Tag: public comment

Improving Public Meetings with New Facilitators and Policy Statement

Lance Rakovan
Senior Communications Specialist

It’s been a while since I first addressed the topic of NRC facilitators in a blog post; however we recently brought a new group of facilitators into the NRC’s In-House Meeting Facilitator & Advisor Program and I thought the occasion was worth mentioning.

The NRC's latest public meeting facilitators area ready to step into their new roles
The NRC’s latest public meeting facilitators are ready to step into their new roles.

The purpose of the program is to help make meetings and outreach more effective, inclusive and fair, and to increase NRC’s capacity to collaborate and solve problems with both internal and external stakeholders.

Program facilitators are NRC staff who assist in planning, preparing for and conducting meetings. They help with meetings as a collateral duty (in other words, in addition to their primary jobs). When asked why they would add to their workload by joining this program, facilitators said they’re looking for new challenges and to expand their skill set. But more importantly, they said they’re looking for new ways to help the NRC accomplish its mission.

The new facilitators, the fourth group of staff to enter the program, or “Gen4,” forged ties while completing four days of training. The training was intensive and, as you would expect, featured many opportunities for participants to test out their collaboration skills in a safe environment. Next step is for them to work with experienced facilitators for additional on-the-job training on their way to becoming “fully credentialed” members of the NRC’s Facilitator Corps.

While on the subject of public meetings, let me update you on the status of the Commission Policy Statement on Public Meetings. As I mentioned in my September 19, 2016, blog post, the NRC has drafted a new Commission policy statement on public meetings and sought public comment to make sure it hits the mark. The new policy statement is meant to re-affirm the importance of public participation in NRC’s public meetings and address a number of concerns noted previously by the public and NRC staff.

publicopinionnewI’ve seen some of the comments and there are some great ideas being provided. The policy statement is meant to be “50,000 feet” kind of guidance, so not all the ideas provided in the comments will be reflected in the final version of the policy statement, but the majority of them will certainly be incorporated into some level of NRC guidance, such as the next revision to NRC Management Directive 3.5, “Attendance at NRC Staff-Sponsored Meetings.”

Stay tuned for more information on the status of the policy statement. And look for our new facilitators at the next public meeting you attend.

The Open Forum is Open for Business

Holly Harrington
Blog Moderator

communicationwordcloudWe created the Open Forum section of the NRC blog more than four years ago. It was not part of our original plan, but our blog comment guidelines stipulated that comments needed to be related to the topic of the post to which they are submitted. We quickly realized there were a number of comments being submitted that didn’t adhere to this guideline and would have therefore not been posted, but otherwise met the comment criteria. And we wanted to be able to post them. So we decided we needed a place where anyone could bring up any topic they wish (related to the NRC).

And so the Open Forum section was created.

Since its creation there have been more than 300 submitted comments on a wide range of topics including climate change, nuclear power’s future and solar storms.

Comments on the Open Forum (as with the rest of the blog) are moderated and must adhere to the Comment Guidelines. Otherwise, the platform is open for any NRC-related topic you’d like to bring up or to comment on. It’s important to note that blog comments are not considered formal communication with the NRC. Questions and concerns can always be submitted in a variety of formal ways. Safety or security allegations should not be submitted via the blog, and will not be posted if submitted. For more information, go here.

You can easily find the Open Forum section listed on left side of every page of the blog. You can also sign up to receive notice of new comments to the section by clicking on “Reply” at the bottom of the comments and then clicking the “Notify me of new comments via email” box.

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