Strawman/Papers
Advocacy Plan1
Draft 10/97 for the
Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System
November 1997
DRAFTAdvocacy Plan for the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System 2
INTRODUCTION
The Land-Grant Universities of the Northeastern Region of the United States each contribute to an Agricultural Knowledge System whose membership is defined through a partnership with the federal government, and whose mandate defines their activities as the integration of teaching, extension and research in the agricultural sciences, broadly defined. The federal partnership rests on a base program of jointly sponsored, and for the most part co-funded, projects in the three mandated functions.
This advocacy plan has been developed to further garner support for the region’s Agricultural Knowledge System.
VISION
Successful communication of the achievements and benefits of the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System.MISSION
To inform constituencies of the successes of the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System through a new partnership with our stakeholders that recognizes the region’s plurality of interests, its diversity, and the benefits that can be derived through inter-institutional and cross functional collaborations.ISSUES
It is generally recognized that there is an under appreciation of the effectiveness of the U.S. Agricultural Knowledge System. This acknowledgement comes at a time of constrained resources, growing competition for funding, and the emergence of new expectations for public institution accountability. Several issues seem to be driving the current degree of under appreciation. The key issues for the Northeast Region are:
- As society has moved from rural to urban patterns of living, there is less understanding of the value of the agricultural system.
- Agriculture, by its nature, directly affects environmental and consumer attitudes beyond traditional boundaries.
- Important, meaningful interactions with decision makers are most effective when done by the intended beneficiaries.
The U.S. Agricultural Knowledge System has benefited from a lay leader advocacy program called the Council on Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching (CARET). CARET members have expressed frustration in fulfilling their charge to advise the U.S. Agricultural Knowledge System and advocate the System to decision makers on its behalf, for a number of reasons. Primary among these reasons is the absence of information necessary to influence national, state, and local decision makers. What is needed, it is said, is an effective means of communicating the System’s successes on a sustained basis.
PRINCIPLES
The creation of a successful advocacy program depends on the existence of:
- programs that are relevant;
- institutions that are efficient;
- leadership that is committed; and
- a system that is highly accountable for the public funds that it receives.
Advocacy is also built on trust and credibility, which are generated and sustained through:
- constancy of action,
- congruity of activity,
- institutional reliability, and
- professional integrity.
These fundamental principles require a well thought out advocacy plan built on sustained commitments and activities.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANS
External:
Several factors external to the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System contribute to the considerable strain that is being placed on our member institutions. These factors include:
- intense competition for scarce resources;
- elevated expectations;
- growing demands for stagnant and/or reduced funding, and
- increasing skepticism of the "agricultural establishment"
Many institutional leaders see the benefits of a strongly supported advocacy program for communicating the economic, environmental and social benefits of the region’s Agricultural Knowledge System. Thus, external communication has become a primary focus for this Region.
Internal:
Internally, there are strong arguments against self-advocacy efforts. Self-advocacy programs are often seen as self-serving and thus ineffective. Users of the results of publicly funded institutions are much preferred as advocates.
It is therefore reasoned that considerable credibility is to be gained by having the benefactors of the Agricultural Knowledge System speak for the System. There is a recognized need, however, to provide better support and resources for the System’s advocates, to permit them to more effectively "tell the story."
There will be a need to be frugal in the allocation of resources for any regional advocacy plan. Many institutional budgets are sufficiently constrained that resources are not available to pay any additional assessments. Moreover, set asides (a.k.a, off the top funding) are not appreciated by most administrators. What is needed then is an approach that allows for voluntary participation through institutional commitments, organized in a way that captures the System’s regional synergy otherwise lost in state-by-state reporting.
PRIORITIES
There is broad consensus within the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System for the desirability of building more political support for the region’s base program. This is because the base program is fundamental to maintaining the diversified portfolio of teaching, research, and extension activities necessary for addressing the divergent expectations of the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System’s claimants. As a result, there is a priority need to proactively communicate the achievements of the System.
AUDIENCE
The intended external audiences for our regional advocacy efforts are policy makers, elected representatives, and executive agency administrators. These audiences include civil servants in federal agencies and state departments of agriculture, along with our traditional partners in the private and public sectors. Other segments of the intended external audiences are the agricultural community and their "city cousins."
The internal audiences for our advocacy program are university presidents, other institutional administrators, institutionally employed lobbyists, and the attentive faculty of our own and our partner institutions.
GOALS
The intended goals of this advocacy plan are to:
- document the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System’s achievements, measured as outcomes, impacts, and benefits;
- inform decision makers through success stories that have been derived from the activities of the System.
STRATEGIES
The following strategic positions will be pursued to strengthen the region’s activities:
- We will build our advocacy program on our institutional paradigm that integrates teaching, extension, and research in the agricultural sciences, broadly defined;
- We will vigorously pursue our region’s leadership in creating cross-functional, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary regional collaborations; and
- We will draw on the strengths of the federal-state-local partnership in the agricultural and related sciences and beyond, to build new partnerships.
The following strategic actions will be employed to better coordinate our advocacy efforts:
- CARET members will be more integrated into institutional decision making processes and information loops.
- Institutions will work to effectively increase the number of its spokespeople through the development of strategic partnerships, the involvement of volunteers, and the retention of those who have "graduated" from these programs.
- Access to political profiles will be made more available through deliberately planned strategic partnerships. This will be done with the specific intent of identifying elected policy makers who share our common interests and can be approached with a "here’s what we can do for you" agenda.
- Recommendations will be provided to the leadership of the REE Information System’s Steering Committee for system design configurations that will support our advocacy efforts.
The following strategies will be adopted to better communicate regional achievements:
- Common messages will be developed that systematically address regional success stories, relevant to various policy makers.
- Success stories will highlight the System as a collaboration of institutions that work cross- functionally.
- Spokespeople will be given experience on how to pro-actively and continuously communicate the system’s achievements to decision makers.
- Communication strategies will focus on "off-season" contacts, the building of trust, and the assuring of the validity and reliability of the information delivered.
- "Hot topics" will be identified and exploited as communication stories.
- Success stories that are appropriate to national, regional, state, and local interests will be given preference.
- Decision makers will be profiled to better assure a match between their interests and the message. Such aligned messages will intentionally go beyond regional funding issues in order to answer the question "what can the system do for a decision maker’s constituencies".
- Advocacy activities will involve governmental affairs staff and communications specialists from our institutions.
- Networks of advocates will be created to leverage better the regional
system, and this will be supported
via the World Wide Web (WWW). - Activities will be coordinated with actions in other regions.
ASSUMPTIONS
We are assuming that:
- CARET will continue to be systemwide spokespeople;
- messages can be individualized;
- institutions within the region will continue to cooperate;
- reports will be relevant and timely;
- the region’s portfolio can be represented adequately;
- analytical work can be undertaken expeditiously;
- institutions will invest in the recruitment, education, and support of spokespeople;
- a diversity of perspectives will be essential;
- institutions will remain committed to the LGU mission, and will be responsive to customer- identified issues;
- institutions will embrace the concepts described by the Group of 10 (e.g., the system is truly greater than the sum of its individual parts); and
- the Northeastern region has needs and expertise that complement those of other regions.
ORGANIZATION
A Northeast Regional Advisory Council will be formed to facilitate the implementation of this advocacy plan. The membership of the Council will be made up of two members each from Administrative Heads Section (AHS), Northeastern Extension Directors (NEED), Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA), Academic Programs Section (APS), and CARET. Additional appointments may be made to the Council that might include agricultural communicators and legislative specialists.
A WWW home page will be created for the Northeast Regional Advisory Council, to support their efforts. The Council’s home page will be designed to facilitate the exchange of information and provide access to documents related to the Council’s activities. CARET members’ host institutions are encouraged to provide CARET members with Internet hook-ups suitable for WWW access.
A regional grassroots mechanism will be created that is broad based, diverse, and representative of the issues relevant to the region. The grassroots network will be linked through a network intended to facilitate communication. Where possible, this effort will be linked through the WWW. Grassroots members are expected to include "graduates" of Land-Grant University-sponsored advocacy programs, volunteers, institutional alumni, and beneficiaries of the products and service provide by the region’s Agricultural Knowledge System. These strategic partners are expected to include: 4-H youth representatives, Farm Bureau members, commodity groups, agri-business representatives, environmentalists or environmental groups, and family/consumer oriented representatives.
RESOURCES
By design, there will be no exchanges of dollars among institutions.
Support will be provided as in-kind contributions of participating institutions.
Analytical capacities will be provided through institutional participation.
Decision maker profiles will be obtained through strategic partnerships,
and the use of
IMPLEMENTATION
Following the adoption of this plan, a series of bench-marking studies will take place to evaluate the appropriateness and applicability of existing programs at institutions such as the University of Illinois, Purdue University, Michigan State University, and Oregon State University. This benchmarking information will help establish criteria for models for the development of an action plan that will be used to implement the purposes of this advocacy plan.
In addition, the Northeastern region has volunteered to serve as a beta test site for the REE Information System. This offer recognizes the opportunity of the region to capitalize on our experience in multi-institutional collaborations, and the unique aspects of our region represented by: diverse institutions; a complex interface between urban, suburban, and rural communities; and a rich mixture of activities designed for our diverse constituencies.
TIME TABLE
The development and adoption of this Advocacy Plan will continue through calendar year 1997. The Advocacy Action Plan will be developed in early 1998, to be implemented in the Spring of 1998, and coincident with the ongoing activities of CARET.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
We expect that through the implementation of this plan, there will be better communication with decision makers. As a consequence, there will be increased appreciation by our customers and improved relationships with our partners.
MEASURES OF SUCCESS
We anticipate that enhanced communication, and thus a better understanding of the benefits derived from investing in the Northeastern Agricultural Knowledge System, will increase our funding (or at least budget cuts will be lessened), which will in turn make more resources available for institutional activities.
Drafted by:
David R. MacKenzie
August 1997
Revised September 30, 1997
Footnotes:
1. The information contained in this plan was derived from a one day conference held in Mystic, Connecticut in July 1997. The participants collectively contributed to the Northeast Summer Joint Session's planning process as plenary speakers, breakout session discussants, and as respondents to questions
2. The Agricultural Knowledge System is comprised of the teaching, research, and extension functions, and for the purposes of this document the term agriculture is broadly defined.