Policy Consensus E-News — June 2009
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- Report from US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution's Technology in ECR Meeting
- White House Open Government Initiative Moves to Phase III
- Interagency Partnership for Sustainability
- PCI Board member Named Director of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center in US Dept of Education
- Video Series: Tillamook County Flood Reduction
- Join PCI on the Web
Report from US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution's Technology in ECR Meeting
On May 6 – 8, the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution hosted a national strategic planning session - Technology in Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) – in Tucson, AZ. The event brought together thought leaders, technology specialists, and ECR practitioners with experience and mutual appreciation for the value technology can bring to ECR processes – and for what ECR can bring to the development of future technologies. The Session opened with a technology fair, showcasing the wide range of technologies and their applications to environmental/natural resource management decision making, public participation, and collaboration. Subsequent workshop sessions engaged participants in discussions about the opportunities and challenges of ensuring effective integration of tools and process, and in identifying tangible and specific next steps for improving and promoting this work.
Participants jointly created a report describing a shared vision for integrating new technologies into ECR best practices to support transparency, collaboration, effective partnerships, and improved decision making in ECR. The report offers a brief summary of the conversations and plans that emerged from the Planning Session. This document consolidates the work of the synthesis committee, incorporating subsequent edits from participant discussions during the Session. This version is being shared with participants for review and comment, to ensure an accurate portrayal of the discussions and the plans that emerged. The intention here is to provide a succinct record of the Session as a reference point for ongoing conversations, and as a starting point for implementing the plans that have been identified.
A separate, living version of this report, posted as a wiki-document, is also available for participant editing (website under development). This second document is provided to encourage ongoing exchange and debate about these issues, to enable further development of the themes, ideas and plans that emerged during the meeting.
White House Open Government Initiative Moves to Phase III
Over the past several weeks, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has asked the public to contribute in three phases in crafting final recommendations on open government. Phase I, the Brainstorming Phase, elicited ideas for the Open Government recommendations, while Phase II, the Discussion Phase, utilized the OSTP's blog to deepen the conversation about topics raised during the first Phase.
Now, the Open Government Initiative is moving towards the Drafting Phase, asking the public to take part in a collaborative drafting of final recommendations in three topic areas, transparency, participation, and collaboration. Drafting of recommendations will continue through midnight Eastern Friday, July 3rd. Voting will stay open through the holiday weekend, until 5pm Eastern Monday, July 6th. We encourage all of PCI Enews' readers to take some time to review, vote for, edit, and contribute to the comments.
Interagency Partnership for Sustainability
Three federal agencies have joined together to form the Interagency Partnership for Sustainability to “help American families in all communities –- rural, suburban and urban -- gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs.” The partnership between the EPA, Departments of Transportation (DOT), and House and Urban Development (HUD) will follow 6 livability principles to achieving these goals:
- Provide more transportation choices.
- Promote equitable, affordable housing.
- Enhance economic competitiveness.
- Support existing communities.
- Coordinate and Leverage federal policies and investment.
- Value communities and neighborhoods.
Read the entire announcement on the Partnership and more detailed descriptions of the livability principles.
PCI Board Member Peter Groff heads Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center in US Dept of Education
This past spring, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the appointment of Peter Groff as the Director for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center in the Office of the Secretary. Groff was previously the Colorado Senate President in the Colorado State Legislature, where he served beginning in 2003, following one term in the House of Representatives. Prior to his time in the legislature, Groff served as senior advisor to Denver Mayor Webb on policy. While Senate President, Groff also worked at the University of Denver where he holds the positions of senior lecturer at the Institute for Public Policy and executive director for the Center for African American Policy / Center for New Policy and Politics.
In his new position, Groff will help empower faith-based and community groups, enlisting them in support of the Department's mission to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans, the Department of Education said in a statement. As a Colorado Senator, Groff focused on education legislation and helped craft Referendum C, the successful ballot measure that freed up state funding for services. Groff also helped launch and co-chaired Get Smart Schools, a program aimed at offering better educational options for poor students in Colorado.
Video Series: Tillamook County Flood Reduction
The newest addition to the PCI Video Series: Community Solutions provides a ten minutes overview of an entire Solutions project, including interviews with several Solutions Team members. The "Tillamook Basin Flood Reduction Project" video pays particular attention to two defining characteristics of this project. The project actually began with a team determining nine priorities they wanted to execute on-the-ground to reduce the impacts of devastating flooding in this county in coastal Oregon. Over the course of two years, the team members then worked to implement those nine projects. Additionally, the project was convened by two co-conveners, Oregon Senator Betsy Johnson from the state level and Commissioner Mark Labhart from the county level. Both co-conveners explain how working jointly together to lead the team was so vital to the success of the project.
Join PCI on the Web!
PCI has created spaces on the web for those interested in or working in the field of collaborative governance to share information and resources and network with one another. You can now find PCI on Facebook, follow our feed on Twitter, or watch our videos on YouTube. For members of the University Network for Collaborative Governance, join the UNCG group on LinkedIn.
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