Proof-of-Performance Theme
Action Oriented withPublic Benefit
Establish Credibility inPolicy Arena
Notes:
....industry’s credibility was suspect. And, if we were going to regain credibility, we had to gear our efforts towards behavioral changes that are aligned with public expectations. And, these behavioral changes must be presentable to the public in measurable terms, so those that give us our social license to operate can evaluate whether or not we are meeting their expectations. The message was very clear; we didn’t need a new and improved communications program, rather we needed a performance-based program that supported our communications -- we could not simply talk the talk, we needed to walk the talk. To our Board’s credit, they took this information to heart and challenged member company and AF&PA staff to determine the public’s expectations for forest management and develop a proof-of-performance program to meet those expectations.
We began with public opinion research, two years of it -- focus groups all over the country, national telephone surveys, you name it -- all in search of the values, benefits, or products the public expects from industry when we manage forestland and how we can best demonstrate to the public that we are meeting their expectations. In two slides I’ll summarize more than two years and over 1 million dollars of research......