If you would like to attend a meeting, here are the dates and locations. Registration is free but is required and there are deadlines.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Logistics

• Preregistration is required to attend these meetings, but they are open to anyone.  Space is limited and all but the last two (NY and DC) are at capacity. There are waiting lists in case spots open up.  Check the Healthy People website for the most current information on space availability:
  • http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/regional/default.asp

From this webpage, you can also find links to site-specific details on location, lunch, parking, etc.

• Meeting Agenda:  These are all day meetings, and include general sessions that provide an overview of the entire process, two and a half hours of public comment time, and breakout group time.  Participants are assigned to one of four breakout group topics:
• Developmental Stages, Life stages and health outcomes
• Environment and Determinants of Health
• Priorities and New and Emerging Issues
• Health Equity and Disparities  

These breakout groups were given specific questions to consider. A moderator and note-taker facilitated the discussions. Reports from each group were delivered at a final general session.

Public and Written Comments

• Public Comment: Attendees are invited—and encouraged—to make 3 minute speeches during one of two public comment sessions.  Attendees can sign up when they register or sign a list upon arrival at the meeting. It is basically first-come, first-served, so each speaker is given a number, and the speakers go in numerical order. The facilitators promise to get in as many as possible, and in Atlanta the 50 who signed up had time to give their comments, with some time to spare. Any leftover time in the public comment sessions is used for allowing questions by the attendees for the speakers.  There is no mechanism for rebuttal to anyone’s public comment.

Comments are strictly held to only 3 minutes each. A PowerPoint slide keeps track of time. So it is important to plan (and practice) the speeches ahead of time for maximum impact.

• Written Comments: Anyone—attending a meeting or not—can make a written comment at the Healthy People 2020 website:  http://www.healthypeople.gov/hp2020/comments/default.asp

From the Healthy People 2020 website:

We invite you to give us your comments and suggestions as part of the collaborative process of building Healthy People 2020. You may choose to provide us with feedback on various conceptual aspects and proposals for specific elements, including vision, mission, overarching goals, organizing framework, users, and implementation. Your general comments also are welcome.

Healthy People 2020 will be launched in two phases. The organizing framework, including the vision, mission and overarching goals, will be issued in late 2008 or early 2009. The specific objectives, accompanied by strategies for achieving them, will be launched in 2010.

Please note that we are not seeking comments on specific objectives at this time, but will in 2009.

This public comment Web site will be open throughout the development process, with intermittent submission deadlines that will allow us to compile and analyze comments received by specific points in the process. As the development moves forward, additional materials will be posted for comment. Comments received through this site by May 1, 2008, will be reported at the June 2008 meeting the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. Subsequent comments will be compiled in later reports.

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