“Holy Smokes We’ve Been Delphi’d

Phase 1 of Our Plan to Protect Our

Freedom

Karen Bracken

americadontforget.com

What is the Delphi Technique? The Rand Corporation in the early 1960’s developed the Delphi

technique for the purpose of maneuvering segments of the public into accepting predetermined government policies. In the 1970’s and ‘80’s, it was used to convince land owners of the merits of accepting general land use planning maps. It is now being employed by the city and local groups working with the city in order to engineer “citizen consent.”

In order for Delphi to work, it is critical that the targeted group (you) be kept away from the knowledgeable people who could lead them away from the Delphier’s predetermined outcome.

The goal of the Delphi Technique is to lead a targeted group of people to a predetermined outcome, while giving the illusion of taking public input and under the pretext of being accountable to the public

How Do I Know If I am Being Delphi’d? If you are invited to a visioning/consensus session - You WILL be

Delphi’d If you walk into a room and you are handed a comment card - You

ARE being Delphi’d If you are asked to draw a table number or told where to sit- You ARE

being Delphi’d If the room is filled with employees of companies that have a vested

interest in the outcome - You ARE being Delphi’d If you arrive at a meeting and no one is there - You WERE Delphi’d If you have been given crayons and paper to play games - You ARE

being Delhpi’d If audience participation is suppressed - you are asked to write down

your questions for later, Q&A at end of session when many people and the press have left - You ARE being Delphi’d

If you get a survey at home or if you are asked to fill out a survey during a meeting - You ARE being Delphi’d

If your community is involved in a growth plan - YOU ARE BEING DELPHI’D

What is the Real Plan? Get us out of our cars Control and reduce our use of water, food, land,

fossil fuels (control of every human activity) Create bike paths, move people from the rural land

to the Urban Growth Boundary, limit mobility Stop urban sprawl while increasing vertical sprawl Replace individual freedom and liberty with

collectivism (Social Justice) Unelected bureaucrats to make all local decisions Whenever they ask you a question remember the

goal before you answer.

Words Have Meaning Consensus - Phony agreement to predetermined outcome-They

decided what you really need and have made the decision for you. Affordable Housing - Subsidized housing Equity - redistribution of wealth from one group of people to

another (from those that work to those that don’t) Precautionary Principle - No scientific data or proof is needed to

create laws, rules, restrictions, regulations. If it “might” cause harm then it must be abolished.

Visioning - process to attain consensus Social Justice - Opposite of equal justice under the law-Wealth

redistribution Incentivize - Coerced participation When you hear any word you don’t understand ask for clarification As soon as they know we are catching on they will change the

words and the meanings – APA just did this.

Why Do We Need a Planned Strategy?

Would you go to war without a strategic, well thought out, rehearsed plan of attack?

Would you go to war with no guns or ammo? We ARE fighting for our very lives. We must treat

them like the enemy and we MUST defeat them. We have only 3 opportunities – Visioning, Draft of

Plan, After Plan is Adopted The sooner we shut down the process and get our

opinions in the plan the easier.

How They Play the Consensus Game?

The outcome is already pre-determined. The questions they ask are vague and lead you to the pre-determined answer. They ask negative questions at times. IE: Is there anyone that does not want clean water, open space, clean air etc?

If this is a meeting to get citizen input why are the priorities already decided? How come we don’t create the list of priorities. WHY-Because they already know what THEY want and they are only going through the motion of making us think these are our priorities. CALL THEM ON IT!

They are well trained MASTERS. These are not nice people. They know what they are doing.

Shills, stakeholders, limited audience Athens, Ringgold They DO NOT want to hear any opposition They will avoid your questions, ask you to write them down, hold for

later, give you a post card etc. You will never see those cards or get answers!!

The Rules We Will Use to Fight Back! This is THE most important step in the beginning of this

process. They are under strict time constraints. If you can interrupt

that process you have a chance to stop the plan right here. This is where we get back our voice. JUST SAY NO! It’s OK. QUESTION, QUESTION and QUESTION some more. Do not

stop even when they yell at you. If you are not given the chance to speak STAND UP! Know the end game in order to circumvent the pre-determined

outcome. We will plan and train We must recruit (we need a team of 25+ to attend each

meeting) We must support each other

How THEY Try To Circumvent Our Opposition?

Time Out - Vote from group to move on Index cards (to discourage questions) Hold questions or ask that you write them down No time for questions Move tables around - who you thought was a citizen turns out to be a

facilitator at another table Split up groups into separate rooms Shills, stakeholders, employees, paid lobbyists All answers lead to their pre-determined outcome - try to stop them from

completing surveys Assigned seats/limited occupancy Color coding Play music while questions are being answered to keep people from

discussing the questions Change the words, change the tactics Change date, time or location at the last minute

Our Plan Post schedule for meetings - Register with

americadontforget.com Select a team leader - Train and build teams Organize your team and your plan before each

meeting Letters to editor, flyers for the community, set up a

table outside super markets with flyers Create small signs - (Equal Justice not Social Justice,

Affordable Housing=Subsidized Housing, Social Justice=Collectivism)

The name of the game is to stop them from completing the session

Support other county leaders - know who they are

Our Plan There will probably be 16 sessions (1 for

each county) Train the trainer sessions by Karen or group trainings

Train and prepare for each session - Anti Delphi sessions before each meeting with your team

Utilize FOIA – do some research on consultants (Clarion) I have a lot of info on them already.

Find a volunteer to video each session

Our Plan - Prior to the Session

Be sure to register for the session (what type of citizen are you) I use a fake name.

If session is full go anyway (these are public meetings) Determine a meet up spot prior to the meeting Have a list of questions (it is best to have questions prepared), bring a

note pad and pen Select “speakers” and “supporters” Team 1 speaker with 1 supporter for round table set up. No more than 3

“friendly folks” at a table. If theater seating we must form a diamond (assign 4 point people - the rest fill in between the point people.

Do not attend the session with Tea Party shirts, pins or anything that will associate you with a group.

Be sure to have documentation to back up statements with you. IE: Definition of Sustainable Development, J Gary Lawrence complete statement about hiding LA21, Joan Veon interview How ICLEI Was Created, Federal Register where it is stated HUD grants used to implement A21 etc. It is better to be prepared than to have nothing to back up what you might be forced to say.

Our Plan - On Arrival Act like you do not know each other (keep track of your partner) Do not sign the log book. If you must, use a fake name, no email

address Do not put your real name on name tag (do not wear tag) Do not allow them to assign you a seat When you enter you might find people already sitting at tables. Scope the seating set up and seat yourself accordingly Speakers spread out (1 per table) Supporters - find your speaker partner Then fill in – Appear larger than you are Once seated be sure to get to know the people at your table If theater seating - 4 point people sit and others fill in the diamond PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS TAKING PLACE

Our Plan - During the Session Be flexible and prepared to change plans on a dime Ask for an introduction of participants to expose and document the fact that

not many in the room are everyday citizens THE GOLDEN RULE - Stand up and demand the people you have

identified be excluded (out of co., advisory meeting participants, stakeholders)

SPEAKER=Stands up and states our question SUPPORTER=Clap (a lot), supporting statements

Do not ask questions or make comments in silence at your table. Ask questions, challenge, ask for explanations Do not allow them to dance around answer GET an answer, repeatedly circle them back to your question FIND YOUR VOICE - This is not the time to be good little obedient soldiers Be polite at ALL times. Making you look like the “bad guy” is part of the plan. Be sure someone is assigned to record the entire session Take any handouts they give out with you at the end of the session

Answering Surveys/Prioritizing

Written, computerized, on-line, mail BUSINESS AS USUAL, KEEP MY NEIGHBORHOOD AS IT IS Know the end game - answer questions to circumvent the end game

(Open Space - LOW, Easier Access to jobs - LOW, Large home with large yard - HIGH)

How come protecting private property rights are not on the list? How come no indication that policy will always be decided by elected officials? How is Amoratization of Non- Conforming Uses going to be handled?

Protecting private property must be on the list. If not, shut the meeting down until it is. THIS PROVISION MUST BE IN EVERY PLAN!!

Rate which is most important (Leave as is, large homes big back yard) Answer questions in the opposite of what they want. Lets discuss this

strategy. Know the language.

Greenville, SC/Cookeville, TN Conducted 9 meetings with 350 participants.

Included facilitators, stakeholders and a very small amount of citizens. This represented .0008% of the population.

March 25, 2008 meeting – 50 participants The results reported by the facilitators were

amazing. Cookeville, TN sent out 400 surveys and received

154 responses. This equated to .00616% of the population. No meetings were held.

Greenville, SC Results Participant Results Protection of natural resources (25 votes) Proposed animal shelter (24 votes) Need for better land use controls (21) Protect private property rights (20) Road improvement for most of the rural areas (12) Too much government (9) Facilitator results entered into the final report from this meeting Clean Air/Water (4.77) Preserving rural areas, farmland and open space (4.75) Maintain natural beauty (4.75) Historic preservation (4.26) Limiting development of flood prone areas (4.13) Community appearance/design (4.09) PRIVATE PROPERTY AND TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT NEVER MADE THE

FACILITATORS REPORT!

Our Plan - After the Session Meet back at original meeting place for a

debrief - What happened what went wrong. What worked.

Everyone that attended will be requested to write a few paragraphs about their experience and what went on at their table. We can use these situations as learning tools.

Prepare for the next session

A Glimpse At The Real World

You Tube videos One Bay Area website Survey Results from other areas Google Delphi Technique, You Tube

Beverly Eakman, One Bay Area, Bay Area, Heather Gass, Rosa Koire

All can be found on: americadontforget.com