What works

[Celeste Hoehne <choehne@tnrcc.state.tx.us>]

I agree that collaboration is needed for the majority of projects and policies, however it is often easy to loose sight of the reason for the collaboration and letting the process snowball to an unmanageable degree.  Working with the state environmental agency, we have found that oftentimes geographically regionalizing our stakeholder groups - particularly the small businesses - it is easier for us to take new technical information and developing rules to them, and give them the opportunity to express impacts, suggest ideas and/or help to educate others.  

Although we officially call the groups Small Business Advisory Committees (SBACs), they have actually become partnerships in many ways.  Similarly, EPA needs to reach the people affected by pending decisions.  Advisory groups are often the easiest means to gather input....they can even hold "cybermeetings" when time is critical.