|
Fwd: Bleiker November 6th Brownbag Session
|
wpbu-@aol.com
|
Oct 28, 2009 20:55 PST
|
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans, Annemarie & Jennifer Bleiker of IPMP <blei-@consentbuilding.ipmp.com>
To: Wpbu-@aol.com
Sent: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 8:48 pm
Subject: Bleiker November 6th Brownbag Session
Dear Friends,
In just a matter of days (Friday, Nov. 6th) we are going to hold our second Telephone-Conference Brownbag session. Like the last one, it will start at 12:00pm Rocky Mountain Time, and last 90 minutes. The topic for this session is:
"Politics!" . . . vs. Technical/Scientific Issues, and What You - the Technical Staff -- Can Do About It
And here is what it's all about:
One of the more interesting places where science and politics interact is in the decision-making of public agencies staffed primarily by planners, engineers, scientists, and analysts in other fields of technical expertise. It's the nature of these agencies' missions that requires them to do their problem-solving in a rigorously objective, even scientific way. One frustration we hear from the planners on the ground all the time - from their technical analysts as well as from their community outreach experts - is the following:
. "Our agency's mission is of a technical/scientific nature. We're responsible for addressing problems that require objective, dispassionate, factual -- even scientific -- analysis and decisions. That's why we, the professionals working in this organization, have to base our recommendations on data, . . . valid, factual, objective data. To do anything less would be irresponsible and unprofessional.
. "The trouble is, we - i.e. the technically qualified experts - don't get to make the policy decisions . . . We only get to make recommendations to the politically appointed and/or elected decision-makers; they get to make policy.
. "The advice we give our decision-makers is expert-advice; it is based on our technical/scientific expertise. They, however, don't have professional expertise in our field, the field about which they get to make policy decisions. And, thus, their decisions ultimately are based more on subjective and/or political considerations than on the objective, factual, technical data that are the basis of our recommendations.
. "That's why they often ignore our technical recommendations. When that happens, we and our agency fail in our mission.
. "We could get our mission accomplished a heck of a lot better, if someone could get "politics" out of our hair! . . . out of our problem-solving / decision-making process."
In this brownbag session we'll show you that you, as a planner, need not throw up your hands in the face of politics. . . . You can be effective in spite of the fact that your technical public agency operates - and will always operate -- in a political decision-making environment.
After all, your mission . . . should you accept it, is to get your analytically derived plan through the political decision-making process.
We are doing these monthly Telephone-Conference brownbag sessions in response to those of you who have - for years - asked us to offer some simple, inexpensive opportunity to continue to improve your Consent-Building skills in an on-going way. The first one - held the first Friday of October - was quite a success. Former SDIC and CPO students from local, state, and federal agencies participated. We have scheduled session topics for the next 12 months; each one of them addresses a specific category of Citizen Participation challenges that you folks keep reminding us of . . . So, we trying to be useful . . .
The Caruso Group handles all the technical aspects, logistics, and registration for these monthly conference calls. The cost is $179 per hook-up. We suggest you get as many people as you have who are interested in the session topic to gather around your conference phone, get out your lunch or mug of coffee and cerebrate (not celebrate) with us.
To register, go to the Caruso website: https://www.assnoffice.com/IPMP/ipmp-brochure.html They've been known to sign people up, and connect them to the call, right up to the last minute.
While these Brownbag sessions are designed to be helpful, they're no substitute for the real thing: SDIC Training!!! . . . Send team members who have not had the benefit of the 3-day course to our upcoming Open SDIC courses:
Monterey, CA: Jan. 20-22,2010
Kansas City, MO: Apr. 6-8, 2010
Golden, CO: May 25-27, 2010
Check our website www.ipmp.com for details.
Hope to see you at the Brownbag session!
Hans, Annemarie, and Jennifer Bleiker
This e-mail was sent by ipmp, located at 36 Cielo Vista Drive, Monterey, CA 93940 (USA). To receive no further e-mails, please click here or reply to this e-mail with "unlist" in the Subject line.
=
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
|
|
 |
|
