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Many techniques are available for engaging the public in discussions about agency activities. Some, such as public hearings and advisory committees, are quite formal and must follow specific regulations. Others, such as public meetings and workshops can be organized and facilitated to meet the specific needs of the project at hand. All of the techniques reviewed here provide a forum for agency personnel to increase public awareness about important issues. In addition, valuable information on public opinions can be collected for incorporation into agency plans. Only surveys lend themselves to statistical interpretation. The rest of the methods provide qualitative information that can be incredibly valuable to the planning team.
In general terms "advisory committees" can be used to provide mid- to long-term public input into agency planning and management. These committees can range from informal citizen groups established without agency involvement, to the more formal groups that provide information to an agency, to groups established by federal law. The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (FACA) establishes requirements regarding membership, transparency, and government involvement in committees responsible to federal land management agencies. Formal advisory committees formed by an agency must conform to the requirements of the law. In some instances agencies may convene representatives of different interest groups in an advisory committee type forum which may contribute to decision-making, though not necessarily in the formal manner required under FACA. Advisory committees provide an important opportunity for a two-way flow of information between the public and agency personnel. They provide a forum for meaningful interaction between participants and the agency. Attention to the composition of the advisory committee can contribute to its usefulness to the agency and its ability to represent a wider public. In order to be effective formal advisory committees require a significant commitment in terms of time and resources by both the agency and the public. There are two primary types of formal, managed advisory committees:
Important considerations in establishing an advisory committee include:
Focus groups are facilitated discussions centered on specific topics. Participants are often invited because they are believed to represent certain viewpoints or certain segments of the larger population (e.g., rural, urban, rancher, hiker). Discussions are guided by a set of predetermined questions. While there is limited feedback between the agency and participants, there is substantial opportunity for discussion among participants. Focus groups can be used to gain a better understanding of opinions about resource use issues, such as backcountry access or vehicle use. Properly planned and facilitated they provide a deeper view of the diversity of attitudes about an issue. Focus groups are not a forum for mediating differences or making decisions. In the absence of staff trained in focus group facilitation, focus groups are best organized and run by an outside organization in consultation with agency staff. This helps to insure the impartiality of the moderator and may help to engender trust among participants. In some instances agency personnel may be able to view the focus group through a one-way mirror or the session may be videotaped. In any case a written report that summarizes the information collected should be prepared. Recruitment for focus groups can take several weeks as potential participant lists are drawn up and people contacted. Eight to twelve participants might be selected for each focus group. The group is held in a comfortable room, such as a conference room, in which all participants can view each other and the moderator. Light refreshments are often provided and a small gift, in cash or kind, provided to participants. The focus group itself may last one to two hours at most. Key informants are individuals from the local community who provide information and insight into local attitudes and opinions concerning agency activities. They may be formal elected leaders, traditional leaders, teachers, prominent business people, or others who are involved with and knowledgeable about the local community. Key informants can be used to assist planners in informally understanding local opinions. Informants may provide information on what land management issues are particularly important to the local community or the potential points of conflict in proposed management plans. They may provide insight into the best way to present messages to the public. There is no specific time associated with this activity. Agency staff may see people informally within the community and speak with them. From time to time staff may set up more formal meetings to keep, for example, elected officials, apprised of public involvement activities and solicit their input. Occasionally agency staff may make a short list of questions and call or visit key informants to question them. This is a very informal method of data collection and relies on personal relationships established between agency staff and local community members. Public comments are simply the opinions of individuals and organizations interested in the resource issue being discussed. They may be collected as part of public meetings or hearings, as well as through letters, reply cards, phone calls, or electronic means (Internet sites or email). In some instances the agency may provide forms that can be used for such comments. More often they are received in whatever format the person who wants to comment finds most useful, from a postcard to a report several pages long. Solicited and unsolicited comments are a major source of agency data on public opinion. If only a few comments are made or received through the public involvement process, they are simply examined by concerned agency staff. If an issue prompts numerous comments – from the hundreds to several thousand – they often undergo more formal content analysis. In content analysis comments are organized by topic and opinion, a comment from one person may contain several topics. The agency may predetermine what categories to use in such content analysis or build the category list as the process progresses. Depending on the number of comments, there may be need for training content analyzers to assure uniform categorizing. Comments may simply be aggregated by topic or planners may enter them into computerized databases that allow for easy retrieval of original comments based on the issues addressed. Frequency counts can be provided for categories of comments and quotes of participants can be used to illustrate opinions that are held by various groups. Content analysis can help planners gain a better understanding of the range and diversity of opinions related to planning efforts. The frequency of like comments being mentioned by the public may also give decision makers an indication of the importance of that issue to the public. Caution should be heeded, however, as content analysis is often used to summarize public input data that were obtained under non-random sampling; thus no statistical analysis can be done and inferences can not be made to a larger population. Another limitation to the use of content analysis is that it may lead to summaries in which the comments are separated from their context, thus limiting their usefulness. Public hearings are one of the most common methods used to solicit public input on proposed agency actions. Hearings provide all or selected participants the opportunity to present their opinion on the issue under discussion in a formal manner in an allotted period of time (often 3-5 minutes each). Due to the formal nature of hearings there is often little or no interaction between the agency and the public. This information is recorded and becomes part of the public record. There may be a transcriber and participants may provide written copies of their comments. Public hearings may be mandated by law or agency regulations. Comments from public hearings may be analyzed in the same manner as other public comments. Public meetings are forums where agency personnel can present information to the interested public. They tend to be less formal than public hearings. Speakers may present different facets of proposed plans or activities. Technical staff may describe the impacts of proposed activities or how a plan would be implemented. Public meetings may be designed to encourage discussion and feedback. Individuals who attend may ask questions or, in some cases, present comments. Open house public meetings are becoming increasingly popular. These public meetings provide a variety of different ways for the interested public to learn about and comment on agency plans. They may be designed to be held over one or several days. At designated times planning team members or supervisors may present information and be available to answer questions. Technical staff may prepare displays and at designated times discuss the topic – formally and/or informally – with interested participants. Maps and other visual aids may be displayed through the meeting hall. Small discussion groups (similar to focus groups, though without the rigid participant selection process) may be held throughout the open house. Informal discussions are also quite likely. Forms for public comments or places to leave previously prepared comments are made available. Public meetings provide an opportunity for interested individuals to participate in the planning process. Simple public meetings may take a matter of days to plan and prepare. More involved open house public meetings may take several months to prepare and require the active involvement of large numbers of staff. They are likely to provide both the public and the agency with important information and a forum for discussion; the substantial time required to prepare them may be time well spent. All public meetings need to be adequately advertised through agency publications and local media well in advance to allow people to plan to attend. Mail or telephone surveys are a method for soliciting a representative view of opinions on an issue from the public. They can be used to help decide between policy issues or discover how the public feels about different issues. Their usefulness is affected by the degree of knowledge respondents have on an issue. As they require a fair amount of planning and financial resources their purpose and intended usefulness should be well scoped before proceeding. Mail surveys involve mailing a questionnaire of primarily close-ended questions to a random sample of the public. People are sent reminders to encourage them to respond. Mail surveys are usually done over a period of three to four weeks. In telephone surveys the interviewer uses a prepared script and asks respondents closed-ended questions over the telephone. Phone surveys are usually conducted over a few days with trained interviewers making the calls. In both cases surveys are coded and entered into a database for analysis. To be of the greatest use surveys need to be properly planned and conducted. The number of individuals to survey will depend on the size of the population and the accuracy desired. The greater the accuracy the more people needed to be surveyed. Questions must be carefully selected. The wording is important to insure that the agency is getting the information desired. It is useful to test questions with a few people to make sure they are clear and understandable. Guides on choosing sample size and key points for writing good questions should be consulted. Outside firms can be hired to help in the process and are often the best choice when conducting phone surveys as they have the necessary equipment and trained personnel. Close-ended questions on surveys done using a randomly selected sample of a population (e.g., households in counties adjacent to a park, individuals on public involvement contact lists) can be analyzed statistically. A wide variety of parametric and non-parametric statistical tests can be used to make inferences to the larger population. For example, multiple regression and correlation analysis can be used to examine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Multivariate and factor analysis can help identify and characterize groups of the public with similar values, interests, and opinions. Chi-square tests will help determine how representative the sample is of the population. Care must be taken that the results of such studies are generalized only to the population from which the sample was obtained and that the data are collected by using well-constructed instruments, appropriately applied. Workshops are meetings in which participants talk about the issues and discuss important facets of the plan. They are longer than traditional meetings, lasting from a half-day to several days. Workshops provide an opportunity for discussion and feedback. They can be used to identify and/or discuss important issues and help participants arrive at an agreement. Interactive discussions, in which participants arrive at a consensus or a list of important points, are a key feature of workshops. Planning a workshop can take several weeks. Attention needs to be paid to participant selection, the goals and agenda of the workshop, and logistics including the location and refreshments. One important criterion for workshop success is having appropriate participants that represent various stakeholder groups. Selecting these participants and encouraging their attendance is an important task. Agency staff may be full participants or simply observers depending on the format and goals of the particular workshop. In some instances it may be prudent to employ facilitators from outside the agency to promote consensus building and insure impartiality. Agency staff needs to clearly articulate the goals for a particular workshop. These might include such things as a list of local concerns with agency actions, alternatives for managing a contested area, or methods for increasing public participation in management decisions. Participants should be given any necessary background material before the workshop. Brief presentations at the beginning of the workshop can highlight that information. Participants often spend the majority of the time in a workshop in small group discussion with periodic presentations to the entire group on what has been discussed. Workshops should be held in areas that provide plenty of space for small group activities as well as a place where the entire group can meet. Meals or refreshments should be arranged prior to the workshop. Nominal Group Process Nominal group process is special technique for facilitating workshops. It involves asking small groups (usually 7-10) of participants to brainstorm responses to a specific question. Responses are then shared, discussed and ranked. Through a series of groups or workshops facilitated in this way, agency personnel can identify the issues of greatest importance to the public. The nominal group process allows for some feedback between the agency and participants and provides for considerable discussion among participants. |
