There is a cliche which tells us we'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It can be really frustrating to be in a meeting with a public official who you don't hold in high regard. All too often as a community we've let officials who come to our CAC and other community meetings know just what we think of them. In our public forum we call them on the carpet and feel as though we've told them off or sent the message that we're on to them and they won't get away with it anymore.

More often than not, however, we've just shot ourselves in the foot. Consider for a moment one of Nevada's U.S. Senators coming to a meeting. Go ahead and pick the one you care less for. Will the community's position, our need to protect our precious water, our need for inter-state cooperation, our desires for more or less access to federal lands around the valley, or any of a hundred other issues, be better served by telling the politician off or asking them how they can help us accomplish one of these goals? What if we ask that same person how we can be most effective in getting information to them? Consider the possibilities if we take a few minutes to understand what matters most to them and from that learn which of the planks of our argument to stand most strongly upon when addressing that person.

No matter how useless or obstructionist we think an individual is I'm quite confident that we stand to gain far more as a community from thoughtful, considerate questioning and attempting to understand where the speaker is coming from than we will with any attack we can launch. Certainly there may be a need to challenge someone on their lack of response or to share our individual or collective frustration. Whether a bureaucrat, agency head, Senator or President the community is much more likely to leave with an advocate from a meeting they perceive as positive than one which leaves a sour taste. When the speaker is one who the community cannot take as an ally, Vidler comes to mind here, there remains great power in gathering information and understanding that we have a difference of the minds but piling on and blasting the individuals who come to visit our community don't lead to the community we want.