Committee Meeting Minutes
May 8 - 9, 2000, Tempe, AZ
PRESENT:
Al Zemsky, Barry Aarons, and Jan Miller, co-chairs; Dan Clark, Cyra Cain, Jeannine Coward, Karen Deike, Pat Murdo, Pat Port, Liza Daley, Ruth McCormick. Visitors for part of the meeting included project directors Patrick Cummins and Bill Grantham, WRAP acting co-chair Dianne Nielson, Initiatives Oversight Committee co-chair Ursula Kramer, and Market Trading Forum co-chair Colleen Delaney.
MINUTES of September 17, 1999 were approved as distributed.
Liza Daley noted that Laura Tsosie has left ITEP and is no longer helping the Committee. Liza will be in Kotzebue, AK until June 5; FAXes to her office will be forwarded to her and Cyra Cain will take the lead on implementing the Web site changes until Liza returns. Karen Deike will be out of the WGA office June 9 - 26 at the WGA meeting in Hawaii and then on vacation.
WEB SITE:
Liza reported that WGA has hired Jennifer Lodder as webmaster and changes should go forward quickly. You can reach her at jlodder@uswest.net, or at 303-455-8414 Jennifer will do all uploads to the site; probably once each week. Committee chairs can add calendar items. Material will go to the archives after 90 days. Cyra will re-distribute her file naming conventions. Instead of the current (most of which are not currently current) greetings from the chairs, forum and committee home pages will carry a monthly report prepared by the liaisons and cleared with committee/forum co-chairs. There may be a short beta test period for a small group before the new format goes on-line. Liza is the liaison with Jennifer regarding design changes. Cyra will be the lead person working with Jennifer for the next month while Liza is away. Cyra volunteered to collect for the Web site all the presentations to be made to the WRAP over the next 2 days. Many thanks to Liza and the subcommittee who have worked so hard on this: Cyra Cain, Dwayne Arino, Al Zemsky, and Rich Halvey, Patrick Cummins and Chris McKinnon at WGA.
SPEAKERS BUREAU:
Barry Aarons will work with Rich Halvey to complete the Request for Proposals in order to move forward on this project. When we have a contractor, we will need to identify speakers and train them, write handouts and make them available along with the slide show.
Barry noted that the Speakers Bureau is really about grass-roots advocacy and getting community buy-in. In Federalist Paper #10, James Madison expressed the view that factions are dangerous, but our democratic system has developed in the direction of factions, today called special interests. For the system to work, we must encourage participation by all so that no one faction dominates. A crucial point of view is looking for solutions in which everyone wins.
We will need to find the right people to do the outreach to locate speaking opportunities, and we need to recruit and train (in person or by phone) the speakers. We need good collateral materials. Internally, we need positive but honest and understandable briefing papers. Externally, we need one page briefing papers and one-page issue-specific inserts. Pat Murdo volunteered to work on inserts; generally, liaisons will need to be sure the Speakers Bureau contractors have up-to-date materials. Barry suggested the following outline:
- Credentials--who we are, what we do, and what we mean to the audience.
- The issue--what's the problem, what's our position, what the opposition says, why they are wrong, and why we are right.
- The solution--what it is, how we will do it.
- The assistance we need--what the audience can do to help, such as a resolution of support or endorsement from their organization, signing a petition, or filling out pledge cards.
Look for specialized media opportunities. Many people get all their info from talk radio--getting our speakers onto talk radio, or calling in to respond to someone who opposes us is important. TV public affairs programming may be available, as well as radio and newspaper stories. On community public television we may be able to place "advertorials" which are cheap.
For influencing elected officials, Barry recommended a variety of approaches. Letters are very important; a letter should begin "I'm a registered voter and I appreciate your efforts." Then move on to explain why you are writing--give information. Next, ask for their thoughts, and their help. Finally, close with "Thank you, and I'll be writing again." Note that a stack of letters is about a dozen, a groundswell is 20 and overwhelming support means two dozen letters. A letter is better than email, but if you do send email, make it look like a letter, ask for a response, and sign it at the end.
COMMITTEE BUDGET:
Pat Cummins noted that EPA will give WRAP $2.8 million in FY00 funding. Since the budget is nearly $4 million, forum co-chairs have been working to identify cuts and postponements. Jan will work with Pat Cummins to draft a new budget for the committee, and the co-chairs will send a letter to Pat Cummins to request transfer of money from other parts of our budget to the Speakers Bureau.
LIAISONS:
Jeannine Coward says she checks the calendar on the Web site regularly and notifies liaisons of upcoming meetings. So far, there has been only one meeting we didn't cover. We may need co-liaisons for especially busy committees and forums. For example, we need a state and a private-sector person as additional liaisons for the IOC; Dan Clark volunteered to be the state rep. Liaisons may be able to participate in a meeting by speaker phone, and may need to be assertive with their forum/committee chair in arrangements for it. Jeannine will send email to all liaisons to confirm that they want to continue in their current slots. Liaison names should be added to the Web site roster for each forum and committee.
Cyra Cain will develop a template for monthly reports for each forum/committee, to be drafted and posted by the liaison. The first round of reports should be up by June 15, in order to be available for Web site visitors looking for info regarding the Annex.
SLIDE SHOW:
Dan Clark showed the slide show including a few new slides. Committee members liked the CD version. We expect to offer WRAP 201, when revisions are completed, in several versions--slides, CD, PowerPoint. Barry knows someone who could record the text for the video. It will be up to the Speakers Bureau contractor to ensure that presenters have the most appropriate version for each presentation.
Pat Port suggested we make the video version available in Spanish as well. Barry will contact the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to see if we can find someone to translate the script.
PUBLIC OUTREACH FOR THE ANNEX:
The role of the Communications Committee in outreach for particular issues is to help the forums tell their stories to the public. The Emissions Inventory Work Group and the Economic Analysis Forums have a role in development of the Annex, as well as the Market Trading Forum and the IOC. The role of the Public Advisory Board is developing and evolving.
Ruth McCormick reviewed the formation of the subcommittee formed last fall to assist her in liaison duties. The subcommittee (Liza Daley, Pat Murdo, Kathy Van Dame, Karen Deike, and Jan Miller) have held numerous phone calls with the MTF co-chairs and the project managers to prepare the draft outreach plan for WRAP review. One call included Jim Boyd, co-chair of the Public Advisory Board. Liza noted that ITEP has been alerting tribes that the comment period is coming and encouraging tribal participation in the public meetings.
A variety of ideas were discussed for the public meetings, including the possibility of video-conferencing for the final round of meetings. Al will check on EPA facilities to do this.
Ruth reviewed the schedule prepared by the subcommittee and sent out in WRAP packets as part of the outreach plan. Jan had prepared an alternate schedule after discussion with state participants in WRAP. The main difference is that the alternate schedule shortens the June comment period and lengthens the public comment period for the second round of meetings. The committee adopted the original schedule, believing that is the best time for the public's comments to be incorporated into the Annex. (NOTE: The WRAP adopted the alternate schedule.)
Public notice will be distributed through trade publications, Web sites (ours and those we are linked with), newsletters, local governments, the Federal Register, and the news media, as well as a briefing for the staffs of interested Congressional reps. We need lists of stakeholders to do a targeted mailing. Support staff for the meetings will include two MTF reps, as well as IOC and PAB members. Committee members agreed to work with state staff in arranging and conduction outreach and public meetings:
Wyoming and South Dakota Dan Clark
Colorado Dennis Haddow
Pat Port New Mexico, and can support California
Al Zemsky California
Barry Aarons Arizona
Pat Murdo and Cyra Cain Washington and Idaho
Liza Daley tribal
Jan Miller Utah
Ruth McCormick Congressional briefing
Jeannine Coward/Kathy Augustine Nevada
Dwayne Arino/Ellen Porter Oregon
Since Dwayne and Ellen were unable to attend the meeting, Pat Murdo will call them to be sure they can do this. Jan, Pat Murdo, Pat Port and Ruth McCormick will work out a list of duties for the Communication comm rep and for the state liaison person in setting up and carrying out the public meetings. Ruth will contact Jim Boyd again regarding the role of PAB members in the outreach meetings.
After extended discussion about what to do with the comments, the Committee decided to ask that those submitting extensive comments also submit a summary of 250 words or less, and submit their comments electronically if possible. Those who submit handwritten comments will be asked to be sure they are legible so that we can scan them into a computer. Then we will string all the summaries together and put them on the Web site. Two MTF and 2 Comm Comm members will work on this after the comment period closes; this will probably happen in Salt Lake City. It is likely that members of the Market Trading Forum will want a complete set of all the comments.
Pat Murdo had prepared an op-ed piece but we were not successful in getting WRAP participants to sign it before the WRAP meeting. With some adjustments, it should be useful before the outreach meetings and we will continue to work toward that.
Regarding what we've learned through the subcommittee process; Ruth noted that WGA can set up conference calls, and that it is useful to include the forum co-chairs. Frustrations encountered included missed deadlines which now shorten the comment periods, and the unwillingness of the MTF to allow any advance publicity about interim agreements because they feared the whole process could collapse.
CC REPORT TO THE WRAP:
Barry reviewed the items to be reported to the WRAP.
NEXT MEETING:
There will be a conference call on May 17, and those working with states on the outreach process are likely to have weekly calls through July 1.
OTHER NOTES:
In the words of our co-chair Al Zemsky, carried over into the WRAP meeting, presentations and materials should be "pithy, urbane, and witty." |
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