Formulate an Agenda for Stakeholders. As part of setting the goals for the Stakeholder Involvement Program, it is important to define the roles of the participants. Any individual or group that feels they have a useful contribution to make to the development and implementation of the water resource management plan should have an opportunity to do so. This does not guarantee that there will not be conflict over issues, but it does help to ensure that what conflict may take place will be over the real issues that have to be resolved, rather than over the question of whether an honest intent to resolve them is the real objective of the stakeholder involvement program. Unless the stakeholder's role is clearly defined, there is an increased chance for tensions to arise. It is important to stress that the sooner their concerns are made known, the more likely they can be accommodated. It also must be made clear at the outset that the final decisions for the water resources management plan rests with the county. Data Gathering After the key stakeholders are identified, we will develop a set of questions and discussion topics that will be used as a foundation at the next stakeholder meeting. The questionnaire will serve to capture concerns, issues, interests, objectives, and willingness to participate. The questionnaire will be administered in the form of a mail survey as well as in HTML format for posting on the County's web page. After the questionnaires are returned, follow-up focus group interviews with like-minded stakeholders will be conducted to establish a baseline of knowledge on the project and to identify common interests and potential concerns. It is important to document their attitudes, perceptions, interest in participation, communication channels, and level of knowledge on the water resource management issues.
Formulate an Agenda for Stakeholders. As part of setting the goals for the Involvement Process, it is important to define the roles of the participants. Any individual or group that feels they have a useful contribution to make to the development and implementation of the water resource management plan should have an opportunity to do so. This does not guarantee that there will not be conflict over issues, but it does help to ensure that what conflict may take place will be over the real issues that have to be resolved, rather than over the question of whether an honest intent to resolve them is the real objective of the Involvement Process. Unless the Stakeholder’s role is clearly defined, there is an increased chance for tensions to arise. It is important to stress that the sooner their concerns are made known, the more likely they can be accommodated. It also must be made clear at the outset that the final decisions for the water resources management plan rests with the county.
