Form groups of about six people, and discuss how you feel about making oral presentations. Next, pretend that you are the members of the discussion group described in Case 11.1, and decide how you would respond to the invitation from the restaurant association.

1. Would you prefer to work together and put on a panel or a symposium? If so, whom would you select to be the moderator? Why?

2. Would you prefer to send a single representative? If so, which of you would you send? Why?

3. Compare your group’s answers to these questions with those of the other groups in your class.

How do you account for differences and similarities?

Data from Case 11.1

Six students in a small group communication class spent their group project time discussing the problems faced by a local homeless shelter. One especially significant problem they noted was the great reduction in contributions, especially of food, during economic hard times. As part of the solution section of their report, the students recommended a way of getting more edible leftovers from local restaurants to the shelter, a program they had discovered already in operation in a few other communities across the nation.
The students’ written report earned them an A. Their instructor was so impressed that he showed the report to the president of the local restaurant association. She, too, thought the students were on to something and invited them to make a 15-minute presentation about their project at the association’s monthly meeting. The students were excited that their work might become something more than a classroom exercise and that they might be able to help the homeless shelter, but they did not know how they should respond to this invitation. Should they let their leader represent them? Should they all go and each say a few words? Should they let their most talkative member make the presentation or the one who seemed to be the best critical thinker? The meeting was coming quickly, and they did not know what to do.