Advisory Groups

• Overview
• Stories and Models from the field
• Tools
• Tips for RC/EZ/ECs
• Links

Overview

RC/EZ/ECs can take advantage of the expertise in their communities by forming advisory groups. These advisory groups should include the stakeholders who can ensure the success of health planning activities. Members can include representatives from local health department, area hospitals, businesses in the community, the local government office, local boards of health, the school system, area colleges and universities, faith-based and community-based organizations, and RC/EZ/EC residents. The key to an effective advisory board is diversity–be inclusive. Broad input can only strengthen the health planning process.

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Stories and Models from the field

Lowell, Massachusetts EC (Round I)

The Lowell, MA EC is administered by a grassroots board consisting of elected and appointed members drawn entirely from EC residents and small business owners. Most of the board's members are chosen by EC residents through a full-scale public nomination and Strategic Vision and Community-Based Partnerships elections process. One member represents one of the EC's eight census tracts. In addition to elected representatives, the city government appoints seven board members to ensure ethnic, gender, and age diversity. These include youth and senior citizen representatives as well as a representative from one of Lowell's many minority groups. Representatives of key public and private institutions–whose support is also crucial for achieving the community's goals–are invited to serve on EC advisory committees.

One project located within the EC is the Lowell Community Health Center's teen pregnancy prevention program, known as the Lowell Teen Coalition. A similar type of advisory group oversees the Coalition. Its members include representatives from city government, the business community, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, juvenile probation, youth program staff, citizen activists, and others. The advisory board looks at the direction of the program and recommends new initiatives and directions for the program. Current initiatives include investigating how appropriate the abstinence message is to the teens it serves as well as ways in which it can reach out to middle school students. It is then the responsibility of the Executive Director, who is also the Program Coordinator, to seek out resources to fulfill the mission suggested by the board. The program uses EC funds for various teen leadership initiatives including increasing youth membership in community organizations, funding recognition programs, and development of leadership training programs.

Five Star Enterprise Community, Washington EC (Round II)

The Five Star Enterprise Community, in Washington State is comprised of five census tracts, some as far as 150 miles apart. Three of these are Native-American reservations that contain a total of two tribes. Two of these tracts contain the Colville Indian Reservation. In developing its executive committee, early plans called for one representative from each census tract. However, the group came to the realization that the existence of four tribal subdivisions within the two Colville reservation tracts would cause this strategy to limit each subdivison's representation. To adjust this, the Colville reservations agreed to elect one representative from each tribe rather than each census tract. This resulted in each tract's having two representatives from a different tribal subdivision. All three other census tracts, including the Spokane Indian Reservation and the Newport Census tract have two at-large representatives that are elected to the executive committee.

All executive committee representatives are elected by their local EC committee. Local EC committees are comprised of local residents that are active in the EC. Board chairpersons and officers are elected by the 10 member executive board. In the course of the executive committee's existence, two of the three chairpersons have been from tribal groups. This EC's efforts to be inclusive of tribal subdivisions has resulted in an advisory board that the community believes is truly representative of its residents.

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Tools

Tool I: The Difference Between a Board of Directors and an Advisory Group
Tool II: How to Form an Effective Advisory Group
Tool III: Potential Advisory Group Members
Tool IV: Recruiting New Advisory Group Members
Tool V: How to Keep the Advisory Group Organized and Efficient

Tool I: The Difference Between a Board of Directors and an Advisory Group

By law, every nonprofit must have a governing board. Chances are that your RC/EZ/EC has incorporated as a means of managing your RC/EZ/EC funds. But oftentimes, the governing board is not the best source for getting input on issues that the community is facing. The establishment of an advisory board, especially one for health, helps the governing board to focus its efforts and its funds on goals that the community and others with a vested interest recommend. The two groups have very different responsibilities.

A Governing Board

• Creates the mission, values and policies for the organization
• Provides financial oversight
• Is legally accountable for the organization
• Supervises the executive director or program director in his or her work
• Evaluates the outcomes of the RC/EZ/EC's efforts
• Creates and carries out a strategy that ensures that the RC/EZ/EC is visible to and viewed favorably by the community it serves

An Advisory Board

• Assists the board or staff in its work
• Plays an important public relations role by bringing in contacts to support the initiative
• Has no legal responsibilities; no right to serve and no immunity from removal
• Is generally limited to making recommendations and providing background for board decisions
• Provides the board or staff with a fresh perspective on programmatic issues
• Lends credibility to the project
• Develops subcommittees to investigate specific issues more in-depth
• Assists in program planning and creation

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Tool II: How to Form an Effective Advisory Group

1. Consider your current advisors, mentors and close colleagues. After several conversations with them, they will begin to feel that they have a stake in your initiative. Then ask them to be part of your informal advisory committee.
2. With the support of this core of advisors, reach out to people that you know, or simply know of. Approach them with the idea that you are not just asking for help, but seeking to give them a voice in a project that will also support their efforts and further their interests.
3. Do not begin planning your project before you ask for others to relate their experiences, needs and lessons learned. You are more likely to encourage participation when you ask what others think needs to be done, rather than just list all the wonderful things that you have planned.
4. Look for diversity; your group should not only have racial and ethnic diversity, but a diversity of perspectives to encourage rich discussion when you bring them together.
5. Use your advisory group or committee's members to provide credibility with potential funders and partners. Do not simply list their names; this is often a transparent attempt at providing credibility without the individual's direct participation. Instead, make a list of your members and write one or two sentences about who they are and what they do or will contribute to your project. Include this list in any information that you provide to potential funders and partners. It will demonstrate that your advisory committee members truly believe in and support the RC/EZ/EC's efforts.
6. Have regular, but not too frequent, purposeful meetings. Provide an informative introduction of each member. This not only gives each other background information and ideas for how they might work together, but also provides committee members with an opportunity to network.
7. As your RC/EZ/EC's health plans begin to move forward, be sure to highlight successes and emerging priorities. Let committee members ask questions, provide critiques and offer suggestions. Follow this up with a brainstorming session that allows them to add value to your work and theirs.
8. Use focused questions when querying your advisory group. Ask what is needed to reach their health goals and how the RC/EZ/EC can help to provide that. Ask about potential partners that they may know of or opportunities for outreach, fundraising, marketing, etc. Advisory group members will then have a focused role in helping the RC/EZ/EC's plans move forward.

Adapted from "Developing Advisory Committees" by Jim Pitofsky. Available here

Community Advisory Group Toolkit

This Toolkit is designed to provide a variety of information to help you set up your Community Advisory Group. The Toolkit has two parts:

• Part 1 is a collection of "how to" information. It includes step-by-step information on organizing your Community Advisory Group and suggestions about some of the major things to consider as you do so.
• Part 2 contains "tools"--such as outlines, forms, publications, and other materials--for use in establishing and maintaining your Community Advisory Group.

Community Engagement: Attributes of a Successful Group or Committee

Successful committees or groups have:

1. A mission statement. A committee needs a clearly defined mission. It should be expressed in an easy-to-understand statement of 25 words or less.
2. Process for setting goals and objectives. A committee should set goals for the future. Objectives should be stated in specific, measurable terms.
3. Committee recruitment procedures for stable yet renewing leadership. Does the committee or group have a high turnover or dropout problem?
4. Fewer than 18 people. If a committee seems too large and there are valid reasons for not reducing it, a subcommittee structure or task group should be used to undertake specific projects (15-18 is a good number).
5. Sufficient skills, diverse community interests and perspectives. A variety of member skills is needed to carry out the committee's mission effectively. Diverse community interests are needed to ensure proper representation.
6. Members' talents are fully utilized and their contributions recognized. Committees often don't take advantage of their members' potential contributions. Also, committee members' contributions should be mentioned during meetings and noted in newsletters and press releases from time to time.
7. Ability to give committee members substantial responsibility. In order for committee members to have a chance to exercise leadership, agency staff need to give them enough latitude to help make program decisions and initiate activities.
8. Decisions that represent feelings of the group. It is important that decisions result from discussions representing the different perspectives and interests on the committee.
9. Opportunities for members to learn new things. Committee members should be represented with opportunities to improve their organizational skills and knowledge of water quality issues. Educational activities could include calling in resource people to committee meetings or sending one or more members to a conference or workshop.
   

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Tool III: Potential Advisory Group Members

Below is a partial listing of the many public, private, and voluntary sector partners that states have engaged in similar initiatives. Some of these may be good resources when developing EC/EC advisory groups. Which are most important to you?

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Tool IV: Recruiting New Advisory Group Members

The membership of advisory groups should reflect the diversity of the community, including representatives from various cultures, socioeconomic groups and settings as appropriate. Building successful advisory groups and boards requires effective recruitment. Follow these tips for successful recruitment of new board and advisory group members:

• Follow all bylaws or other governing document's procedures in choosing new members of governing and advisory groups
• Set up a "nominating committee" to identify needed skills and areas of expertise and seek out individuals that fill those needs. Have this committee keep an updated list of potential advisory group participants and their skills.
• Take out a "Help Wanted – Volunteer Board Member" ad in the neighborhood newsletter or the alumni magazine of a local college. State the program's goals and type of expertise sought.
• Involve people most affected by the health issues that your RC/EZ/EC seeks to address. People who directly experience a problem have a different perspective on their needs than a politician who has only read about the problem or a professional that has studied but not experienced the problem. A nurse may have the clinical knowledge to advise as to what interventions are needed for diabetes patients, but a low-income citizen with family members that have the disease may have a better idea about the most effective way to deliver those services.
• Ask the RC/EZ/EC director or advisory group chair if there are any "hands-on" volunteers that would make good advisory group members. These individuals bring demonstrated commitment and a working knowledge of the organization's strengths and weaknesses. You don't have to "sell" the agency - they know it already!
• Pick four or five local organizations where you don't know anyone but would like to (For example: The NAACP, the Japanese American Citizens League, the local chapter of the AMA). Yahoo! is a great site to search for such groups (Look under "Community"). Ask each member of the RC/EZ/EC's advisory group to call one of these organizations and ask to have lunch with the group's president or executive officer. Suggest that your two organizations recommend "retiring" group members to each other as a way of strengthening ties among communities.
• Know what type of input you are seeking. Seeking input from key community members during a one-time forum requires different recruitment techniques than filling positions on committees and boards. The individual's level of commitment is different.
• Contact potential advisory committee members personally. Invite them to a meeting. Introduce them at the beginning of the meeting and ask if they have any questions before the meeting closes. After the initial contact is made, send the individual a packet of information about the RC/EZ/EC's plans. If you are asking them to serve on a health-specific advisory committee, list the needs of the community and ways that the RC/EZ/EC hopes to fill them. This gives them background information and encourages them to begin considering how they might contribute to achieving these goals.
• Be specific about what is expected from advisory group members. Tell the potential member exactly why they are being asked to serve. This allows the individual to understand what is being asked of them and to decide whether or not they have the time and energy needed to fill the role.

Adapted from National Resource Center for Respite and Crisis Care Services Factsheet Number 24 and the Board Café website.

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Tool V: How to Keep the Advisory Group Organized and Efficient

All of us have experienced unproductive meetings and advisory groups at some point in our lives. The key to keeping advisory groups productive is in how well organized its members are. Below are some "Dos and Don'ts" that RC/EZ/ECs can use to keep their advisory groups interested in RC/EZ/EC health initiatives and ensure that the group will be productive in its efforts.

• Don't let your advisory group get too large. Smaller groups tend to get more done quickly. Use more groups with fewer people (through subcommittees for example) so that each individual will have a chance to be heard and contribute rather than being overlooked in the crowd.
• Don't duplicate services. If there are groups that are already addressing the health priorities of the RC/EZ/EC, organize their resources and efforts so that time and energy are not wasted.
• Don't forget to acknowledge committee members' accomplishments and contributions through newsletters, minutes or verbal recognition.
• Do organize convenient and regular meeting times and locations. People often have tight schedules. Consider when the population you are trying to reach is available so that they will be able to participate. If necessary, organize transportation and childcare. If possible, schedule meetings 6 months in advance.
• Do end meetings on time. This way people will not feel that their time is being wasted or resent the imposition on their schedule.
• Do ask each member to serve on one committee. For many members, one committee will be sufficient. Others may be willing to serve on multiple committees. Make sure the committee assignments reflect the background, expertise and schedule of its members.
• Do create a system of checks and balances to monitor committee members' progress and advisory group's recommendations. This will help to assure that tasks are completed on schedule.

Adapted from the Community Toolbox and the National Center for Nonprofit Boards.

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These technical assistance resources for RC/EZ/ECs were funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through a cooperative agreement administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and prepared by the Public Health Foundation. Duplication and adaptation, with credit, are encouraged.

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Tips for RC/EZ/ECs

• Learn what the community and key partners see as important health issues.
• Build on community perceptions to gain broader support for priorities.
• Establish priorities and objectives that resonate with businesses in your RC/EZ/EC .
• Make sure everyone understands and accepts the process for recommending and adopting final priorities OR consider if you want to set priorities at all.
• Assign accountability for the priority and objective setting process.
• Strive for measurable objectives, but don't neglect important health areas where measures need to be developed and objectives may drive new data sources.
• Align priorities, objectives and strategies with your RC/EZ/EC's strengths, assets, opportunities, and tax incentives where possible.
• Organize objectives according to priority areas in the RC/EZ/EC plan.
• Show respect for what already has been accomplished to address priorities.
• Keep your objectives realistic.
• Don't chose a priority setting method that will require data if it's not available for the RC/EZ/EC.
• Commission national surveys or use questions from these surveys - National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey , National Health Care Survey , National Health Interview Survey , or the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance. System
• Look at projects local college or universities are working on.

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Links

EZ/EC Health Benchmarking Demonstration Project - Lessons Learned

Tools and Resources From the EZ/EC Health Benchmarking Demonstration Project

Civil Practices Network - Community Section
Provides perspectives on building community involvement as well as "how to put health reform on more civic foundations." This section includes:

A case study about Georgia Health Decisions, an "independent, non-profit, and non-partisan group that sponsored 257 community forums…across the state in 1991-93. In this process citizens had a chance to discuss their underlying values in health reform, and to clarify how these would guide difficult choices and tradeoffs. Focus groups and citizen panels were also used to permit specific demographic clusters to articulate their concerns and to search for value consensus with other segments of the diverse Georgia population."

Planning Community-Wide Study Circle Programs: A Step-by-Step Guide which describes how to "create broad-based democratic discussion of the critical issues their communities are facing. Includes basic steps, sample documents, stories, and resources."

Written Documents for Community Groups: Bylaws and Standard Operating Procedures
This bulletin "examines the tools an organization has available to structure itself to accomplish goals". These can be adapted by groups that wish to structure their advisory group's role.

The Community Toolbox
The mission of the Community Tool Box is to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas and resources. The web site provides tools needed to build healthier and stronger communities. The web site also provides information for those interested in a variety of community health and development issues and connects individuals to personalized assistance for improving community change efforts. The site offers the following information about advisory groups:

Developing an Organizational Structure for the Initiative
Includes sections on choosing a group to create and run your initiative; developing, training and maintaining a board of directors; and creating bylaws.

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