all of our quality services:

  • Program design and development
  • Speaker identification, contact, confirmation
  • Promotional materials designed, prepared & distributed
  • Facility and logistic arrangements
  • Registration processing (on-line options)
  • Fiscal management
  • Conference website services
  • Trade show marketing and management
  • Facilitation for group effectiveness
  • Many more!

Take advantage of our team of skilled professionals:

The GTS staff includes those with advanced degrees in continuing education or training and development, meeting planners with years of experience in all venues, individuals with specialized marketing, technology or financial skills

For further information, contact: Carol Schoeneck, Program Specialist, 651-222-7409 x205, cschoeneck@mngts.org

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

GTS is a resource to organizations seeking experienced staff to:

  • manage a short-term training and development project
  • act as a neutral facilitator for intergovernmental program efforts
  • handle ongoing administrative functions as well as educational programs

EXAMPLES:

SECRETARIAT

  • Provide staff support to association board, handle promotion and finances, plan and present educational programs and/or conferences
    (Ramsey County League of Local Governments)

COMPREHENSIVE STATEWIDE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR A SPECIALIZED AUDIENCE

  • Conduct needs assessment, obtain grant funds, utilize design teams for various curricula, enroll participants in certificate program, provide logistical support, present programs
    (Mental Health Managers Training Program)

MAJOR INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM

  • Facilitated steering committee and design teams as well as provided the delivery system for input conferences/work sessions, topical conferences and workshops
  • Project deliverables included 15 training curricula, 3 manuals and protocols, publication of a book, creation of a professional video
    (PROJECT IMPACT, A three-year, statewide effort to enhance the ability of the criminal justice system to respond effectively to sexual abuse of children; involved nine state agencies, with funding from a federal grant)

Interested? Questions?
Call Helene Johnson, Executive Director
651-222-7409 x206; hjohnson@mngts.org

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CONSULTING FOR THE TIMES
What You Need – When and Where You Need It!

ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGES

In this era of fiscal crisis, re-defining of priorities and increased citizen expectations, it is critical that local governments focus on long-term solutions rather than short-term “fixes.” No government entity can afford to just react to changing events. More than ever before, elected & appointed officials and staff need to be forward-thinking, informed decision-makers, and willing to work with all sectors of the community. More than ever before, your role and responsibilities require new skills, effective group processes, and perhaps even different attitudes.

GTS provides consulting services to help guide and support constructive change through intensive and ongoing consulting and training that focuses on the elements of leadership—at all levels.

Call us for:

  • Team-Building and Goal-Setting to clarify roles, goals, communication and style differences.
  • Planning to determine goals and strategies to achieve desired results
  • Consensus Building
  • Needs Assessment to assess needs and provide feedback and facilitation in a neutral forum
  • Process Consultation to guide group process for increased effectiveness
  • Performance Management to develop an organization wide system which, while focusing on the customer, plans for future activities as well as evaluates past practices by examining roles and responsibilities
  • Coaching to "improve "strategic" thinking by gaining the perspective of an outside party
  • Enhancing Response to Citizens to develop a customer service strategy by prioritizing customer service barriers, finding solutions to those barriers, developing an action plan to address customer needs and developing standards of service

For more information, contact:
Mary Sabatke, Program Planner
651-222-7409 extension 208
msabatke@mngts.org

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OPTIONS FOR ENGAGING CITIZENS

Community Visioning
Exploring Models for Neighborhood Associations
Facilitating Community Forums and Town Meetings
Using Audience Participation Technology

Options for Engaging Citizens

Community Visioning: What is it? Why do it?
It is the collective recognition that the future is to be achieved and managed by people thinking and working together because they care about their community. No community can afford to just react to change and events. Leaders need tools to "take charge" of the future.

Benefits

  • It gives people the opportunity for involvement.
  • It provides city and county officials a long-term perspective and framework for goal setting, establishing priorities, and creating policy.
  • It helps people define their values. They understand what they want for themselves, their families, and their community.
  • It provides an opportunity to reflect upon a community’s history and generate ideas for the future.
  • It creates excitement and a sense of adventure about the future.
  • It creates a sense of "we" and "we will" as the basis for establishing the relationships and commitment to get things done -- a barn-raising "can do" mentality.

Exploring Models for Neighborhood Associations
The demographics of our cities are changing. Today’s neighborhoods are more likely to be comprised of people of different ages, lifestyles and ethnic backgrounds who may not share many of the traditionally common experiences of work, play, education, worship or socialization. These differences can be seen as barriers to building community or they can be seen as assets—opportunities to learn from each other as we develop a shared future for our community.

An effective way to both create citizen awareness and to stimulate a discussion about the usefulness of neighborhood organizations is through a workshop. The sessions can expose participants to the experiences of existing neighborhood associations in Minnesota and around the country and then engage attendees in small group discussions. Neighborhood associations can provide many opportunities for people to work together at the grassroots level on initiatives that benefit their own neighborhood and strengthen the entire community.

Citizens who participate in the Workshop can:

  • Have an opportunity to build relationships and interact with immediate neighbors and others in the community
  • Be challenged to think in terms of personal and collective responsibility to the neighborhood and community at large
  • Learn of possible group structures that enable community-oriented “bottom-up” neighborhood-focused problem solving

Facilitating Community Forums, Town Meetings & Regional Summits

As communities and agencies tackle significant and often contentious public policy issues, there is an increased need for constructive citizen discussions. Sometimes, this involves an educational forum that presents the latest thinking on a subject for the benefit of all the stakeholders. In other cases, it involves viewing draft plans and getting input on various scenarios. Sometimes it is a work session that leads to decisions. Or it can be a combination of all three.

Central to the success of any of these events is a neutral facilitator versed in creating a program format and process that achieves the objectives with sensitivity and professionalism. Besides these attributes, GTS consultants possess an in-depth understanding of the public sector context and resources.

Using Audience Participation Technology

This tool offers a way to make meetings more engaging and more productive. Our consultants can help you create a plan from setting goals to editing questions to integrating data effectively. With guidance from an experienced facilitator, groups using electronic keypads can obtain valuable feedback for use at the moment and for the future.

If you would like more information on these and other approaches to engaging citizens, please contact:

Mary Sabatke, GTS Program Planner and Facilitator
651-222-7409 x208, msabatke@mngts.org
or
Helene Johnson, Executive Director
651-222-7409 x206, hjohnson@mngts.org

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