Bureaucrat Bingo
Posted on Freedom Advocates on July 9th 2007
By [post_author] –
Don’t get bored – be creative. Enliven community “visioning” meetings and workshops with bureaucrat bingo cards. Here’s a great example!*
Here’s a consensus process diversion for those subjected to facilitators at community “visioning” meetings and workshops. Do you feel frustrated and stifled during these sessions? What about those long and boring surveys, questionnaires and workbooks?
Here’s a way to change all of that:
1. Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or workshop,prepare your “Bureaucrat Bingo” card by drawing a square — 5″x 5″ is a good size — then divide it into columns–five across and five down. That will give you 25 1-inch blocks.
2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
Consensus, Quality of Life, Core Competencies, Best Practices, Sustainable, Smart Growth, Triple Bottom Line, Capacity Building, Visioning, Holistic, Facilitator, Benchmark, Social Equity, Action Group, Environmental Justice, Precautionary Principle, Fast Track, Paradigm, Civil Society, Empower (or empowerment), Gaia, Global Government, United Nations, Regional, NGO (Non-Governmental Organization), Public/Private Partnership, Business Council
New sample bingo cards for your use:
Color with graphics: http://www.freedomadvocates.org/http://www.freedomadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/agenda21bingo-2.pdf
Black & White: http://www.freedomadvocates.org/http://www.freedomadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/agenda21bingo-bw.pdf
3. Check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.
4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout “BUREAUCRAT!”
Testimonials from satisfied “Bureaucrat Bingo” players:
“I had been in the meeting for merely five minutes when bingo , I won!!!”– Steve, Monterey CA
“My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically.”– Rowland B., North Dakota
“What a blast! Meetings will never be the same for me after my first win.”– Spirit Moon, Austin Texas “
“The atmosphere was tense in the last consensus meeting as 11 of us waited for the last box. The speaker froze as seven of us shouted “BUREAUCRAT” for the third time only half -way through the meeting,” – Jeannie, NC
* Bureaucrat Bingo by Freedom Advocates (based on parody “Bolshevik Bingo”)
