1. Communicating the Midpoint Assessment and Phase III WIPs
Good morning everyone. I’ve been asked to give you all a brief overview of the communications strategy that the Chesapeake Bay Program communications office is preparing for the midpoint assessment and phase III WIPs.

2. 1.
Overview

3. Overview Midpoint Assessment
- Celebrating watershed successes and signs of resiliency
- Outcomes
Phase III WIP Planning
- Policy decisions
I’m not going to waste your time explaining the midpoint assessment and Phase III WIPs, as I am sure most of you know far more than I do. I was asked to develop a strategy that looked at the big picture in regard to planning for communicating the many activities that fall under both of these initiatives.
For my own understanding, it was easiest to divide it up into two individual sections – the midpoint assessment and Phase III WIP planning – with the understanding that they share many of the same audiences, challenges and risks.
In looking at the midpoint assessment, many of the communications activities can be divided into two sections – celebrating watershed successes and signs of resiliency and outcomes of the midpoint assessment.
Under Phase III WIP planning, we’ll mainly be looking at how to communicate the many policy decisions coming out of the PSC in the coming months, but also at how the CBP Communications Office can assist and support our audiences.
I should also mention that this strategy and the ideas presented on these slides are currently in the draft stage – we will be continually editing and looking for feedback as we go through this process.

4. 2. Anticipated Risks/Challenges

5. Anticipated Risks/Challenges
Jurisdictions will not meet their 2017 and 2025 Bay TMDL goals.
Political uncertainty.
Financial constraints.
Major policy decisions.
Buy-in from localities
Keeping on pace with tool development to aid decision-making.
Jurisdictions will not meet their Bay TMDL 2017 and 2025 goals.
Will have to account for why they did not meet their goals.
Political uncertainty – may not have the support to meet TMDL goals.
Communicating how the Midpoint Assessment is evaluated – in particular, EPA will evaluate the ’60 percent by 2017’ goal using the older suite of modeling tools.
Financial constraints – resources may not be available to carry out activities listed in this communications strategy.
Keeping on pace with tool development to help decision-making.
Major policy decisions that will impact Phase III WIP development.
Buy-in from localities in regard to Phase III WIP development.

6. 3.
Audiences

7. Audiences Principals’ Staff Committee Management Board
Goal Implementation Teams, Workgroups, Advisory Committees
Interested public
State and regional associations of conservation districts
Local governments
Local elected officials
Jurisdictions
Federal and state legislative representatives
Agribusiness associations
Farmers
Watermen
Recreational audiences
Tourism industry
Businesses
Source sector
State municipal authority associations
State Farm Bureaus
Conservation districts
Nonprofit organizations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
We recognize that each activity under the midpoint assessment and phase III WIPs planning will have unique audiences, but this is a roundup of everyone that we’ve identified thus far that will be impacted. I’m not going to read through these, but if you feel any are missing, please let me know.

8. 4. Relationship Building

9. Want big impact? Use big image.
Relationship Building
Want big impact?
Use big image.
To engage with the many audiences listed on the previous slide it is key to build relationships. The Communications Office will be working closely with the Director of Local Government Programs and the Local Government Engagement Initiative to work on a specific engagement strategy to reach all of these audiences. It is our intention to build a network in which we can share messages and communications with these partners and rely on them to disseminate that information to their audiences. In turn, we’d like to identify their communications needs that the Communications Office can help support.
Some of the strategies for engagement that we are pursuing:
Meeting with each jurisdiction.
Attending county association and state conservation district association meetings.
Meetings to target specific audiences such as businesses, agriculture, watermen, etc.
Regularly engaging with GITs, workgroups and advisory committees.
Collaborating with partners.
Building a network to share communications.
Identifying communications needs.

10. 5.
Midpoint Assessment

11. Midpoint Assessment Celebrating successes and signs of resiliency.
- Case Studies
- Media
- Op-eds
- Social Media campaigns
- Information packets
- Webinars/training
- Multimedia projects
Many of these below items will be dependent on what needs are identified when we begin meeting with our target audiences.
Case studies – we will be working closely with the Local Government Engagement Initiative and building off the work they’ve already started to develop useful case studies. We plan to hire a summer intern – the application period closes this Friday – to focus solely on this work.
Media – we plant to issue an RFP in the coming weeks for a media contractor to help us get our stories of watershed successes and signs of resiliency into local media throughout the watershed. This media contractor can also help us with the next item here – op-eds. We need to work on what these exact messages will look like and that may be where you all come in as we look for authors.
Social media – the Bay Program uses Twitter, Instragram and Facebook. We can begin to look at what types of social media campaigns would be most useful.
For a lack of a better term, next are ‘information packets’.. LGEI has done a wonderful job of identifying jurisdictional needs and we’ll be reviewing that and adding to that list. We’ll evaluate what we can do in house and what we may already have to meet our audiences’ needs.
Webinars/training – we’ll work with members of the partnership to hold webinars and trainings on topics such as the Phase 6 Watershed Model and other items of importance that are identified.
Multimedia Projects – we have a multimedia specialist on staff and will have an intern this summer as well. We are putting together a list of potential topics that would be useful to have in a video format – whether it meets promoting signs of watershed successes and resiliency or helps to inform certain topics. For example, we will be releasing a Bay 101 on Modeling and Monitoring by the end of the this month.

12. Midpoint Assessment Outcomes - Press releases - Media kits
- Barometer – type fact sheet
Another key component of the midpoint assessment is how will we communicate the outcomes?
We anticipate now doing a press release, including region-specific releases with fact sheets. It will also include media kits with social media posts, images, etc., as well as a media call for specific regions.

13. 6.
Phase III WIPs

14. Phase III WIP Planning Policy Decisions - WIP Planning Targets
- Phase 6 Modeling Tools
- Best Management Practices
- Conowingo
- Climate Change
- Accounting for Growth
- Monitoring and Explanation of Watershed and Tidal Trends
The second part of our strategy focuses on planning for the Phase III WIPs. Our communications office is looking at the many policy decisions that the PSC will be making this year and similar to the midpoint assessment activities, will be working with our audiences to identify their communications needs and how our office and the Communications Workgroup can help meet them.

15. Messages Work with SMEs to craft messages
Test messages with LGEI and other groups
Disseminate messages with communications network/build into products
As we prepare communications for all of the policy decisions on the previous slide, as well as the high-level messaging of the Midpoint Assessment and Phase III WIPs, it is imperative that we are conveying the correct message, to the appropriate audiences and they are understanding it.
Building on a draft messaging document put together by The Hatcher Group, we’ll be meeting with subject matter experts from around the partnership in the coming weeks to continue refining what we want to say about everything that is going on.
Once these messages are drafted, we plan to take them to LGEI, as well as other groups that are not necessarily impacted by these activities to ensure clarity and understanding. Once we have that assurance, we’ll use them to develop our communications materials and pass them through our networks.
I do want to mention some of the feedback received from the Water Quality GIT meeting on Monday – we had a few more offers to help test messages from different groups – so thank you again very much for that. We were advised to look at how we will define success for all of these communications and outreach activities and also to look at feedback that was received from the Phase I and Phase II WIP process. It was also recommended that provide data with our communications to empower people to make their decisions.

16. 7. How can the Comm Workgroup help?

17. Comm Workgroup Assistance
Review Materials
Test Messages
Amplify Messages
Pass Along Contact Information
Other Suggestions?
How can all of you assist with our efforts?
We need your expertise in reviewing materials. We’ll be sending them out – similar to how we disseminate the partnership press releases.
As I mentioned before, we’ll be testing messages on a variety of different groups – we’d like this group to be one of the focus-type groups. And if you have anyone else that is willing to assist, please let me know!
Please amplify messages and products to your networks! We have a vast group of audiences that we are trying to reach and your assistance will greatly help us out. And likewise, as we develop lists of contacts for our groups to reach out to, if you have contacts that would be useful for us to speak with, please pass them along.
And other suggestions as to how you see the workgroup assisting in our efforts?

18. Thanks! Any questions? Rachel Felver CBP Communications Director
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay