Community advisory panels

Is there formal communication between plant management and the local community through a community advisory panel or equivalent ... 

Number of community advisory panel (CAP) meetings and attendance rate X ... 

Emergency preparedness a yes score has been awarded since Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) is reported in the short CER, and specific mention is made of the use of community advisory panels in that process. 

Emergency preparedness although there is reference to a number of community advisory panels, there is no overall impression of a group-wide approach to involving local statutory authorities in emergency action planning. 

Community Advisory Panels Options for Community Outreach... 

Discussion of the benefits of community advisory panels by plant managers, facilitators, and panel members. Guidance on forming, running, and sustaining panel. Includes case studies. 

Holt, G. 2003. Alternate Fuels. Presented at the Community Advisory Panel Meeting, Peasants/Willow Island EMstrict, West Virginia. July 7. 

The Secretary shall ensure that scientific advisory panels meet regularly and at appropriate intervals so that any matter to be reviewed by such a panel can be presented to the panel not more than 60 days after the matter is ready for such review. Meetings of the panel may be held using electronic communication to convene the meetings. 

Within the chemical industry are hundreds of local citizen advisory panels. Company representatives meet several times a year with interested residents, who represent schools, hospitals and health care specialists, businesses, environmental associations, community groups, and municipal authorities, to discuss immediate concerns such as emissions and traffic problems. 

Perhaps not surprisingly because it developed Responsible Care , Canada has arguably the most comprehensive approach. The Canadian Chemical Producers Association (CCPA) has made the verification process mandatory once a member company has completed its three-year Responsible Care implementation process. The verification process involves a three-day visit by a team comprised of two industry experts, an activist (usually from the CCPA national advisory panel) and a citizen selected from the community around each visited site. Other than the newest member companies, all but two have been visited and these were scheduled for early 1999. The CCPA is now field-testing a second round of the verification process, which will be undertaken on the third anniversary of a company s successful completion of its first verification. 

The need for plamiing on this project has been pointed out by other groups and individuals. For example, the Mayor s Scientific Advisory Panel has staled, The panel concludes that further steps (e.g., data collection and analysis) are necessary to provide sufficient information for a more complete understanding of environmental and health conditions in the Spring Valley community. Indeed, one of their specific recommendations is that, the District of Columbia Department of Health should develop a comprehensive plan. Of course, the panel was focused primarily on the health concerns, not on the rudiments of finding live ordnance. Nevertheless, their wisdom can be extrapolated to other AUES needs. 

Among other community service contributions, he has served for nearly two decades on numerous committees and panels of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation, has been a member of several national or international expert advisory panels and has served on the Boards of Directors or executive/management committees of numerous other organizations. He is also a co-founder of Innoventures Canada Inc. and a co-founder of Canadas Innovation School. 

Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through Cyber-infrastructure, Report of the National Science Foundation Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure, Alliance for Community Technology, Ann Arbor, MI, 2003 (the Atkins committee report) http //www.communitytechnology. org/nsf ci report/. 

Dr. Gold has served on the Panel of Expert Reviewers for the National Toxicology Program and on the boards of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and the Annapolis Center she was a member of the Harvard Risk Management Group and is at present a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is among the most frequently cited scientists in her field and was awarded the Annapolis Center Prize for risk communication. 

A range of communication efforts constitutes interpretive activity there are direct forms of communication such as guides and guided tours, there are visitor centres where the opportunity to communicate with advisory personnel is possible but not always central, and several forms of communication where no personnel are present. The challenge of communicating with visitors without direct contact is usually met by the use of signs, display panels, brochures, booklets, audio tapes, touch screens and guide books. 

---