TELE-WORKSHOP FACT SHEET February 4, 2004 Community Involvement Toolbox: ONLINE HELP FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION SIDEBAR: TELE-WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER Peggy Pings National Park Service Rivers,Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) Speaker Profile: Peggy has worked with the NPS since 1995, managing the RTCA field office in West Virginia. Most of her work involves organizational development of new groups and new projects, public awareness and involvement, action planning, and fundraising. Her projects include rail-trails, water trails, watershed planning, ecotourism planning, state trail planning, open space protection, and heritage tourism. A Wisconsin native, Peggy eventually settled in West Virginia where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture and a master’s degree in Recreation & Park Management from West Virginia University. Peggy contributed to the Toolbox by preparing the initial text for both the “Icebreakers” and "Festivals" tools. As an active volunteer, she sees many uses for the toolbox for a variety of groups. HELP FOR NEW AND EXISTING GROUPS Does your Byway group need organizational fine-tuning? Or maybe you’re revving up for a big event. From creating agendas to planning specific projects, the Community Involvement Toolbox can help. Based on more than 20 years of experience working with the public, the Toolbox was developed as a way for the Rivers,Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) of the National Park Service to assist volunteers, community groups and government organizations in their efforts to conserve rivers, preserve open space, and develop trails and greenways. Peggy Pings, manager of the RTCA’s West Virginia office,introduced the Community Involvement Toolbox to Byway leaders and explained how it might help Byway organizations.“The Community Involvement Toolbox offers guidance for planning your work and a check list for ideas and options.You’ll find new techniques or it might give you a refresher.” Currently, the Web site contains 46 tools organized into nine categories, including decision making, events, gathering people, organizing people, reaching out, visual communication, and written communication. Each tool highlights the information in an easy-to-use format that breaks into specific sections: -- What We Found -- Just The Facts -- How To Do It -- Definition -- Use It If -- Forget It If -- Timing is everything HANDY ONLINE GUIDANCE “The Community Involvement Toolbox is really meant to be a Web tool,” Peggy said.“You can print out sheets if you need to.” The online pages were designed to work best for scrolling down on a computer screen. For example, if you have an idea for your existing group and you know you’ll need community support, you might go to “Decision Making” and click on “Goal Setting.” Then you could start with the quick checklist sections on the right side:“Use It If/Forget It If” to be sure you’re ready for setting goals. If you’re ready,then read the tool from start to finish for a handy overview of the process. Peggy explained that the Community Involvement Toolbox is a work in progress. “These are tools we’ve actually used,” Peggy said.“And there are more to come—-this is just the beginning.” She explained that Evelyn Swimmer started the project with an expansive vision for it. Ms. Swimmer passed away before she could finish. “We’re keeping it going,” Peggy added. MORE ASSISTANCE FROM RTCA As a manager for RTCA, Peggy sees opportunities for Byways to gain assistance from the RTCA staff as well as the Web site. “We work with nonprofit organizations, including tribes, local and state groups,” she said. "We help with public involvement, most often, early on in the development of a plan." Some areas that RTCA might provide guidance include: -- Writing vision statements -- Setting goals -- Developing action plans or work plans -- Identifying stakeholders and partners -- Involving the public -- Working with charettes -- Setting budgets and identifying funding Through the RTCA, your Byway group can learn how to develop, organize and bring the planning pieces together. “We have a network of colleagues around the country and about 65 staff that bring their resources together,” explained Peggy.“Our staff can help advise how to get started on a project, provide technical assistance, or help plan an event, to name a few examples. However, we have a limited number of NPS people and staff time, so there is a competition to be selected and we do have criteria to meet.We prefer to work with complex projects that cross political boundaries or involve multi-state partnerships.” For Byways, it’s important to remember that RTCA focuses on recreation as a way of reaching conservation goals. Projects devoted to helping people understand a resource and discover ways to learn to love it and protect it via outdoor resources and activities are more likely to receive assistance from RTCA.RTCA typically works with a group for a specified amount of time, such as one month to three months, spread out over six months to two years, depending on the nature of the project. Peggy also noted that all requests should be submitted by July. To find the RTCA representative in your area: 1. Go to the Web site for information: www.nps.gov/rtca 2. Click on “Contact Us” 3. Click on your state’s region and see the staff for your state “I encourage you to find your NPS-RTCA representative and arrange for a free consultation or perhaps site-level assistance meetings,” said Peggy.“If we’re asked,we can assist you.” Whether you choose to go online to the Community Involvement Toolbox or speak to a representative directly,your Byway can tap into RTCA and get a jump-start on your plans. PHOTO (sample windows): This collection of techniques can help you get organized to turn your vision into reality. -- from the Community Toolbox Introduction Online. Q & A Q. We’ve been working on creating a vision statement. We’re not sure if our vision statement is for the byway or for ourselves. Should we look to inspire the public or inspire our volunteer group? PEGGY: You can have different visions for different layers. What does the resource look like down the road? What does the organization look like then? As long as the visions work to help guide you to achieving your mission, then you may have more than one. Q. Walk us through how the “Vision Creating” tool under the “Decision Making” section can help us build a broad membership. PEGGY: This tool helps you move through the process of creating a vision statement.As you see under “What We’ve Found,” it helps to have broad interest.“How To Do It” starts with “Gather The Players.” You want to bring the key stakeholders together. Who are they? Think of anyone affected by the project, regardless if they support it or object to it.You can create a task force of members from groups that represent those diverse interests. It works best initially as an invitational meeting rather than an open public meeting. If it’s a controversial environment, the meeting may be more manageable when you have a facilitator.This part of the Toolbox also touches on flip charts, sticky boards, and other ways to gather input from the stakeholders, as well as ways to sort the answers, prioritize and organize responses efficiently. Q. If a region covers 200 miles with a lot of diversity, does that make the vision creating more complicated or does it make it more representative? PEGGY: It is complicated.That’s why a facilitator is helpful. But you want it to be representative. So the answer is “yes” to both questions. You may want to divide the region into workable pieces. Each section would hold a meeting specific to that part of their vision creating. Q. We’ve found that our rural areas are suspicious of federal government involvement.We’ve held public meetings, but it’s anyone’s guess if we’ll encounter vocal opposition. Are there exercises or specific suggestions for handling big groups or ways to organize these meetings? PEGGY: Take a look at “Gatherings” and the “Open Space” tool.This is an open-ended way to let people introduce topics they want to discuss.The tool explains how to create a “Marketplace of Ideas” and highlights ways for interested people to lead break-out discussions.You’ll need a leader or facilitator.The facilitator provides ground rules and invites dialog.The topic leaders pose general questions like “What is this thing we call a byway?” Or,“How does this byway affect my business?” There are no wrong answers, so the process helps to get everyone to understand the differences, feelings and interests involved.Think of Steven Covey’s advice in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, then seek to be understood.” That’s the premise of Open Space. Q.Tell us more about stakeholders and partners. PEGGY: Identifying your stakeholders and partners is important to do when you first get started. But it’s never too late. There are many reasons to speak to stakeholders. They’re your ears and eyes to your corridor.They can give you directions or cautions about the community. Look under the “Collecting Information” tool and the “Stakeholder Analysis” section. A stakeholder is anyone with a vested interested in your proposal.You can develop your stakeholders’ roles by involving them on steering committees, work groups, etc. Partners are any organizations or agencies that are actively supporting the project with work time, funding or other measurable forms of support. Partners are stakeholders by definition, but not all stakeholders need to be partners. RESOURCES: Community Involvement Toolbox www.nps.gov/phso/rtcatoolbox/index_ comtoolbox.htm Rivers,Trails & Conservation Assistance National Park Service www.nps.gov/rtca National Office: (202) 354-6900 Peggy Pings Northeast Region,West Virginia Office Rivers,Trails & Conservation Assistance National Park Service c/o West Virginia University Division of Forestry P.O. Box 6125 Morgantown,WV 26506-6125 mpings@wvu.edu Phone (304) 293-2941 ext. 2446 Fax (304) 293-2441 Toolbox Summary The Toolbox was presented at the Joint Ventures: Partnerships in Stewardship Conference in November 2003. A summary is presented online: www.partnerships2003.org/session_reports/ 046.htm America’s Byways Resource Center provides information, connections and expertise that help build better byways. State coordinators, local groups, volunteers and organizations with ties to nationally designated scenic Byways look to us for hands-on assistance in planning, preserving, promoting and managing scenic Byways. 2004 BYWAY LEADER TELE-WORKSHOPS Please join us for the next 2004 Byway Leader Tele-Workshop: April 7 Byway Accessibility Janet Zeller, USDA Forest Service 2003 FACT SHEETS For copies of past Byway Leader Tele-Workshop Fact Sheets, visit www.bywaysonline.org or e-mail your request to center@byways.org February 5 Byway Integrity: Preliminary Patterns and Prospects William J. Kelley, Eastern Washington University April 2 National Heritage Areas Program and How it Affects Byways Brenda Barrett, National Heritage Areas Program Daniel M. Rice, Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor June 13 Marketing Research: Capturing Your Customer’s View: A User-Friendly Guide to Tourism Research Judy Randall, Randall Travel Marketing October 8 Messages & Materials: Planning Successful Interpretive Signs Richard F. Ostergaard, USDA Forest Service December 3 Preserving Our Treasured Places: Guidelines for Managing Visual Quality on America’s Byways Meg Maguire, Scenic America America’s Byways Resource Center 227 West First Street, Suite 610 Duluth, MN 55802 Tel: 218-625-3469 Fax: 218-625-3333 1-800-4BYWAYS (1-800-429-9297) Ext. 5 www.byways.org copyright 2004 America’s Byways Resource Center