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Manuals and Guides: Environment

Protecting Your Groundwater, continued
Educating for Action

Manual Index

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Researching and Developing information
Chapter 3: Development and Distribution of Materials
Chapter 4: Public Meetings, Forums and Workshops
Chapter 5: Publicity
Chapter 6: Fundraising
Chapter 7: Keeping It Going

Case Study 1: Well Survey Builds Commitment to Groundwater
Case Study 2: "Training the Trainers" Keeps Protection Efforts Moving
Case Study 3: Video Illuminates Major Groundwater Issues in County
Case Study 4: Building Coalitions Across County Lines

Appendix A: League Community Groundwater Education Projects
Appendix B: Sources of Groundwater Contamination
Appendix C: Data Collection Form: General Roles/Duties/Authorities
Appendix D: Data Collection Form: Local/State/Federal Management Status
Appendix E: Resources

Contents

Chapter 4: Public Meetings, Forums and Workshops
Chapter 5: Publicity
Chapter 6: Fundraising
Chapter 7: Keeping It Going

Chapter 4: Public Meetings, Forums and Workshops

Holding a public meeting or giving a presentation at another organization's meeting can be an extremely effective way to provide information on groundwater issues in general and the local situation in particular, and especially to encourage the exchange of ideas between and among public officials and residents. Public meetings give people the opportunity to meet each other, establish common ground, and build or strengthen coalitions. Small meetings or discussion groups provide an opportunity to explore basic issues perhaps with the aid of a groundwater flow model and to focus on questions. Larger meetings with public officials and agency staff charged with groundwater management allow the public to hear directly from the decision makers and can demonstrate to public officials the strength of community interest and concern.

Tips for Organizing a Forum or Conference

Content/Format:

Choose a format that is lively but doesn't intensify opposition. Incorporate active participation into whatever format you choose.
Choose a focus and stick with it; don't try to cover too much too fast.
Choose your audience—is it policy makers? the public? both?
Put the basics in a handout provided to meeting participants.
Follow up—offer your audience an avenue for further participation.
Keep a mailing list for future use and add the names of those who attend your event.

Promotion:

Send meeting announcements and invitations to print and broadcast news media radio and television talk shows, government agencies, elected officials, water purveyors, high school and college science and public policy departments, environmental organizations, chambers of commerce, homeowners associations and realtors.
Make a spokesperson available to the media for interviews.
Post flyers and posters on public bulletin boards of libraries, city and county offices, stores and colleges. Ask local businesses to display a poster in their office or shop window. Reach out to all segments of the community, especially to groups traditionally underrepresented at public meetings.
Work with a local television station to tape and broadcast the forum, or tape it yourself for broadcast on public access cable.

An offer of free water testing generated a strong turnout at a Montgomery County, Virginia meeting on groundwater quality sponsored by the county Cooperative Extension. To get a free test, residents were required to attend an hour-long presentation and discussion on groundwater issues, where they picked up test kits. To pick up results, residents were required to attend a second meeting explaining test results and providing follow-up to the first meeting. The Montgomery County LWV organized the second meeting and provided assistance in receiving samples.

Discussion Groups

A member of your organizing committee might give a presentation or lead a discussion, or you might invite a guest lecturer from a nearby university, related industry, government office or concerned citizen group to address your audience.

Discussions should be designed to cover more than simply the pros and cons of an issue. Your goal should be to create an interactive dialogue that requires participants to grapple with the conflicts and tradeoffs inherent in adopting groundwater protection measures. To accomplish this goal, it helps to prepare discussion questions in advance and to consider having a moderator. One way to introduce a discussion topic is to show a video or slide show at the beginning of the meeting. To create a more lively and objective program, you might arrange for several people to give presentations or include role playing or skits in the program. If you want to cover more ground, consider sponsoring a series of discussion groups on groundwater issues.

Conferences

A discussion of groundwater management issues can easily be adapted to an all-day event. By expanding some of the ideas above, you can organize a successful conference.

To keep your audience interested, develop a diverse agenda by combining different activities—plenary sessions, panel discussions, small group discussions, audiovisuals and workshops or other hands-on activities. Also provide for informal "networking" times such as cocktail hours or breakfasts, to give participants time to learn from others and share experiences and information.

Workshops

A hands-on training session can be used to provide information, tools and motivation on a specific issue. Workshops should be structured, but they can be less formal than conferences or discussions groups. A good workshop is planned around three basic elements. First, present a clear and simple overview of the issue, covering only four or five major points. Use the workshop to help participants understand a complex issue and provide time for discussion and exploration. Second, provide tools that help individuals organize their thoughts and facts about an issue. Include educational tools to provide a conceptual framework, and then introduce research materials (e.g., study resources, reading lists, issue briefs) and techniques for taking action (e.g., how to contact organizations working on the issue, receive issue-related mailings/publications, be appointed to a water management task force/committee). And third, give the participants a sense that they can take action on an issue they believe is important, and motivate them to do so.

Groundwater protection issues can be presented in a pamphlet to use in conjunction with meetings or conferences, in a factsheet to inform voters in a community considering groundwater related legislation, or in an article or special pull-out section in the local newspaper.

Publications and Audiovisuals

Audiovisuals such as videos and slide shows also are excellent educational tools. To reach a larger audience consider discussing your topic on a radio show or television program. Local stations often are interested in good objective presentations on community issues.

Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau can add continuity and professionilism to your education project. A roster of individuals well versed on specific groundwater issues in your area or with general knowledge on groundwater issues complemented by grassroots experience creates a resource for others to draw on. A speakers bureau can help increase your organization's visibility and provide a valuable resource to the community.

Event Timeline

Organizing an event requires careful planning and substantial time. This general timeline can help you begin planning a conference or other large-scale event. You should begin your planning a year in advance if possible.

Months 1-7 :

Form a committee for the event. Consider creating subcommittees to handle specific tasks.
Decide on the event theme.
Begin fundraising.

Month 8:

Secure all funding.

Month 9:

Design preliminary framework of the event (issues to cover, types of sessions/activities, initial time schedule).
Set event dates.
Choose event site and sign contract if necessary.
Begin to contact and confirm speakers.
Refine/finalize conference agenda.

Month 10:

Send preliminary information about the event to invitees and the media (flyers, invitations, publicity). You may choose to do this after all the speakers are confirmed.
Set registration deadline and send registration packets/flyers to invitees.
Begin to collect materials to distribute to participants and videos to show.

Month 11:

Recruit volunteers to help with the event (registration, supplies, handling special requests and emergencies).
Confirm number of hotel reservations if necessary.
Distribute advance news releases with a contact phone number.
Confirm all speakers and send confirmation letters with event information and specific information for the speaker (speech topic, time and location of presentation and hotel arrangements if necessary).

Month 12:

Put together event packets (event agenda, floor plan, list of participants, speakers' biographies, conference evaluation form, nametag, expense voucher, transportation and local entertainment information).
Make additional hotel, travel and meal arrangements if necessary.
Arrange for other services as needed (audiovisual equipment, supplies, taping/recording of conference).
Contact the news media immediately before the event to reconfirm the time and location of the event.
Enjoy your event!

Follow-up

Reimburse participants for expenses if necessary.
Pay honoraria and other speaker-related expenses (hotel, meals, transportation, incidentals).
Make arrangements to reproduce tapes of event for interested participants.
Complete event evaluation and summary (try to get evaluation forms from participants before event ends).
Complete and send final report (narrative and financial statements) to funders and sponsoring organizations.
Publish report or findings of conference.

Chapter 5: Publicity

Getting the word out effectively can be critical to the success of your project. The more professional and organized your group is when working with the media, the more respect—and coverage—you will receive. To achieve this goal, it is a good idea to select both a designated spokesperson and a media coordinator for your project. Begin advance publicity as soon as you have set the dates and location of an event.

Use news releases, calendar listings, newsletters, press conferences, interviews and public service announcements (PSAs) to promote your event. Here are a few guidelines.

Tips for Writing a Successful News Release:

Include who, what, when, where, why (and sometimes how) in the first paragraph. Make the verbs active and the subject concrete. Cover the most important facts first and follow with details. Do not editorialize.
Give the press release a catchy title.
Be sure to include a contact name and telephone number(s), both day and evening.
Include the date of your release in upper left hand corner and write "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE."
Proofread everything at least twice.
Try to limit your release to one page.
At the bottom of the first page write "more" if necessary. Otherwise, write "end," or use the symbol "###" or "30."
Send news releases to your key media contacts and to those responsible for making editorial decisions.
Hand-delivering press releases, especially at the beginning of your organizing effort, can afford opportunities to meet media contacts.
After distributing your release, make follow-up calls to specific reporters to see if it has been received, if the paper or station will run the story, and if they plan to send a reporter to the event. Try to make calls to newspapers at their most convenient time, after their press time.

Tips for Compiling a Media List:

Include all major daily and weekly newspapers in your area. Include African American, Latino and other minority or ethnic dailies or weeklies, as well as college, university, neighborhood and small community newspapers, and church bulletins.
Include state or local specialty publications that might be interested in your project, such as natural resources and public health agency newsletters.
Include television and radio stations with news and current event talk shows or environmental/natural resources programs. For broadcast news shows, send releases to the specific reporter covering your issue (or to the senior producer for smaller stations). For talk shows, send releases to the producer. Target drive-time early morning talk shows or late afternoon/rush hour shows.
Include civic associations, service clubs, business organizations, and any other organizations that might be interested in listing your project in their own publication or newsletter.
Include the reporter in charge of newspaper community calendars. Nonprofits often get free listings in such calendars.
Review Broadcasting Yearbook, Editor and Publisher Yearbook, PBI Media Services, Bacon's or Gebbies at your local library for additional contacts.

Tips for Writing and Submitting an Op-Ed:

Monitor your paper's op-ed page (opposite the editorial) to see what kind of opinion pieces they publish. If a paper recently ran a piece questioning the need for a groundwater management plan or land-use zoning, for example, you might be successful in placing a "taking exception" piece.
Find out newspapers' length specifications for op-eds, and the name and fax number or address of op-ed editors.
Work to capture the reader's attention in the first sentence of your op-ed. Try giving a strong local focus, so the reader can relate quickly and easily to your message.
Print the op-ed on your organization's stationery, signed by your spokesperson. Name recognition will increase the chance that the paper will print it.
Send the op-ed with a cover letter and background information on your groundwater project to the op-ed editor. Include your business card with both home and work numbers. Make a follow-up call a day or two after they have received it to ask if they intend to print it. If they do, find out when. Reproduce copies and distribute widely.

Sample of League successes

These League efforts illustrate some of the possibilities:

Prominent coverage in several local papers helped generate a strong turnout for the public meeting launching the LWV of West Bay, Rhode Island's groundwater project. The West Bay League cultivated media interest by keeping in regular contact with local reporters, starting with the project's first press release announcing the project grant. Where possible, project representatives contacted reporters they knew from working on previous environmental projects. The project manager and other representatives arranged meetings with local media representatives to talk about the groundwater project, and project representatives followed up all press releases with telephone calls.

The LWVs of Dare County, North Carolina, West Bay, Rhode Island and the state LWV of Louisiana included media professionals on the panels of their public forums. Experienced environmental reporters can contribute broad-based expertise to a panel—and increase your chances of media coverage.

The Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Daily Journal carried a front-page story on the attendance of a local groundwater project comanager at an LWVEF-sponsored conference in San Antonio, Texas. The story reported on conference highlights as well as the local groundwater project's goals and work in cooperation with statewide agencies on groundwater protection.

The Letters-to-the-Editor section of the local paper provided a forum for the manager of the LWV of Volusia County, Florida groundwater project to report on the San Antonio workshop and the importance of groundwater protection in Volusia County, and to provide an update on the League's project that supplemented earlier news coverage.

Chapter 6: Fundraising

Although a lot can be accomplished with little, at some point you may want to raise money for your groundwater project. Government agencies, corporations, water utilities and foundations are potential sources of funding. It's up to you to convince funders that your group—rather than the many others soliciting their assistance—will make the best use of their resources. Following some basic guidelines will help you to succeed.

Prepare!

Target your search on agencies or organizations interested in your project's subject area—water resources or environmental protection work, for example. Some funders are quite specific about the types of projects they will support. This and other important information is available in the directories listed below.

In most cases, funders will require a written proposal describing your project's goals and your plan for meeting those goals. Your proposal should be well organized and demonstrate that the project has been well thought out. Find out the funder's requirements and deadlines for submitting funding proposals. Some, for example, may have a quarterly funding cycle while others may accept proposals only once a year. Some funding sources need significant time after a proposal is submitted to reach a decision. You need not limit your search to organizations that can fund the entire project; consider partial funding from several sources.

Possible Contributors:

Government agencies

Federal: Federal agencies are listed in The Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance. Once you decide which agencies to approach, contact them for additional information or check The Federal Register for the agency's regulations and guidelines. Both the Catalogue and the Register are available at most libraries.
State/County/Local: Some agencies, such as state departments of environmental quality or county departments of public health, may be interested in funding a project or working with you in a cooperative program on groundwater education.

The San Antonio Area-San Marcos Area project applied for and received matching funds from the Edwards Underground Water District, a regional organization created by the state legislature. The funds were used to supplement costs of an extended mailing, to cover the costs of their forum's television program/video products, and to provide a buffet lunch for all participants of the forum.

The LWV of Salt Lake is continuing to work on water quality in Salt Lake Valley with a grant from the regional office of EPA. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality also has provided a grant to enable the League to organize a county-wide wellhead survey.

Corporations and local businesses

Lists of corporations can be obtained from your chamber of commerce, the Middle Market Directory or the Million Dollar Directory, both published by Dun and Bradstreet (99 Church Street, New York, NY 10007, or check your library). Start with corporations close to home; ask your members and board about personal or business contacts with officers of local corporations and small businesses for insight into what motivates them to donate funds.
Corporations that have contributed previously to your organization are a good place to start, but don't stop there. Keep your eyes open for corporations whose profits have increased or who want to improve their community image: they may be looking for an opportunity to invest in community education. General information about a corporation can be found in its annual report; call its public relations office to request a copy.

Foundations

A foundation administers an endowment or fund that has been established to finance charitable, research or educational projects. They range from small family foundations to billion dollar institutions, and all have different goals, scope, geographic restrictions, qualifications and procedures.

Sources of information

Environmental Grantmaking Foundations Directory, published by Environmental Data Research Institute, 1655 Elmwood Avenue, Suite 225, Rochester, NY 14620, 800-7241857 or 716-473-3090; fax: 716-473-0968; may be available at larger university libraries.
Foundation Directory, at your local library
Foundation Center National Data Book, published by the Foundation Center
The Foundation Center (New York and District of Columbia) has 130 regional centers, to locate the one nearest you, call 800-424-9836
Smaller foundations are listed in America's Hidden Philanthropic Wealth published by the Taft Group, 835 Penobscot Building, Detroit, MI 48226. 800-877-8238 ($69.95).
State foundation directories are published for nearly 40 states and are listed in the introduction to the Foundation Center National Data Book.
Community foundations; ask your chamber of commerce if there is one in you area.
City libraries usually maintain a section offering directories of foundations and other fundraising information.
The League of Women Voters of Texas has produced a fundraising guide, Capital Ideas: Fundraising Tips for Local Leagues, 1993. Available from the LWV of Texas, 1212 Guadeloupe, Suite 107, Austin, TX 78701. 512-472-1100; $4.50 plus $1.75 for shipping.

In-Kind Contributions

Money is not the only thing that can help get your project off the ground. Don't forget about possible in-kind contributions such as rooms, equipment, food, printing and labor.

The LWV of Rockford received in-kind contributions from a local television station to produce its video, Groundwater Protection in Winnebago County. The station donated equipment, staff time and expertise.

A contribution of 2,500 folders from the local power company enabled the LWV of Volusia County to compile groundwater education kits for distribution throughout the county.

The LWV of Dare County obtained no-fee services of speakers from government, universities and industries who traveled some distance as part of their public outreach. Most were covered by their employer's expense accounts or per diems. Working in cooperation with other organizations, the Dare County League was able to use the other groups' nonprofit postal permits for combined mailings.

For more information, check your local library or bookstore for reference materials on fundraising.

Chapter 7: Keeping it Going

Once your groundwater project is under way, how do you keep the momentum? Motivating citizens and public officials to support and implement a wellhead protection plan or land use zoning to protect the aquifer probably won't happen overnight. And even the most expertly crafted protection regulations will need the continuing understanding and commitment of the community to be successfully implemented and sustained. Rapid development is one of the most serious threats to groundwater supplies—not only because of the physical impacts that additional people, housing and industry will have on groundwater resources, but also because the newcomers simply might not understand the need to protect the local aquifer. They will need to be informed. Also, the absence of a groundwater catastrophe may lead to complacency among long-time residents, as well. As your project builds public support to protect your ground water, be thinking about ways to maintain that support. Here are some ideas:

Build networks with other organizations in your own community and around the country who are working on groundwater. Working in coalition with other local groups can bring new energy, perspectives and ideas to your project.
Work in coalition with government agencies such as the county planning department, public health department, local USDA extension agents and regional offices of your state environmental protection agency.
Develop leadership skills among project participants to help today's leaders avoid burnout and "pass the torch" to new leaders tomorrow.
Keep in touch with groups around the country that share your groundwater concerns. Activities in other areas will give you good ideas, and your project's successes will help to inspire them. Sharing news of setbacks also can help stimulate ideas around a current impasse or perhaps help others avoid certain problems. During the LWVEF's groundwater project, periodic conference calls among project managers across the country proved to be invaluable opportunities for sharing information and ideas. Over time, network contacts can help sustain your sense of purpose.
Hold an annual event, such as "groundwater awareness day," to help renew interest and focus on your region's groundwater resources.
Develop groundwater curricula for local high schools, to build awareness and help instill a sense of responsibility among the community's future voters, leaders and activists. The LWV of Athens County, Ohio worked with schools and the local Soil and Water Conservation District to develop water curricula for school land labs. The LWV of West Bay, Rhode Island donated books on groundwater to each of the region's high schools. The Northern Illinois Regional Groundwater Protection Planning Committee purchased copies of the Rockford, Illinois League's video, Groundwater Protection in Winnebago County, for each of the high schools in the county.
Contact faculty in environmental or local government fields at a nearby college to find students who will work with you as interns or to set up a class or independent study project that will help you.

Manual Index