Each person is given an equal number of beads, stones, or other tokens representing equal units of time. The total meeting time is divided into units matching the distributed tokens, thus valuing them. Each member then introduces her/himself, and if so desired, offers a topic for discussion. Members then give tokens to others whose topics they want to have introduced for discussion. The "voting or encouraging" continues as topics generate more or less interest; and as others join in the discussion, they can receive tokens as encouragement to continue with their line of thought. This open, transparent format can encourage inhibited people to participate and minimise domination by authoritative types. In case of unexpected changes in meeting duration, the tokens can be re/devalued inflated/deflated to match the remaining available time.

Open Forum & Round Tables, see http://open-forum.de