Find
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Researching Potential Partners
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Investigate existing partnerships (research
organizational directories, similar projects, etc.). Directories
of existing partners, organizations, and government entities;
media; universities; and Internet are just some sources of potential
partners. Meet with potential partners to determine their level
of interest and ask them to identify still more potential groups.
Work with grant writers and funding experts in these groups
to find funding sources (e.g., public and private grants, cost
sharing, and cooperative agreements). |
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Spreading the Word
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Once you have found or founded a partnership,
explain the importance of inviting everyone; then ask
for help to identify potential partners.
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Workable solutions need local participation.
Turn to experts in Reclamation (public affairs, public involvement,
etc.) to identify avenues of communication. Get articles in
local papers and contact local groups to find participants who
know the particular area and can help identify who should/could
be involved. Legislative representatives from that district
may also help. Places to find out about partnerships include:
- Reclamation Ecosystem Partnership Coordinator
- National partnership council
- International organizations
- Department of Local Affairs, State Planning Coordination
- Environmental groups
- Water districts
- Agricultural, mining, and commercial groups
- Neighborhood groups
- Consultants
- Partnership guides
- WWW sites:
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Inviting Participation
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Getting the commitments needed for money,
resources, staff, and data (both internally and externally)
may be difficult. Decisionmakers and others have to understand
the issues and their importance before sharing resources. Ways
to involve people include:
- Expanded assumptions.
- Talk to participants as equals. Don't assume that their
assumptions are set in stone or even that they have a set
of assumptions about the activity. Groups you see as adversaries
may be potential partners.
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- Common ground.
- Find something that potential participants can all agree
on. This will focus the study, give people something concrete
to work on, think about, and get excited about solving.
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- Worth the risk.
- People risk personal or organizational credibility if
the process fails. Understand these risks, paint a realistic
picture, and explain why you think it is still worth their
risk.
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- Show-me.
- Bring them out to see the problem first hand. Working
a site or officevisit into their travel schedule provides
a concrete idea of what you are trying to do.
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- Mission.
- Find their valuesand motivate through
talking informally and looking at their other activities.
Either demonstrate how your solution fits within their agenda
or look elsewhere for commitments.
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- Involvement.
- Get them personally involved. If you send something up
to them, it's just another idea. If they develop the idea,
they have ownership in it. Have them make suggestions on what
to do about the problem and act on those suggestions.
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- Other pressures.
- Look at the potential partners' other pressures and priorities
to understand their positions. These could include pressure
from strong State water resource agencies, public outcries,
and lobbying efforts from organizations and groups. Developing
an ongoing rapport with these organizations will help you
coordinate efforts to work within those pressures.
Once participants agree that action would be a good idea,
meet with everyone (either individually or all at once depending
on the scope and complexity of the action). Clearly lay out
what you will do and ask what they will do. (If they won't commit
to an action, try for a letter of principle saying that they
support your effort, that your agenda is consistent with their
agenda.) Make sure, however, that there is a reason for partners
to be involved. Forcing groups to work together when it will
not help solve the problem will merely destroy the process.
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Go On |
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