News Archive
Intrinsic Celebrates Eight!
04/19/12
This month Intrinsic celebrates eight years of providing public involvement, stakeholder facilitation, conflict resolution and citizen outreach services. We have taken great pride in our work to involve people in decisions that affect their lives, and we have enjoyed collaborating with all of our clients and supporters as well as making new friends and acquaintances. Congratulations to Intrinsic, and many thanks to all of you for helping to make eight great years possible!
Dexter Facilitates Midnite Mine Superfund Site Public Meeting
04/01/12
Dexter was hired by the EPA as a third-party neutral facilitator/mediator for an initial meeting regarding revamped community involvement efforts for the superfund Midnite Mine site in Wellpinit, WA, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Midnite Mine is an inactive open-pit uranium mine located eight miles northwest of Wellpinit. Tension between EPA and the community has increased over the twelve years since the site has been inactive and is now at a critical point. New staff joining the site team has created an opportunity for a different type of engagement with the local community. Dexter performed assessment and phone interviews prior to the meeting, helped design the meeting agenda, facilitated the meeting, administered meeting evaluations, and developed a summary reportto catalogue information captured in the assessment and phone Interviews, as well as the meeting discussion and participant evaluations.
Susan Volunteers for Education Equals Economics (E3) Alliance
04/01/12
The E3 Alliance is a non-profit that supports deliberative dialogues in communities across Central Texas about the continuum of actions and investments needed in education to prepare students to succeed in the 21st century. Susan is supporting E3 in an effort to work with the Eanes and Taylor school district areas to host a series of "Community Dialogues" in which citizens can come together to identify their priorities for helping students succeed. There will be three or four evening public forums during which volunteer trained moderators, including Susan, will help support a rich and productive conversation among community members.
Susan Facilitating Central Health Community Engagement
08/03/11
Susan is currently working with the Travis County Healthcare District (Central Health) to design and implement a community engagement effort in a predominantly low-income and ethnically diverse area of southeast Austin. Vocal community activists have been lobbying Central Health to fund and build a multi-purpose health center, but the population of 17,000 is too few to meet Central Health’s criteria for a new medical center. Central Health’s Board wants to take the lead in resolving the issue by developing a strategy and process for decision-making that allows all stakeholders to be heard and to have an opportunity to influence the decision. The project includes convening a Stakeholder Advisory Group comprised of area residents that will work directly with Central Health and the general public to develop partnerships and collaborate on a plan to meet area residents’ needs.
Dexter and Jason Heading to Minneapolis for BIA and Byways
08/03/11
In August, Dexter and Jason will be in Minneapolis to kick off a series of work sessions with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) staff and tribal representatives to discuss issues, identify needed changes and suggest specific revisions to some of BIA’s land management regulations. The two-day work session will be the first of five scheduled across the country, and is part of a new process the BIA is undertaking to work with individuals affected by the regulations prior to revising them. Following the work session, Jason will attend the 2011 National Scenic Byways Conference to increase Intrinsic’s knowledge and understanding of scenic byways programs in general and specifically in working with tribes on scenic byways projects. Intrinsic will have an exhibitor booth at the conference to highlight our experience and passion for scenic byways projects.
Susan Goes With The Flows
05/1/11
Susan is facilitating an Environmental Flows Recommendation Development Process for the Guadalupe, San Antonio, Mission and Aransas River/Mission, Copano, Aransas and San Antonio Bay and Basin Area Stakeholder Committee (BBASC). The BBASC has been working for a year to develop environmental flow recommendations, and is committed to using a consensus‐based decision‐making process. Susan has been retained as a third party, neutral facilitator to help focus the process and guide the group in reaching conclusions, agreements and clarity. Susan worked with the group of diverse water-related interests, including scientists, policy makers and recreationalists, to develop a charter and process, and is now facilitating monthly meetings to work toward consensus on this complicated and important project for use in the state’s water rights permitting process.
Intrinsic Offers Myriad Tribal Relations Support
04/11/11
Intrinsic’s Arizona office recently completed work with the San Carlos Apache Tribe to facilitate public involvement on a roadway design project to improve the safety of Route 6/Cutter Road. Through two well-attended public meetings in San Carlos, their efforts generated much public input to ensure the new design addressed local needs. Jason and Dexter also recently provided recording and reporting services for the third Arizona College and Tribal Leaders Summit held in Flagstaff. The summit brought together education professionals from throughout the state to discuss best practices to support American Indian students. Currently, Dex and Jason are working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to design a series of work sessions to provide tribes throughout the nation with an opportunity to identify needed revisions to BIA land regulations. The process will eventually lead to revised regulations and tribal consultation. Last but not least, Dex and Jason are currently preparing to offer their third annual training for Coconino County employees on working with tribes and tribal communities.
Susan Promotes Public Participation
11/1/10
In October, Susan was invited to speak at a committee meeting of the North Texas Tollway Authority. She was asked to speak about the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and public involvement in general. “Intrinsic tries to educate clients about the process and about where and when the public should have a say – we try to convey how important it is to be proactive rather than reactive to save time, money and migraines,” Susan told the group. Also in October, Susan was elected Vice President of the newly formed Gulf Coast Chapter of IAP2. The group plans to get together in early January 2011 to brainstorm their future – please contact Susan if you want to get involved. And in November Susan will continue promoting Public Participation at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation Marketplace before heading to Port Arthur, TX, to facilitate an Environmental Justice Summit for the EPA. Congratulations Susan! And keep spreading the word about the benefits of Public Participation!
Intrinsic Expands Services
09/29/10
Intrinsic is excited to announce we have expanded our services to include Creative Communications & Marketing, and we’ve officially welcomed award-winning creative David Howard to the Intrinsic team. David has been working with Intrinsic for the past few years on a project-by-project basis designing collateral materials for citizen outreach and public involvement efforts as well as marketing materials, such as an Arizona statewide scenic byways brochure. Visit our contact page, www.intrinsicinfo.com/contact, for more information about David and his extensive experience. We look forward to working with you on your Creative Communications & Marketing needs.
Happy Birthday Alexx!
09/26/10
Jason’s youngest, Alexxanthe, celebrated her 16th birthday in September. “Youngest” and “16” are not typos, as much as Jason might wish they were. She also began her high school career at Ogden High in northern Utah this year. Congratulations and happy birthday, Alexx!
