Article content When a gay pride parade was being organized for Goderich in rural Huron County, it raised consternation among some vendors at the farmers’ market who were concerned their proximity to the event would denote a connection to the parade. “They were worried if they were beside it, they would be associated with it,” remembers Meagan Tamming, now a Research Assistant at the Gateway Centre for Excellence in Rural Health, who was then working for the Town of Goderich in the tourist booth. Some of these vendors staged a protest.
To help resolve the issue, Meagan said a casual meeting was organized, where both sides could have coffee and engage in a ‘civil conversation’ which helped the concerned farmer’s market vendors understand their personal space did not not correlate to supporting something that was against their belief system. Meagan was sharing this situation in her role as ‘storyteller’ while Jordan McDonald, with Develop West Prince in Prince Edward Island serving as the ‘harvester’ and Chelsi Bovingdon, a student at Wilfrid Laurier University being the ‘witness.’ The trio were engaging in Appreciative Inquiry Story Trios at the Rural Talks to Rural 5th Biennial Conference held in Blyth October 16-18.
The theme of the event was ‘exploring our differences together’ and appreciative inquiry is a practice designed to help delegates identify the “best of what is and pursue the possibility of what could be.” “Appreciative inquiry i.