Community Advisory Group begins to rebuild
It has been a long haul in the nine years since the Community Advisory Group formed.
Professional facilitator Virginia Tribe began Thursday’s meeting with marker in hand to write out what members perceive as the CAG’s successes, stalls and disappointments over the years.
The successes have varied – from getting the Environmental Protection Agency to perform a risk assessment to gaining public health emergency status – but successes have always come after quite a few stalls and disappointments.
The group is now working on its most recent struggle – to re-organize its structure, hire a permanent facilitator and return to having professional dialogue with the EPA.
Thursday’s meeting served as the first part of a three-meeting series to come up with that new formula. Attendees participated in a round-table discussion and performed small group work with Tribe at the helm, asking questions and pointing out observations.
When discussion slipped into past run-ins with the EPA, Tribe interrupted. She drew a triangle with sides labeled “psychological,” “procedural” and “topical.”
“Issues have three dimensions,” she said. “When you spend your time on this (psychological) and this (procedural), guess what happens to the issue? It goes right out the window.”
Tribe empathized with the frustrations members have had in the past with the EPA, but said that concentrating on that anger prevents the CAG from moving forward and reaching its goals.
Tribe said that members must get to a place where they can have a civil discourse with the EPA even if some mistrust exists. The EPA pulled out of CAG involvement in February.
“I don’t know if the way you feel about the EPA will ever change,” Tribe said, “but we need to at least have open dialogue with them.”
The meeting served as a brainstorming session to throw out questions that may not yet have answers. CAG members discussed the difficulty in moving forward on complex issues during meetings when a member of the community attends and isn’t familiar with the topic. They also debated the extent of their role as advocate for the community.
Tribe sent participants home with a question to think about until August’s meeting – Where do you want Libby to be in five years and in 10 years?
Tribe has agreed to train a new facilitator, but hopes that if enough structure is in place, CAG won’t necessarily need one.
“My goal is to get you to a place where you’re not so dependant on a facilitator,” Tribe said at the closing of the meeting.