Constituent Engagement is particularly significant for all individuals who endeavor to engage the greatest number and diversity of people with them in any number of the entities with which they affiliate. This includes their intention to promote greater involvement in those entities and to share perspectives exposed by those entities on critical issues with people throughout the community – local, regional, national, global.
As a specialist, working with individuals and organizations in expanding Constituent Engagement, I have initiated the use of “Constituent Engagement Markers” as an important part of the process.
“Constituent Engagement Markers”
In examining websites, I circle words or phrases with an eye toward how they might impact the new and continued engagement of individuals. This now includes the identification of Constituent Engagement Markers on websites, in newsletters, emails and public statements.
Markers which have been circled as impacting Constituent Engagement are each identified as an “incentive” (+) or a “barrier” (-) to engagement by the reader (or listener).
Being conscious of Constituent Engagement Markers has become a critical part of the efforts of all those who seek to enhance (a) the engagement of individuals in their institutions, and (b) their participation in “communal discourse.”
In my consultations, this becomes a central part of conversations among those affiliated, as leadership and as constituents, on how the language of the Marker reflects their own image of the entity and how the entity might be perceived by others. This serves as a primary focus in assisting in the process of moving each (-) to a (+). Shifting to a (0) is not an objective.
Specializing in Constituent Engagement often includes focusing on issues of equity and ethical practices. In the process of extending Constituent Engagement, one key factor is examining how the expression of language, as contained in the Markers, reflects attitudes within the entity on how individuals are perceived by that entity and by people affiliated with that entity. Like all Constituent Engagement Markers, this impacts how individuals feel about their engagement with that entity and with those other affiliated individuals.
Your perspectives would be a valuable part this exploration.
Please try this – identify 3 Constituent Engagement Markers on a website where you are engaged.
I look forward to hearing from you with your perspectives and Markers – jaymiller@blueconnect.org
Furthermore, you have a key role as you share in the communal discourse wherever you are engaged – locally, regionally, and nationally, even internationally – in navigating all the ramifications of the identification, examination and, as necessary, the transformation of Constituent Engagement Markers.