|
|
Entries for the 'TA Providers' Category
Steve Wilson posted on February 16, 2012 12:32
Technical assistance providers and federal agencies that serve and support tribal water and wastewater systems have developed a unifying and comprehensive strategy to coordinate services. This approach has given everyone involved a better understanding of the roles they each play in supporting tribal systems and has resulted in improved working relationships that are paying dividends for the tribes they serve.
Tribal Technical Assistance Workgroup
A national workgroup was formed to look at the technical services being offered to tribal water and wastewater systems. The group included tribes; those providing tribal services including rural water associations, regional RCAP affiliates, tribal organizations; as well as the federal partners also serving tribes, IHS, USEPA, and USDA. The IHS found that about 12% of American Indian and Alaskan Native Village homes do not have safe water and/or basic sanitation facilities, compared to 0.6% of non-native homes in the US. The committment was made to try and reduce the number of tribal homes without access by 50% by 2015.
In evaluating services, they found that service was inconsistent across Indian Country, in some areas there was coordination among service providers, but in many some areas there was not. Lack of coordination and communication has lead to confusion, conflict, or inefficient use of limited resources. The workgroups objective was to maximize the benefits that coordination and communication would provide to create a higher level of service for all tribal systems, while minimizing the duplicate services and conflicts that were barriers to service and wasting resources. The result of their efforts was the Tribal Access Workgroup Report that describes their efforts, and provides recommendations on how to move forward to develop better coordination and communication among tribal service providers.
The Recommendations
The workgroup came up with 9 recommendations to improve coordination that revolved around two specific action items. One was development of an online tool that should be maintained to allow service providers and recipients to easily identify their respective TA partners. The other action item was to hold semi-annual technical assistance coordination meetings, and in the report, the structure, format, protocol, and justification are all provided in detail.
Outcomes
The online tool is the Tribal Contact Manager database, found under "Tribal Resources" on SmallWaterSupply.org. If you are a provider or tribe interested in knowing who your partners are, you can search the database for a list by organization, then click on the specific office to get to their contact information.
The technical assistance provider (TAP) meetings are ongoing. I have been fortunate enough to participate in these meetings, so far, in Arizona and Nevada, and its clear that this approach is providing the service providers with a new, improved paradigm with which to develop services. Region 5 is holding its next TAP meeting next week, we are already seeing the providers sharing information in advance of that meeting.
Communication and coordination are always crucial pieces of any service program. Formalizing an approach that takes advantage of everyone's strengths is already providing dividends for the providers. We are excited to see the long-term value of these coordination meetings come to light as tribal services become more consistent, efficient, and effective.
Steve Wilson posted on October 04, 2011 18:40
As you may or may not realize, some of the Federal programs that support operator training and technical assistance for small systems were not funded this fiscal year (starting Oct 1). This will affect many states as training providers look at charging for training that has been free in the past, and technical assistance providers struggle to maintain staff levels.
Small System Technical Assistance
The programs I am referring to are for the state Rural Water Assocations and the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) affiliates. Here in Illinois, the message from the most recent Illinois Rural Water Association newsletter is that training will no longer be free. We have seen the same from several other state Rural Water Associations, as some have eliminated part of their training programs or lost staff altogether. It's the same for the RCAP affiliates and their state programs. Many are losing staff and that will mean fewer services provided. Its a frustrating time as we watch the organizations operators have come to rely on struggle with funding issues. It's also a worry that the expertise these folks provide may not come back, and thats everyone's loss.
Understanding Value
As a small system operator, now is the time to realize that this may be the new normal for the forseeable future. Free or not, you still have to maintain your CEU's. That means you need to budget for training, some of you for the first time in a number of years. What it also means, I hope, is that any operator who has taken advantage of the free training opportunities in the past realizes how valuable a service it has been.
Steve Wilson posted on July 25, 2011 08:51 
I was at AWWA's Annual Conference June 12-16 and attended several of the small systems sessions. As has been the case over the last few years, one of the prominent topics revolving around capacity development is the potential shortage of operators.
We All Have To Get Involved
It's not enough to take care of your system and just go about your business. All of us, operators, TA providers, vendors, educators, and state/federal authorities, need to get involved in promoting jobs in water/waste water. Most of us know of an operator who is over 70, who's community/system has no idea what they are going to do when that person moves on/retires.
What You Can Do
There are a number of things you can do. One is to contact your state's operator schools and offer to host an intern. Many of the operator training programs are desperate for on-the job opportunities for their students. Talk to your state folks and TA providers and find out what intern opportunities might be available in your state and offer to help.
It's Time To Open Up Your Plant
After 9/11 many plants closed their doors to schools, youth groups, and other civic organizations. I understand the worry and the need to take safety seriously, but its time to start plant tours again. It was one of the best ways to inform the public, and more importantly, the next generation of potential operators, about the need, benefit, and importance of water and waste water treatment. If we want an informed public, we have to let them in and show them what we do. We have to publicize ourselves, toot our own horns, be proud of what we do, and look ahead to what our systems are going to do when its our turn to pass the responsibility down to the next generation.
Jennifer Wilson posted on July 20, 2011 14:40
We all have good intentions. We want to serve our audiences, our customers, our clients in the best way we know how, to protect public health and the environment. But sometimes we, like anyone, can be short-sighted. We develop "great" new ideas that may not be all that spectacular to the end user. We think we are saving time or money, but maybe we overlooked an important piece of information.
I started thinking about this last week after reading this blog post on certain websites (i.e. Flash-based sites) not being accessible on the iPad. The post turned the problem on its head, pointing out that the solution is not to buy another brand of tablet, but for the creator to maximize his reach by better considering the needs of his customer.
This reminded me of a situation we had encountered just the day before while visiting one of our pilot project communities. In this example, the village president was eager to use a form developed by a TA provider for preparing an emergency response plan. The form was in Microsoft Word (including not just text, but form fields) and this individual was using Open Office. While Word is more commonly used than Open Office, a fill-in PDF would have served both types of users in the end.
What This Means to You
The lesson here applies to both small systems as well as the agencies and assistance providers who support them. While I don't recommend catering to every last permutation of needs, we can all take steps to better understand the end user's needs before jumping in feet first. For a water system, this could mean conducting a survey of email and text message use in the community before implementing an electronic system of instant notification. For others, even us here at SmallWaterSupply.org, it means being both adaptive and forward-thinking when it comes to development of new products and tools. They need to not only work, but work well.
Through efforts to better understand and hone our focus on the customer, we continue to build the much-needed trust that keeps all our efforts financially sustainable.
|