Bigger, Better, Bolder: Re-Inventing IAP2 USA as a Change Agent for Public Participation in the United States
Tim Bonnemann serves as a member of the Board at IAP2 USA, the International Association for Public Participation in the United States. 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of IAP2; a good time to both reflect on the past and look ahead at what’s next. The following is his take on IAP2 USA’s future potential and how to realize it. These views are his own.
Public participation, the process by which an organization consults with interested or affected individuals, organizations, and government entities before making a decision, has been around for many decades. It’s an important governance innovation built on the idea that public decision making can produce better results if citizens, residents or other stakeholders are adequately involved.
While there are early examples of public participation in urban planning that go back over a century, public participation in the United States saw a major boost in the 1960s and 1970s, when new regulations were implemented that made involving the public a requirement for most environmental planning and rulemaking processes.
Today, public participation — also sometimes referred to as public involvement, community involvement, or stakeholder engagement — happens at the state and local level to varying degrees and is being applied across a wide range of policy areas: planning, land use, transportation, schools, budgets etc.
In recent years, public participation has seen a renewed focus at the federal level thanks to the Obama administration’s Open Government efforts.
The profession of public participation is younger. In the late 1980s, an international group of early adopters and innovators realized the need for quality standards and best practices. Like many of their colleagues today, these public participation practitioners were extremely dedicated to their work. So dedicated, in fact, they cared enough to start a professional membership association to help convene the emerging community of practice and provide a space for mutual support, exchange of ideas and shared learning. And so in 1990, the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) was born.
IAP2's list of achievements for the practice of public participation and the larger fields of civic engagement and participatory democracy as a whole is significant. Over the years, the organization has
- connected thousands of practitioners in Canada, Australia, the United States and other countries around the globe,
- developed what is quite possibly the most robust conceptual framework for public participation to this day (consisting of a set of core values, a code of ethics, and the renowned Spectrum),
- touched several thousand people through its in-depth training program, and
- advocated for public participation at all levels of government.
The original founders’ goal was to raise the bar significantly, and in that, they succeeded.
As part of a restructuring in 2010 that aimed to bring IAP2 closer to its members around the world, IAP2 USA was launched as one of several national affiliates of IAP2. The transition phase, while challenging at times, has since been successfully completed. With membership on the rise, a whole host of new programs and services rolling out or under development, and an all around very energizing 2015 North American Conference freshly under its belt, the organization is ready to take on new challenges — time to start thinking about the next quarter century!
Driven by the continued support of many, many hard working volunteers, IAP2 USA has undoubtedly accomplished a good number of successes and incremental improvements over the past five years. However, many structural challenges remain. These legacy issues will have to be addressed at some point if the organization hopes to stay relevant and maintain its ability to serve its members and the field and accomplish its goals as best as possible.
Below I outline ten paradigm shifts I believe the organization must embrace at this juncture. In essence, we need to overcome the cultural barriers and outdated organizational structures of the 1990s and re-invent IAP2 USA as a high-velocity, high-impact 21st century non-profit that’s truly fit to advance public participation in the United States. Time to raise the bar yet once again.
1. Aim high
We need to put forward a bold, compelling vision for public participation in the United States. And, we need to clearly articulate what role we want IAP2 USA and its friends and partners to play as we work together towards building this future.
IAP2's first core value states:
Public participation is based on the belief that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process.
Going forward, our goal should be to turn aspiration into reality and establish public participation in the United States as a core building block to good governance and healthy communities — a process whose application is increasingly the norm, not the exception.
Historically, IAP2 has focused mostly on supporting public participation practitioners and encouraging excellence in the practice. That remains critically important, obviously, and there’s a lot more we can do to reach new audiences and provide better opportunities for practitioners at all levels to grow professionally.
However, addressing the supply side alone isn’t enough. What good is a network of highly-skilled practitioners if the projects that require their expertise never materialize in the first place? We need to put serious effort behind improving the demand side of public participation, too.
That means we need to create the conditions under which public participation can flourish. First and foremost, it requires bringing the deciders on board who have it in their hands if and to what extent public participation is implemented. Public participation costs time, energy and money. We need to make the case that it’s worth the investment.
Let’s make it our declared purpose to change the country’s overall landscape in favor of more and better public participation. And in order to be successful in this ambitious undertaking, it’s critical that we begin to think and act at scale.
2. Build a national footprint
For a number of reasons, IAP2 in the United States never managed to grow beyond a few hundred members. In many ways, it remains a regional organization with a concentration of members and active local chapters in the western parts of the country.
Given the need for high-quality public participation in places across the entire country, this situation is simply not acceptable. Over the next few years, we need to build a national footprint. This means taking a much more pro-active stance than in the past and investing in the launch and development of local hubs that will allow us to be physically present in all 50 states, in all major metro regions, and in all major cities.
If we want to improve public decision making processes at scale, we need to get much closer to where these decisions are being made. We need to be close to where the majority of the population lives.
3. Bigger is better
Since its launch five years ago, IAP2 USA membership has hovered at around 500 to 700 people, give or take. For a professional association, whose members’ primary interests are continued professional development and the opportunity for peer-to-peer networking, this is an unfortunate size.
There are many reasons why we’d be far better off if we could operate on top of a much larger network of people, be they members or non-members:
- Most of our programs and services could be delivered more economically.
- New programs and services such as marketplaces or specialized communities of practice in particular verticals (e.g., water, energy, K12 education) would become viable.
- Existing chapters would become more self sufficient, and more local hubs would become viable.
- A larger size would make us a more attractive partner to other organizations, including foundations and corporate sponsors.
- More members would mean increased income from membership dues and other services, thus significantly strengthening our financial health.
- Etc.
For comparison, IAP2 Canada had more than 15 members per million capita at the end of 2014, while IAP2 Australasia boasted upward of 60 members per million capita. In the United States, however, we currently still have fewer than 3 members per one million capita. That’s simply not enough.
There is no reason why we couldn’t at least catch up to our Canadian neighbors, but it will require that growing membership and growing our network becomes a top strategic priority.
4. Focus outward
In terms of culture, we need to shift from an organization that’s mostly concerned about its members to one that realizes that there are tens of thousands of people out there worth connecting with who in all likelihood will never become members, at least not under our current model of a professional membership association.
We need to find ways to reach these much broader audiences. This will require new thinking around media, influencer marketing and more.
5. Embrace the movement
When IAP2 first came onto the scene in 1990, there weren’t a lot of other organizations in this space. Fast forward 25 years, and we’ve witnessed an explosion of new organizations and new neighboring fields. It’s a completely different ballgame!
Despite occasional attempts at collaborating with our direct neighbors, however, IAP2 in the United States has grown to become strangely isolated. We need to make a genuine effort to connect with the key players and reach out to new potential partners.
There are probably hundreds of organizations at the state and federal level that would be a natural fit for us. These organizations have a lot to offer, and we can benefit greatly from engaging with them and explore how we might possibly support each other.
We need IAP2 USA to become a contributing partner in this growing ecosystem of organizations in the broader civic engagement and participatory democracy field. We need to re-engage in the conversation. What does it mean to deliver quality public participation today? Where can we add value? Where do our ideas need to evolve? How can our various concepts and approaches better interface with each other?
Public participation is such a niche to begin with, and we overlap with so many other neighboring professions, communities of practice and organziations. We need to meet these people where they are, including at their conferences and events.
6. Head to D.C.
Since many of the above organizations are based in, or can frequently be found in, the nation’s capital, IAP2 USA would be well advised to establish a local presence in Washington, D.C.
7. Increase organizational maturity
It is a sheer miracle how this organization has managed to survive over the past 25 years, on a mostly volunteer basis, with minimal staff support.
That said, we need to realize that there are certain core functions as a non-profit organization that should not have to rely on volunteer work alone. Some things are simply too critically important, and they need to be performed by staff. These may include:
- Marketing/communications
- Membership development
- Chapter/hub development
- Financial management & fundrasing
- Content/publishing
- Certain support functions for our various committees (e.g., for strategic partnership development)
We need to arrive at a new model that finds a smarter, more effective balance between staff and volunteer responsibilities.
8. Become a content publishing powerhouse
We need to understand that content isn’t just a nice add-on to our other programs and services but an absolutely integral part to everything we do: marketing, outreach, advocacy, training, research etc. We are in the content business!
This requires that we build capacity among our leadership, staff and volunteers to become a leading source — through creation and curation — of public participation-related news, materials and other resources.
9. Lead by example
Both among the organization’s leadership as well as vis-a-vis our members, we need to become a lot more participatory. When it comes to decision making and governance, we need to live our Core Values. Let’s walk the walk!
10. Money
It’s clear we have things to do and places to go, but we need the resources to make it happen. That means we need to make money and fundraising a priority.
Only if we manage to put this organization on a much stronger financial footing will we be able to implement our agenda. Whether further developing our existing revenue streams or finding entirely new forms of funding, we need to become a lot more business savvy than we’ve been in the past.
Culturally, we need to change from an organization that has always taken resource constraints as a given to one that boldly goes after securing the resources it requires to get the job done.
Consequentially, money and fundraising need to be recognized as the core functions that they are. They deserve dedicated resources both on the staff side and among the Board.
Summary
IAP2 has accomplished a lot, and IAP2 USA has the opportunity to build on that legacy as we head into our second quarter century of making public participation in the United States a reality. A lot of the bits and pieces needed are already in place, we just need to start putting them together. That’s our task ahead.
Public participation is a good cause, and every good cause deserves a champion. It’s up to us to take the necessary steps and ensure IAP2 USA will grow up to be that champion!
