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Yesterday the White House announced its follow up to President Obama’s Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. Beginning May 21st, the White House invites the public to contribute its expertise to crafting final recommendations on open government. The goal is to experiment with mechanisms for effective citizen participation in order to complement the know-how of government employees with the expertise and intelligence of the American people.
This is a great opportunity for UNCG members to weigh in on developing a collaborative governance strategy for the new administration. Please join the conversation and participate in this unique opportunity.
John Stephens has already contributed a post on training and development under “Practical scholarship and assistance from Universities - the University Network for Collaborative Governance.” Bob Jones has also contributed posts on "Collaborative Governance - Federal, State, and Local Roles" and on "FACA and Consensus Building." Vote and comment on John and Bob's suggestions and contribute suggestions of your own on Open Goverment Dialogue.
Read the press release and the President's Memorandum.
There will be three phases of structured public dialogue:
The public consultation will be followed by inter-agency review that will inform the development of final recommendations by the CTO, OMB and GSA. OMB will review and consider the recommendations and then issue its Open Government Directive to guide agencies in implementing open government in practice.
The goal is to experiment with mechanisms for effective citizen participation in order to complement the know-how of government employees with the knowledge and expertise of the American people.
Recently, representatives of UNCG had an opportunity to meet with federal agency representatives at US Fish and Wildlife’s National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) to exchange information about the evolution of curricula and education and training programs for collaborative problem solving and governance. The meeting was hosted by NCTC and attended by representatives from Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service, as well as by the UNCG team--- Greg Wolf; Chris Carlson; Dave Ceppos, Cal State Sacramento Center for Collaborative Policy; Steve Smutko, NC State Natural Resources Leadership Institute; Laurel Singer, Oregon Consensus; and Craig Shinn, Portland State’s Public Administration Program. USIECR helped plan and facilitate the meeting.
We discussed lessons learned by both university programs and federal agencies from over 20 years of experience offering training in these topics in many guises. We discussed various delivery methods and what is and is not effective. The federal agencies recognize that universities both know how to develop curricula and offer a course of study vs. one-shot training. They were very interested in programs that engage in cross-training, such as the Natural Resource Leadership Institutes and related models.
Steve Smutko has begun assembling a list of UNCG centers that offer training for environmental professionals, both government and non- government, in collaborative problem-solving, collaborative governance, negotiation, environmental conflict resolution, etc. Even though the list is as yet incomplete, federal agencies were interested in it and in learning more about where their employees can find mentorships, apprenticeships, and links to communities of practice.
As a result of the meeting, over the next few months, UNCG will pursue the following activities:
Several other opportunities emerged that UNCG members/centers should consider pursuing, including:
UNCG Centers should also take a look at the USFS Parternship Resource Center, which has a community assessment tool that may be of interest, and the USEPA's database of public involvement resources. UNCG members should see if they are included in this listing.
The Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution & Public Collaboration (MODR) began working with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) this spring on a public discussion of forest stewardship. Keeping to Massachusetts Governor Patrick’s commitment to civic engagement, DCR has launched a public process to discuss the future stewardship and management of state forest lands, including public forums and online discussions. MODR will develop a design for the public process, act as facilitators throughout its implementation, and ensure that the discussion and processes are unbiased. DCR is considering how best to manage the myriad public benefits and values of forest land, including recreation, tourism, aesthetics, renewable forest products, habitat diversity, and landscape ecology, and how to strike the appropriate balance among them. The process will have several components, including public forums, conversations through the DCR blog, online surveys, and the formation of an advisory group of stakeholders and a Technical Steering Committee. The steering committee, with input from the public and the stakeholders, will make recommendations to DCR on forest stewardship. The initial public forum for this project will take place in May to frame and explore the key issues related to forests and forestry. Oregon Solutions at Portland State University has recently begun a project to support forest health and biomass in the state. The project came about because a statewide task force had come up with policy recommendations that included local collaboratives, and one organization received a major grant to help begin these collaboratives, but needed additional support from others. OS views this project as an opportunity to implement a major policy initiative on a large scale across the state and to show the potential for collaborative governance to make a major difference. If successful, this project will result in 3-5 local collaboratives across the state, which will implement landscape-scale restoration of forests, creating jobs in rural areas, and potentially creating opportunities for biomass energy.
The Institute of Public Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law has been asked by the state legislature to conduct a public dialogue on water rights adjudication reform. Senate Joint Memorial 3 was passed by both houses of the legislature, asking IPL to report on the reactions of stakeholders in water rights to various proposals for reform of the adjudicatory process. IPL will be conducting six forums that will be designed to familiarize stakeholders in water rights allocations with the current system used in New Mexico, which has been criticized as too lengthy and expensive. Others claim that our complex system is needed to protect the rights of future water rights users against hasty legitimization of the claims of existing users. Some of the procedures used in other states will be explained to forum participants to ascertain their receptiveness or concerns over the possible implementation of such reforms. Reactions by experts will also be elicited separately. IPL is due to report toa legislative interim committee on August 1. This is our first major project in public dialogue and we hope it will lead to additional assignments.
In June the Ruckelshaus Institute at the University of Wyoming will release a major report, entitled “Wyoming’s State of the Space,” on land use change in the state. The publication compiles eight years of collaborative research efforts by faculty at the University of Wyoming, and will serve as an important resource for local and state decision makers, stakeholders, and the public on how land use is changing in Wyoming and options for managing that change. This project is part of the Wyoming Open Spaces Initiative, with the mission to improve the effectiveness of maintaining Wyoming’s open spaces through education, research, information, and decision making assistance.
The Ruckelshaus Institute will facilitate a one-day workshop on June 17 at the University of Wyoming, convened by several conservation districts in southeast Wyoming and representatives from the Environmental Science Program at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. The workshop is designed to assess public opinions on the visual and aesthetic impacts of large-scale wind development.Participants will use keypad polling technology as well as attend an afternoon field trip to wind developments in the area.Information from this meeting will be shared with state leaders who are currently managing numerous wind development projects in Wyoming.
UNCG will hold two small gatherings at the upcoming June EPP Conference in Denver. Both gatherings will be held at the University in Room 344.
UNCG and Training, Mentoring Opportunities with Federal Agency Environment and Natural Resources professionals
Continue discussion with additional federal agency people about education and training for collaborative problem solving and governance. We will continue to discuss needs, resources, assistance beyond training and options for UNCG assistance. If you are not able to attend the discussion, there will be a conference phone number to participate. 1-800-270-1153, participant code 133389.
During the open breakfast period we will hold an informal meeting of UNCG, open to anyone interested in learning about UNCG and with some link to a college or university program that focuses on public service or community engagement . Part 1 of the meeting will provide an overview to UNCG, describe activities and goals, and describe membership. Part 2 will focus on current UNCG members – specific project updates, plans for activities and a November 2009 UNCG meeting.
PCI Board Co-chair and former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer will be the keynote speaker for the EPP conference.
UNCG will hold a meeting on July 10, 4:00-5:30 (Eastern), open to anyone interested in learning about UNCG and with some link to a college or university program that focuses on public service or community engagement .
Part 1 of the meeting will provide an overview to UNCG, describe activities and goals, and describe membership. Part 2 will focus on current UNCG members – specific project updates, plans for activities and a November 2009 UNCG meeting.
Conveners for all gatherings: Bob Jones (Florida State University) and John Stephens (UNC at Chapel Hill)
Starting June 1st, we want to hear how you are reaching out to champions of your program or center.
Champions are vital to building and sustaining support for university centers and programs. In PCI’s 1995 survey of universities, several centers described the setbacks they suffered when their champions moved on, underscoring the importance of continuous efforts to cultivate new champions. Tell us a story about what you have done to keep existing champions engaged or to find new ones.
Please send your stories (a short paragraph or two) to Sarah Giles or Roslyn Owen.