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Developing Sustainable Partnerships Between Fire Scientists and Decision-Makers. Timothy J. Brown and Crystal A. Kolden Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV Barbara J. Morehouse University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Partnership.
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Developing Sustainable Partnerships Between Fire Scientists and Decision-Makers Timothy J. Brown and Crystal A. Kolden Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV Barbara J. Morehouse University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Partnership • Requires a necessary foundation for the development of an iterative science-society collaboration • Society must develop a proprietary interest in the science and its applications • A sustainable partnership • Stakeholders who have the interest, social and economic capital, and motivation to sustain the enterprise
Basic Questions • What are “partnerships”? • What makes a partnership effective?
Partnership Synergy Factors • Synergy measures and example characteristics • Collaborative thinking (e.g., creativity, practical, innovative) • Partnership action (e.g., pooling and coordination of resources) • Relationships with community (e.g., focus on community problems) • Partner participation (e.g., extent of individual and organization participation) • Planning (e.g., development of realistic goals) • Management/administration (e.g., understand and document impacts of actions)
Determinants of Partnership Synergy • Synergy measures and example characteristics • Resources (e.g., money, information, connections) • Partnership characteristics (e.g., leadership characteristics, flexible management/administration, efficiency) • Relationships among partners (e.g., trust, confidence, respect) • External environments (e.g., community characteristics, public policies, organization policies)
California and Nevada Smoke and Air Committee (CANSAC) • Comprises 9 federal, state and local agencies • USFS R5, BLM (CA & NV), FWS, NPS, USFS PSW, CDF, CARB, SJVA • Mission • Oversee the implementation and operation of the CEFA Operations and Forecast Facility • Facilitate the transfer of MM5 and other mesoscale meteorology research done by various agencies to the field for operational applications • Work closely with the other regional mesoscale meteorology modeling consortiums to improve model accuracy and the implementation of “Bluesky” and other programs
CANSAC Structure • Board of Directors • 9 members • Operational and Applications Group • 7 members • Technical Advisory Group • 5 members
Survey Method • 45 questions/statements • Ranked 1-5 • 1 (strongly disagree); 5 (strongly agree) • 1 (very poor); 5 (very good)
Survey Categories • Partnership structure • Organizational design • Availability of resources • CANSAC management • Leadership • Progress
Sample Statements • A sufficient level of trust exists among CANSAC members • CANSAC has the flexibility to be innovative in how it approaches its work • Funding is sufficient • Management accountability • Ability to harmonize differences in members’ perspectives • Level of integration with stakeholders
Results • BOD and OAG strongly agreed that their organization’s interests are well integrated into the partnership • TAG less certain on the level of commitment • Disagreement between all 3 groups on question of having satisfactory access to the resources it needs • All 3 groups concerned with flexibility to allocate resources
Results (cont) • All 3 groups concerned with funding stability • BOD and TAG concerned about motivating members • BOD concerned about harmonizing member differences • BOD concerned about external communications and evaluation • OAG concerned about project evaluation process
Summary • Survey indicated an overall moderate level of satisfaction in terms of a CANSAC partnership • BOD and OAG feel strongly that their organization’s interests are well integrated into the partnership • CANSAC resources and project/product evaluation process needs improvement
Conclusions • CANSAC can be identified with a number of observed and theorized aspects of synergistic partnership characteristics and determinants • Serves as a useful model for scientist and decision-maker sustainable partnerships • Claiming a partnership is not satisfactory, nor realistic • It must be evaluated on an on-going basis with synergistic characteristics and determinants as measures • Various levels of project/product use and value must be assessed (e.g., operations, management) • It takes time to establish a partnership • 3 to 5 years of continuous effort is common