# Presentation: 540063

## Field Work:Effective Site Visits to Communities

- Field Work:Effective Site Visits to Communities

- Getting Out of the Office And Getting the Most Out of Community Visits
- Updated Jan. 2008

## Technical Assistance Takes Many FormsVisits Have a Purpose!

- Technical Assistance Takes Many FormsVisits Have a Purpose!

- Check Progress
- Solving  Problems
- Make a Speech (and do other things as well, such as awareness-building)
- Outreach
- Encouraging the community to plan ahead

## For the Most Effective Visit, Do Your Homework

- Interview your prime contact
- Get supporting materials from him/her
- Secondary Data:  Download statistics and analyze them
- Look at a map
- Yellow Pages Analysis:  Spend Productive Time in Your Motel Room
- Plan your entrance
- Do the Deed
- Plan your exit

## Information from Prime Contact Interview

- Sure you’ve been asked to stop by, but what’s the reason behind the reason?  Whose idea was this anyway, and why?
- What is the status of their Strategic Plan?
- What is the local social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental situation?
- Who else should you see in town?  Why?  Who should be avoided?  Why?
- What kind of time frame are they expecting?
- Who sets opinions in town?
- What hard information can be provided prior to your visit?

## Supporting Materials From Locals

- Newspaper articles
- Relevant newsletters
- Phone book
- Lists of local officials
- Lists of local clubs, civic organizations (including officers)
- “Chamber of Commerce” materials
- Maps (all sorts)

## Secondary Data:  Download Statistics and Analyze Them

- County economic data reveals sector interdependence
- Population distribution can help diagnose cultural factors
- Census data maybe getting old, what other sources are there for population, housing, and socioeconomic data?
- Check the web by doing a search on the community and/or county name.

## Get the Picture:  Look at Maps!

- Road pattern structure gives clues to history, geography and culture.
- Identify where people live and where they work.
- Locate essential economic development features such as major highways (where do they connect to?), railroads (active?), airports vs. airparks, waterways vs. watercourses, core business development vs. strip development.  Unique features?

## Yellow Pages Analysis:  Spend Productive Time in Your Motel Room

**Yellow Pages Analysis:  Spend Productive Time in Your Motel Room**

- Phone books are a wealth of information at your fingertips
- History & culture writeups
- Government offices
- Local maps
- And of course, phone numbers
- What services are local and which are long-distance or toll-free?
- What normal services are missing?
- What is the state of community technology?

## Exercise and Sample

- Notes:
- Population is approximately 15820 and the approximate number of families is 7602 . The of land area in Ada is 33.054 sq. kilometers and the amount of surface water is 0.147 sq. kilometers.
- Local prefixes are 332 & 436
- What can you tell about Ada from the yellow pages excerpt?
- 1.  Socially
- 2.  Culturally
- 3.  Economically
- 4.  Technologically
- 5.  Demographically
- What local needs are being filled by out-of-town providers?
- What’s the overall picture here?

**Notes:**
Why is there a listing for Chicken Dinners and Chinese Food?  No such entries exist in the Prince William Yellow Pages?

What are all the chemical entries doing in a town that lists only two cemeteries?  What does having only two cemeteries say about the population of the town?

Is this town well-computered?  What do you see in the listing that stands out?
Notice anything about tourism?  (see Campgrounds) Transportation? (see Bus Lines) No Cab listing, is there a Taxi listing? (no)

No listing for Cable TV?  Under Television.  What else is under television? (stations, local and all over)
What’s the deal with Theaters? (live and movie -- all live are in OKC, movies all over the state can be called and driven to)

## Make Your Entrance

- Get there early and see the town from different directions
- Get lost!  Ask for directions.
- Get a haircut, go shopping or have a cup of coffee (but not out on the Interstate)
- Arrive at the agreed-upon time!  Or have a great story as to why you’re late.
- After you’ve met your contact, see if there’s time in the agenda for a quick tour.
- Now that you have your bearings, relax and stay alert.

## Do the Deed (This is the easy part)

- Do the Deed (This is the easy part)

- All local problems are, by definition, “insurmountable” and “unique”
- Solutions are easy and plentiful
- Perfect solutions are impossible
- Listen to locals, and share stories from other places
- Hybrid ideas work best
- Workable solutions have locals at their hearts

## Make Your Exit

- Get a local to recap the experience -- focus on learnings and insights
- Debrief briefly.  Ideally, leave a record of the experience with the client, along with contacts, ideas, publications, TechNotes
- Agree on what promises were made by both sides
- Agree on next follow-up contact (phone or personal)
- Pack your materials and leave town, stopping only for gas or snacks. Do not speed.

## Don’t Forget Follow-Up

- Keep promises
- Keep promises quickly
- Get the ball back into the community’s court ASAP
- Keep a tickler list, update the rolodex, jot down lessons learned
- If everyone felt good about the experience, don’t be afraid to ask for a letter to the boss
- Continue to direct appropriate “solutions” to the community as a matter of course -- keep a list