AWWA ACE63172

The AWWA Section Public Affairs Model Program is a comprehensive program to help utilities, especially utilities serving less than 50,000 people, deliver their public health and safety message. It includes an organizational model for AWWA sections to deliver the program to their utility members. It not only provides for direct section communication with the public, but it gives utilities the tools they need to communicate locally with their customers. It includes a sample utility communications program, and access to the AWWA Public Communications Toolkit and the section's toolkit. The program is broadly based and comprehensive. The program has five basic communications strategies, namely: to make the section a proactive resource to the media; to develop media and stakeholder communications programs; to deliver AWWA and section core messages; to provide media and stakeholder communications training to utilities; and, to encourage utilities to compete in the AWWA Communications Achievement Awards. The paper introduces the Public Communications Toolkit and illustrates four pilot section's programs.