Category Archives: Taylor Goelz

Posts by Taylor Goelz

Pretty Much Final Draft of Stakeholder Communication in the Choptank

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Woo hoo! It feels so good to be pretty much done with this project. This seminar has allowed me to think about my research, especially the stakeholders that I will be working with in just a few months, on a deep level; I really feel prepared to start my research because of how much thought this process forced me to put into it.

My project still has two parts, a short verbal beginning speech and a visual component. Right now I’ve done the visual component in PowerPoint, but I’m still talking to my adviser, Troy Hartley, about if that is the best method for when we share this with stakeholders. I am happy with how it turned out visually and hopefully it conveys the message well with stakeholders.

The verbal part of the project hasn’t changed much, but is included below. The one aspect I did change was I addressed Kathy and Karen’s concerns about explaining the collaborative process; that isn’t the role that Troy and I are playing in this research process so I made that more clear.

“Verbal Aspect

Thanks for participating in this OysterFutures workshop group; you are an essential and valuable aspect of this project and the oyster policy recommendations it will deliver to Maryland DNR; it could not happen without you and what we do here is incredibly important.

As community leaders, you have the ears of many in this region – your neighbors, friends, family, colleagues, and employees.  By talking with them about this project, and bringing their comments and concerns to the process, you will help make sure that the wider interests of the oyster industry in Talbot and Dorchester counties are represented. First, we’ve compiled some talking points that sum up major aspects of the project. During your discussions, use them as tools; places to jump start the conversation with others. We hope you share things that matter to you and that these outside discussions foster great conversations in this workgroup.

Second, we would like to hear from you what whether there are already questions that you already have about the process, or that you have heard from others? What do you anticipate talking about with others in the oyster industry about the project, and what might be ways that you could suggest to others in the room to make it more effective for the purposes of bringing back those conversations for inclusion in the process?

The process for collaboration will be covered for the moderators during the workgroup meeting, so feel free to ask them any questions you have concerning the collaborative process.

The talking points cover three key aspects of these workgroups. First are the overall goals of this workgroup, why we are all here. Second is going over who is involved and what are all of your roles. Third is the role of modeling in scientific research. We give you a lot of options and things to think over for future meetings and for when you talk to others, but don’t feel inclined to use all/any of these. We hope you’re sharing things that matter to you and will make an impact on the results of this project”

Visual Aspect

I could not get these images to upload in order, so I numbered them so you can understand the direction I was heading in. I’m hoping the appealing visual look of some of the slides helps the ideas stick more with stakeholders and I’m still trying to figure out a clever way to talk about some of them, any suggestions are welcome!

 

7/7

7/7

3/7

3/7

1/7

1/7

6/7

6/7

5/7

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2/7

2/7

4/7

4/7

First Draft: Guiding Stakeholder Communication in the Choptank

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For my first draft, I’ve decided to combine a short speech that I would give to the stakeholders to explain the purpose of my project, and a draft of what the handout/PowerPoint would discuss. I’m still working on how to best present the information to stakeholders; I’m thinking of making it more visual and less wordy. But formatting will come later, the content expresses the important points of the OysterFuture workgroups that I wanted to get across: Goals of the workgroups, roles as stakeholders and the role of modeling. Under advice from Troy Hartley, my adviser, I switched out the last topic from social science to modeling in order to focus more on actual end results of the workgroups instead of the social science process.

Logo for the Coastal SEES NSF project on oysters in the Choptank River, Maryland

Logo for the Coastal SEES NSF project on oysters in the Choptank River, Maryland

TG speech: Thanks for participating in this OysterFutures workshop group; whether you realize it or not yet, you are an essential and valuable aspect of this research; it could not happen without you. At the end of this process, this group will be making recommendations to Maryland DNR for oyster policy in the Choptank, so what we do here is incredibly important.

We figure your friends, family and co-workers outside this group will be interested in what exactly you are participating in and we want you to talk to them! We realize however that there are many interconnected and complicated issues involved, so we’ve compiled some talking points that sum up major aspects of the project. During your discussions, use them as tools; places to jump start the conversation with others. We hope you share things that matter to you and that these outside discussions foster great conversations in this workgroup.

The points cover three key aspects of these workgroups. First are the overall goals of this workgroup, why we are all here. Second is going over who is involved and what are all of your roles. Third is the role of modeling in scientific research. We give you a lot of options and things to think over for future meetings and for when you talk to others, but don’t feel inclined to use all/any of these. We hope you’re sharing things that matter to you and will make an impact on the results of this project

(Beginning of the handout/PowerPoint)

Key Definitions

  • Case study – sometimes, representative example of a larger issue/area. Other times, a study that focuses on a specific region/topic and isn’t necessarily applicable to other regions/topics.
  • Modeling– a way to use existing data to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate. Uncertainty in modeling is GOOD.
  • NSF – National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency with the goal of promoting the progress of science which they do through the support of all fields of fundamental science and engineering
  • Stakeholder – someone who has a vested interest in some topic. It affects them economically, socially or culturally, or some combination of the three
  • Sustainability – in this case, sustainability refers to the desire to create an active and economically beneficial fishery while protecting and respecting the biological needs of the oysters

CATEGORIES

1) Goals of the Coastal SEES OysterFutures workshop

a. Improve the integration of science and stakeholder goals for the region

b. Improve the sustainability of the natural resource policy for the region

2) Who is involved and what is my role as a stakeholder?

a) Stakeholders involved include representatives from

  • Watermen from Talbot and Dorchester counties
  • Aquaculturists
  • Seafood buyers
  • State Agency – Maryland Department of Natural Resources
  • Oyster Recovery Partnership
  • Federal Agency – NOAA
  • Environmental Citizens Groups
  • Recreational fishing
  • Scientists – mainly serving a role as observers with some input during meetings
  • Facilitators – the men running the meetings, maintaining organization

b) Your role in this process includes

  • Sharing your opinion on current oyster management in the Choptank
  • Sharing your firsthand experiences with the fishery, both now and from the past
  • Listening to the recommendations and advice of scientists; but not necessarily following them
  • Understanding the role of modeling in science and how it is an asset
    • Especially the uncertainty of modeling
  • Identifying unifying ideas/goals you have with other stakeholders
  • Being open and honest through the whole process

3) Role of Modeling

  • Used in the later part of the meetings
  • Participatory –> meaning you are a part of adding information to and formatting the model.
  • Model will project the policy objectives the stakeholders deem important –> meaning the model will incorporate human uses of the ecosystem
  • Includes factors involved in the interactions between physical conditions (ex: water temperature, dissolved oxygen), biological aspects of organisms (ex: rate of disease) and humans (ex: catch numbers, policy decisions)

This just scratches the surface of the subjects that these workgroups will hopefully address. Just remember, when you talk about this project, share things that matter to you and your role in the process. You represent the best communicators we have for the project so thank you for your dedication and passion to oysters in the Choptank!

Communicating the “Unsolveable”: Stakeholders in the Oyster Fishery in Chesapeake Bay

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The problems within the oyster fishery in the Chesapeake Bay are well known and go back for decades. Historic levels of overfishing have led to depleted stocks and intense competition over rights and access to the fishery today; more and more groups want a piece of this shrinking pie. The pieces of this pie however do not all have similar intentions and this diversity among slices has led to massive miscommunication and distrust within the fishery. Everyone living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is a stakeholder, whether they realize it or not, but certain groups of stakeholders appear more frequently in the ongoing oyster fishery discussions. Watermen don’t trust the science about oyster stocks, government officials are setting catch limits without consulting aquaculturists needs and NGO’s have their own agenda to support their cause. With the variety of interests within the fishery, tensions naturally arise and not everyone will be able to get exactly what they want. But it is exactly because of that fact that the groups involved need to interact with and consult each other. Bringing together these diverse stakeholder groups is at the core of my research; I want to see how they interact with each other and work together to form policy recommendations for the future of the oyster fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. An especially key component of this is gauging how the stakeholder groups react to and incorporate the science they are presented about the state of the fishery. Stakeholders’ confidence and levels of understanding concerning the science of a fishery is key to properly managing it; if stakeholders don’t believe in the science that was used to form policy aka catch limits, they will not follow them.  Even more specifically, I am looking at their opinions on the role of social science in this process, and its role in marine science in general. This is the facet of my research that this project will focus on, helping ensure that the stakeholder groups know how to discuss the science, their role in this project and the role of social science in the process.

Taking into consideration my unique situation where I have access and opportunity to work with an array of stakeholder options as part of my research, I decided to focus on the one that could make the largest difference. The stakeholder group I am looking to connect with most strongly during my research is the watermen because I feel like this group has the greatest potential at reaching out to other stakeholders not directly involved in our grant research project and the most to gain from my project. The other stakeholders that are a part of my research (NGO’s, government officials, managers, etc.) don’t have as much freedom with their speech as the watermen do and it is more important to me that the people who will feel the greatest impacts from the end result of an oyster policy plan in terms of economic livelihood, the watermen, have these resources. That’s why I’m planning to consult with Karen Hudson who works as a Shellfish Aquaculture Specialist at VIMS and has ample experience communicating with this group of stakeholders. I figure she knows how to address this group very well and my project will highly benefit from her expertise.

My project idea is to create a set of “elevator talk” guidelines for watermen to help them better understand and communicate to others about the research that we are doing and that they are an integral part of; without them and the other stakeholder groups, this research could not occur. A huge part of my overall research project assumes that between meetings that we will hold over the next 3 to 4 years, the stakeholders will be talking to their friends, neighbors, family and other stakeholders about the proceedings of these meetings. Since this communication is going to happen and is encouraged even, I want to ensure that they know how to start the conversation or answer broad questions about what they are doing and what our overall goals as scientists are . The elevator points will focus on three separate areas of concern

  1. What are the overall goals of the Coastal SEES (larger research project)?
    1. Letting them know what exactly we are doing here and why
  2. Their role as a stakeholder in these meetings.
    1. Why did we invite them?
    2. What can they contribute?
    3. What are they expected to contribute?
  3. The importance of social science in research
    1. Why should they care about social science in research?
    2. What benefits does including social science have in research?

The watermen stakeholders will be asked questions about all of these aspects so I want them to be prepared with ideas of how to answer. I am going to emphasize and try to format the elevator talking points as such so that they don’t seem like forced speeches but instead seem like diving boards, jumping off points for conversation. I think this will address the concerns of the watermen stakeholders because they want to know the answers to these questions too and if we provide good answers for them that they can understand, they can then spread that information around. The watermen stakeholders are obviously interested since they made this 3 to 4 year time commitment; my goal is to ease their ability to communicate with others so that they, and the people they talk to, see the science of this project as less intimidating and more understandable.

 

Two Truths and a Lie – Goelz Edition

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Janet has proclaimed we all must “two truths and a lie” in order to try out this new #scicomm blog, and so it shall be. Can you figure out which are which?

  1. I dared a boy to hold his breath in elementary school…and he passed out. He was fine, promise.
  2. I became a vegetarian in college because of a bad chicken sandwich. It wasn’t pretty.
  3. I was almost drowned while parasailing in the Caribbean and my mom got it all on film.