Education Committee 2023 Final Draft Education Tools
Dear Boundary Review Board Clerk and staff:
At the 2022 Annual Training Conference in Skamania County, the Education Committee shared three specific documents that the “What” “How” and “Why” should be used to standardize board scripts to provide consistency in the deliberation process to avoid needless appeals This will help ensure the critical elements are covered during the public hearing process to ensure the board’s decision is supported legally and procedurally.
Following the presentation, the Education Committee, we asked what the Education Committee should focus on in 2023.
The most common suggestion was for public handout “tools” that could be shared with the citizens to help them understand the BRB processes.
A request was also made for an education on the requirement for stating Public Disclosures to include Ex Parte Communication. This piece outlines the steps to prepare such disclosure to ensure the public record reflects these disclosures The education committee has developed two additional tools on how to be an effective board member during their tenure on the boundary review board.
The last item is a simple tool for effective notetaking by creating a “Participant Checklist” ahead of the hearing that is used to accurately track speakers during the hearing. This technique is extremely useful after a stressful hearing and helps staff and board members to organize their notes on which speaker spoke during the hearing process. This can be an effective tool when there are multiple parties making arguments
Attached for you use are “Final Drafts” covering the above topics Please share this with your board members and as part of our standing policy you are free to use and/or revise to fit your organization. These documents should be instructive and reinforce the responsibilities that BRB members must exhibit in our quasi-judicial role. We also believe these tools will help newly appointment board members to understand their duties and in turn help the BRB staff in their training responsibilities. The following five educational tools that are attached to this email.
Documents are in the WSABRB Document Repository - access them here.
The Education Committee would love to hear any proposed changes that we should consider to finalize these documents and post them on our Washington State’s Association BRB website. Please feel free to contact David Hambelton (Vice-Chair) at davidhambelton@aol.com and Alison Sing (Chair) at awsing@comcast.net with your questions or suggestions to improve these documents.
Also, please include additional suggestions that the Education Committee can tackle in the 2023-2024.
At the 2022 Annual Training Conference in Skamania County, the Education Committee shared three specific documents that the “What” “How” and “Why” should be used to standardize board scripts to provide consistency in the deliberation process to avoid needless appeals This will help ensure the critical elements are covered during the public hearing process to ensure the board’s decision is supported legally and procedurally.
Following the presentation, the Education Committee, we asked what the Education Committee should focus on in 2023.
The most common suggestion was for public handout “tools” that could be shared with the citizens to help them understand the BRB processes.
A request was also made for an education on the requirement for stating Public Disclosures to include Ex Parte Communication. This piece outlines the steps to prepare such disclosure to ensure the public record reflects these disclosures The education committee has developed two additional tools on how to be an effective board member during their tenure on the boundary review board.
The last item is a simple tool for effective notetaking by creating a “Participant Checklist” ahead of the hearing that is used to accurately track speakers during the hearing. This technique is extremely useful after a stressful hearing and helps staff and board members to organize their notes on which speaker spoke during the hearing process. This can be an effective tool when there are multiple parties making arguments
Attached for you use are “Final Drafts” covering the above topics Please share this with your board members and as part of our standing policy you are free to use and/or revise to fit your organization. These documents should be instructive and reinforce the responsibilities that BRB members must exhibit in our quasi-judicial role. We also believe these tools will help newly appointment board members to understand their duties and in turn help the BRB staff in their training responsibilities. The following five educational tools that are attached to this email.
- Decision Process (Public Handout)
- Decision BRB NOI Flowchart (Board Members)
- Deliberation Criteria (Public Handout)
- Public Disclosure Requirements (Board Members)
- Effective Board Members (Educational tool for Board Members)
- Effective Notetaking: Using a Participant Checklist (Tool For Board Members and BRB Staff)
- Effective Note Taking – Sample BRB Public Hearing Participants List (2009)
Documents are in the WSABRB Document Repository - access them here.
The Education Committee would love to hear any proposed changes that we should consider to finalize these documents and post them on our Washington State’s Association BRB website. Please feel free to contact David Hambelton (Vice-Chair) at davidhambelton@aol.com and Alison Sing (Chair) at awsing@comcast.net with your questions or suggestions to improve these documents.
Also, please include additional suggestions that the Education Committee can tackle in the 2023-2024.