To promote popular participation as a means and goal of community development, the Bureau d'Amenagement de l'Est du Quebec (BAEQ) had to work within a milieu that favored traditional power structures over social participation in decision making. Phase 1 (May-September 1963) of this project was mainly a time for recruiting and training change agents and defining stragegies of change. In Phase 2, an information committee and local development committees were formed, and a participative survey and the first training sessions were held. Phase 3 (November 1964 to August 1965) was marked by transition and by creation of a second intervention mechanism. The final phase (September 1965 to March 1966) saw the emergence of new local elites and new administrative structures. Goals, methodology, and staffing were major problem areas. The lack of precise theories of social change, of a precise model of a modern society, and of a provincial plan and specific projects forced the BAEQ animateurs to concentrate on encouraging popular participation in forming a draft plan and an experimental model of consultative participation. (ly)