Book Description

Excerpt from Public Involvement Manual Since its inception by the Reclamation Act of 1902, first as the Reclamation Service and then as the Bureau of Reclamation, the mission of the Water and Power Resources Service has been to develop, manage, and conserve the water and related resources of the western United States for the benefit of the people and the Nation. From its beginnings in single purpose irrigation undertakings to its current stature as architect of multipurpose projects, the Service has had the ability and perceptiveness to change to meet the needs of the people. The emphasis in uses and the policies for management of our finite water resources will continue to change as our Nation's economic, social, and environmental priorities change. Interaction with the people - Public Involvement - provides a process to ensure that programs of the Service remain responsive to the changing needs and concerns of the people through meaningful public participation in our decision-making process. The Service has issued Instructions on Public Involvement (Series 350, General Instructions, Part 351, Public Involvement). Those instructions: State as policy the purpose, objective, and scope of public involvement within the organization; Establish responsibility and accountability for public involvement among the respective management levels within the organization; and Set forth systematic processes to be followed in public involvement activities. Public involvement will become increasingly an integral part of the Service's activities - a part of our way of doing business. Nearly everyone in the organization will share in that responsibility. Knowledge and skills in the techniques needed to interact effectively with the numerous publics will be essential to many positions having program responsibility. All personnel involved in decision-making processes leading to significant actions will be provided information and training in the basic principles and skills of public involvement, including interpersonal communication, conducting meetings and workshops, and public involvement strategy and policy development. This Public Involvement Manual has been prepared to serve those needs. It includes major sections dealing with the general principles of public involvement, structuring public involvement programs, and public involvement techniques. The manual contains a wealth of information on assessing the need for and formulating and carrying out public involvement; not as a separate activity, but as an integral part of our program. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.