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EQB holds in-person engagement workshop; board prioritizes outreach, storytelling and tribal co‑writing
Summary
At an in-person working session, EQB members suspended Robert’s Rules to workshop engagement priorities. Board members prioritized statewide outreach, storytelling about EQB work, innovations to an annual Environmental Congress, formal mechanisms for member outreach, and early tribal engagement and co-writing for rulemaking.
The Environmental Quality Board used a May 21 working session to workshop and prioritize public-engagement strategies the staff will pursue in fiscal year 2026.
Priscilla Vioat, communications and engagement coordinator for the EQB, led an interactive session in which the board briefly suspended formal meeting rules to allow small-group conversation, brainstorming and dot-voting on priority activities. The facilitation asked members to consider four engagement strategies in the board’s five-year plan: build and maintain meaningful relationships; bring Minnesotans together to discuss environmental issues; create opportunities for partners and affected communities to raise issues to the board; and strengthen tribal relations and consultation.
Participants proposed and prioritized actions across the strategies. High-priority items included better early engagement with tribes (for example, initiating pilot work groups in which tribal representatives and EQB staff co-write rule or guidance language), expanded outreach and in-person town halls across Greater Minnesota, improving storytelling about EQB successes (story maps, short videos and written stories), and experimenting with formats for the Environmental Congress to reach nontraditional audiences.
Board members and staff also suggested operational actions: maintain a centralized contact-management system to track outreach and historic input; create an online intake form that maps public input to EQB statutory duties; pair public members with staff for joint, district-specific outreach; and pilot office-hour style events or informal gatherings where board members can hear local concerns.
Next steps Vioat said staff will incorporate the prioritized activities into the FY26 work plan to be presented in August. She told the board the session was intended to guide staff prioritization rather than to adopt immediate policy changes. Staff will return with concrete work-plan items and costs in the coming months.
