Greetings from Utah

[Eileen Ringnalda <eileen.ringnalda@searbrown.com>]

Hello everyone,

My name is Eileen Ringnalda. I work for the national planning and engineering firm Sear-Brown in its Salt Lake City office. I am also a graduate student in communication at the University of Utah with emphasis on mass communication and cultural studies.  

My experience with public involvement has been primarily in the transportation industry as a consultant to the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).  I coordinate public involvement activities related to project work at the state and municipal levels.  I interact with federal regulations through the Federal Highways Administration, which requires environmental documentation that meets EPA standards.

My interest in public involvement (and the dialogue) is largely related to issues of communication -- both mass communication, small group, interpersonal and organizational. 

I have not yet read all of today's postings, but I will make a few brief comments on the stated goals --

The goals are quite complete and thorough. They provide an ideal vision of public involvement.  The struggle (and heart of our discussion) is how to fulfill these goals when each situation has a unique context.  A handful of the stated goals provide what I view as keys to achieving meaningful public involvement:

- beginning public involvement early in the decision-making process; the earlier, the better; if issues are anticipated, bring them to the forefront right away rather than hiding in fear.

- solicit assistance from the public; must actively seek public input and value comments as important to project decision-making and implementation.

- ensure that the agency communicates to the public how its input affected (or will affect) the agency's decision; this is essential to build trust and confidence and is necessary to establish realistic expectations.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the dynamics of public involvement!  I look forward to learning from our discussion.