Outreach - Who and How
- Archived: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:53:00 -0400 (EDT)
- Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:33:06 -0400 (EDT)
- From: Dennis Caputo <dcaputo@QuestEHS.com>
- Subject: Outreach - Who and How
- X-topic: Outreach
When we consider the topic of outreach two questions come to mind:
1. Who should the agency reach out to?
2. How should the agency reach out?
The first question involves identifying the "stakeholders." For the purposes of this discussion I would suggest that the stakeholders are those that could reasonably be expected to be impacted by the facility being permitted. Depending on the type of facility and permit this could include adjacent property owners, the immediate area around the facility and/or those down wind or down stream from the facility. In the event of an upset or accidential release, those potentially impacted could expand beyond the immediate community.
Once the "Who" question is answered, the agency could focus on "How" or what would be the best way to reach out to those that could be impacted. Here I believe that the "KISS" principle should be the main factor. KISS as I learned in the military (with one minor change) means: Keep It Short and Simple.
Most people want to know how will the facility being permitted impact them and how they can have a say in this complex regulatory process. Often the message fails to reach the impacted community or is so complicated that the impacted community can't understand the message. Often times in our attempt to explain to people the complex regulatory and technical issues we loose touch with the impacted community rather than inform them.
A notice in a "paper with local circulation" today is no longer as effective as it was 50 years ago when the population had a limited choice of news sources. Today, most people spend hours each day in front of the TV and a very limited amount of time reading the news paper. They spend even less time looking at legal announcements where permit notices are routinely published.
The solution to the How question is to reach out to people
1. Where they are
2. Through the media they are exposed to
3. In terms they will understand.
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