The Antigonish Movement became a world wide vehicle for adult education and community development, provoking the disadvantaged to become "masters of their own destiny."¹⁵. The work of these inspiring pioneers of social democracy continues today through the programs of the Coady International Institute at St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish.

Purpose of the Kitchen Forum

Until the one-year moratorium on school closures was announced by the Inverness District School Board, the fifteen or so active members of the Margaree Education Coalition (MEC) had been waging an essentially reactive campaign to save the community's high school. The moratorium offered the opportunity to conduct a proactive planning and design process with the objectives of generating a better strategy for the education of Margaree students and presenting it to the Minister of Education and the regional school board. In order to do this the MEC wanted to hear the ideas and concerns of everyone in the community. The multitude of public meetings that had been conducted in the past were well-attended and rich in content. But they were dominated by the same people and the same ideas. Some sectors of the education community, notably teachers and students, were reticent to speak up in public. Others were too shy to voice their ideas, and many just didn't like meetings. The MEC wanted to use a different forum in which everyone would feel included and comfortable. It was decided to begin a series of neighbourhood meetings, each of which would be hosted by a willing family and facilitated by members of the Margaree Education Coalition. Through the next sixteen months three rounds of "kitchen forums" were held; a total of fifty-two meetings. The ideas and opinions expressed during these meetings became the foundation of the strategy for education in Margaree.

Organizing the Kitchen Forum

A coordinating committee was named and approximately twenty neighbourhoods were identified within the Margarees. The coordinating committee undertook the following tasks in preparation for the Kitchen Forum:

• Identify host families for each of the neighbourhood meetings
• Identify teams of facilitators and minute-takers, and provide orientation
• Draft objectives and agenda for the meetings
• Gather and reproduce useful background and resource material
• Schedule the meetings (all to occur within a two week period)
• Distribute printed invitations to each host
• Arrange advertising

The host families were centrally located in their neighbourhoods and had a space in their homes that could comfortably hold a meeting. They were offered expense money to enable them to serve tea and a snack and were given a short orientation on how the meeting would proceed. They were provided with invitations and asked to distribute them throughout their neighbourhood, with the objective of attracting 8-15 participants of various ages and backgrounds. In addition to providing the venue, the hosts participated in the forum; they did not have to conduct the meeting, record the minutes or provide information.