Coastal Services Center

In the past, public managers often worked in isolation from the public and made decisions primarily based on technical information. However, today's citizens expect and want to be involved in making decisions. These days, public preferences are often as important as technical criteria.

In addition, public managers have learned from the private sector that people often work more effectively in teams than individually, thus the growing trend to appoint special committees, task forces, or councils to address issues.* For these and other reasons, professionals working in the coastal management community have become increasingly interested in using collaborative processes.

*Federal employees should be familiar with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) before establishing or participating in advisory committees, task forces, or councils.

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