Directed to the local government of smaller cities, this guide discusses five techniques for valid and feasible citizen participation. In each of the five selections the author describes the technique and indicates when its use is appropriate and what both its advantages and disadvantages are. The sections are arranged in order from the least to the most technical: (1) community development goal setting, (2) neighborhood meetings, (3) advisory committees, (4) the nominal group process (NGP), and (5) citizen surveys. In the first section the steps involved in a community development effort are described that lead to the establishment of goals and methods of accomplishing them. The section on neighborhood meetings stresses the benefit of them in improving trust and credibility in government. The section on advisory groups points out the need for representativeness of committee members, for group members to understand their role clearly, and for adequate staff assistance. The next section discusses NGP, a highly structured process for small groups yielding definite results that are quite usable as a basis for decision making, planning, and/or goal setting. In the final detailed section on citizen surveys the problems of collecting usable data are set forth. This section is more detailed than the others because of the popularity and complexity of citizen surveys. (YLB)