Citizen advisory boards: An empirical model for choosing goals and methods

Abstract

This is a study of Citizen Advisory Boards (CABS) undertaken for the Department of Energy (DOE) to draw practical insights from the accumulated experience of CAB members and agency officials who have worked with these boards over many years. Hence the main research tool is in-depth interviews of these individuals. In addition, the study relies on field observations of CABs at work, historical documentation of individual boards, and a large body of academic, professional, and government literature. The DOE is in the process of establishing Site Specific Advisory Boards (SSABs) at most of its major facilities in order to provide for community involvement in the DOE environmental restoration and environmental management programs, but these boards initiated by DOE do not yet have enough of a track-record for a study of this type. Consequently, the study focused on CABs at six other federal agencies which have had substantial experience with boards that are similar in composition and purpose to the SSABs. The study examined common problem that confront virtually every CAB in its organization and its decision-making process. For example, each board faces difficult issues in defining its goals and representational responsibilities, selection of members, selection of issues, reaching agreement on recommendations to the parent agency, getting responsive action from the parent agency, and evaluating the board`s success over time. An effort was made to identify solutions or best approaches to these fundamental problems such that the recommended approach has broad application to citizen advisory boards concerned with environmental issues. The conclusions of the study are summarized in a model which incorporates the optimal approaches discovered with respect to each of the critical issues. While acknowledging that the particular circumstances of a CAB may call for individual variations, the model provides a fairly comprehensive description of recommended features of a CAB.