Almost 40 stakeholders and U.S. Department of Energy managers attended the fifth Community Leaders Network Workshop in Washington, D.C. on March 19-21. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Development Clyde Frank presented his vision for CLN's role in support of DOE's five major remediation and waste management focus areas. Frank also led a discussion on the Galvin Task Force Report on Alternative Futures for Department of Energy National Laboratories (see Initiatives, April 1995). Network members discussed organizational and membership matters, learned about a computer model for public involvement currently used by the Air Force, and approved a mission statement that was revised to reflect members' comments.
The Community Leaders Network is an informally structured group of stakeholders with interest and experience in technology development issues. The membership consists of people from areas around DOE sites and from national organizations representing citizen, government, business, and education concerns. Workshops provide a forum for network members to learn about and comment on Office of Technology Development activities. Clyde Frank called CLN the only forum for national stakeholder input into the technology development program and agreed that membership should be increased. Current members suggested names for new members and proposed several sites and organizational affiliations needing increased representation.
The March 1995 workshop presented an opportunity to directly involve the Community Leaders Network in DOE's focus areas. Acting Director of Technology Transfer and Program Integration Mac Lankford, along with focus area managers, delivered status reports on the focus areas and identified potential roles and activities for CLN. Barbara Frank, public participation coordinator for the Office of Technology Development, provided workshop participants with a framework for stakeholder involvement in the technology development program. Network members decided to form subgroups aligned with each of the focus areas, including one for Barbara Frank's stakeholder planning activities and a committee to assist with future workshop planning.
Clyde Frank suggested establishing a communication system to enhance the flow of information between workshops. Several communication options, including e-mail, the Internet, and periodic newsletters are being investigated. Several conference calls are planned for the coming months. New resource notebooks distributed at the workshop will contain a running account of CLN's history, member profiles, and reference material to allow easy tracking of issues.
The Community Leaders Network will continue organizing subgroups into effective channels for input to focus area managers.
