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citizens, business leaders and others to participate along with formal committee members to broaden the <br />discussion and strengthen connections to the public. It is also helpful, if your committee does not have <br />the assigned services of a city staff person, to assign group members simple tasks such as creating <br />agendas, arranging rooms, sending out emails, writing a summary of the important <br />issues/decisions/recommendations from meetings, updating spreadsheets, uploading documents, writing <br />communications, etc. This helps decrease leader burnout and enables other group members to take <br />ownership of their roles on the committee. <br />➢ Operate under city authority. Not a problem if a city council -chartered citizen's commission serves as <br />your GreenStep coordinating body. (Note that Minnesota's open meeting law applies to city -appointed <br />commissions.) But if a civic group is serving this role, work with the city council to be formally <br />recognized as the GreenStep committee for the city. And then regularly report back to the council on <br />your work in the city and with city staff. <br />➢ Clarify decision-making and build strong city connections. A clearly written and transparent process <br />can eliminate power struggles and hurt feelings. And be clear how written committee recommendations <br />flow: for a city commission, do city staff receive them, and/or do they go directly to the city council? <br />o Does the committee have access to and receive presentations and assistance from municipal staff <br />or consultants in areas such as planning, engineering, legal matters, purchasing? Does your <br />committee formally interact with other city commissions such as planning, economic <br />development, parks and others so that `the one hand of city government knows what the other <br />hand is doing?' <br />o Maintain rapport with your city's leadership especially before and after City Council or Mayoral <br />elections, when your City Council is setting annual goals and/or when your city gets a new City <br />Manager. <br />o Is sustainability and GreenSteps written into the job description of any city staff person working <br />with your committee? <br />➢ Create a yearly work plan. Ideally your committee will meet once a year in a city council work <br />session, where you can share and discuss a draft work plan with city council members before finalizing <br />work goals for the year. Clarify how your work fits with other city work and city committees and <br />commissions. Include measurable short-term and long-term sustainability goals in your plan. Consider <br />an annual recognition of community sustainability champions. Revisit the plan a couple times a year to <br />assure progress is being made and adequate resources are deployed to achieve success. <br />➢ Communicate, engage, network. While some committee members are content to evaluate policy, <br />research possible initiatives and measure progress, there should be some members, or members working <br />with city staff, who focus on engaging the public in person, on social media, and in writing: educating <br />the public about sustainability issues and needs; informing the community at large of your green team <br />efforts and engaging them to help out; gathering feedback from the public on community issues; <br />connecting with other city efforts led by civic associations. And learning from the green teams of nearby <br />or similar cities. Rather than creating new stand-alone events, focus on participating in already existing <br />city events, and going to meet with community groups at their events/meetings. <br />Note that this document is available at MnGreenStep. org on the web page for best practice action 24.1 <br />