Our mission:
is to organize people with
disabilities, seniors, lowincome citizens, and other
concerned Texans for equitable
transportation through local
and statewide alliances.
State/Federal Alliance:
 Reauthorization
 $5 million in JARC programs
 State and Local Media Campaigns
 Mandated Public Transportation
Coordination (funding and services)
 Changed State DOT Rules:
• More local funding flexibility
• More support for alternatives
• Specific policy improvements
 Gas Taxes paying for Public
Transit (including Health/Humans
Services)
Local Alliances:
Transit Campaigns
Transit Planning
Local Alliance and Campaign Activities
 Transit Coordination
MPO Certification
Lubbock
 Housing and Urban
Development
 Travel Training
 New Job Access $
Pedestrian Audits
 Ambassador
Program
Elections
• Imply a relationship of support for “x”
issue or candidate.
• Too often a campaign is a blunt
approach to a basic marketing objective.
• Campaigns should be about winning the
hearts and minds of voters.
• How can we do a better job of building
relationships of support?
A different way . . .
Three examples – Austin, Lubbock, Tarrant
Co. – of building a solid foundation on
which campaigns are a confirmation.
Activities that create an atmosphere for
relationship building.
Highlight the key lessons learned.
Capital Metro - Community Connections
• Making amenities a community asset.
• Teaching agency staff a different way to
related to customers and community.
• Building a “can do” image.
Staff
Elected officials
Users
Community leaders
Prompt Awareness &
Creativity
Get a Street-Level View
Small Group Problem
Solving
Find Consensus
Capital Metro – Investment as an Incentive
Building strategic relationships early
• Building a winning team for commuter rail and
economic development.
• Champions, Junkets, and a Challenge
• Regionalism
Lubbock
• CitiBus proposes cutting Saturday service and
routes.
• Citizens get council to to reject the proposed
changes – now what?
• Understanding the challenges.
• Getting an ESPA/CTAA planning grant.
• Opportunity for stakeholders to learn.
• Process for articulating each interest.
• Time to build trust and empathy.
• Richland Hills files for an election to decide if
it will continue to have a $.05 sales tax for
transit.
• The-T provided a TRE station and per capita
the highest level of transit services in the area.
• Why?
• Walmart moved to North Richland Hills!
Richland Hills
Keys to HELPING your transit agency discover that
TRANSIT can be a COMMUNITY ASSET
Relationships are not built over night
Research
Process is important
Values clear and direct actions
Message and messenger is important
Closing the deal
Research
• Focus Groups
• Survey
• Intuition
• Talk to key people/communities/customers
• Listening sessions
• Don’t forget to follow-up and measure!
Process
• Review operations, activities, investment that it
already makes for innovations.
• Look for ways to improve customer/community
involvement and their investment in the outcome.
• Look for give participants a sense of
accomplishment and meaningfulness.
• Education, relationship building, image
refinement can be second tier objectives.
Lead with values
• Good stewart of the public trust
• Customer service is our mission
• A reliable partner
• Humility
• Empathy
• “Virtue is always bold” Shakespear
Message
• Use research to develop strategy, message, targets;
then stick to the plan.
• The best message has substance supporting it.
• It takes time to help people understand, appreciate,
feel good about, or want something.
• Connecting through existing trust relationships is a
short cut to customers, neighborhoods, communities,
and to voters.
Closing
• You can do all this awareness, education,
relationship building and feel good stuff AND get
nothing.
• The close, has to be part of the plan.
• In an election - ask for the vote.
• In relationship building – ask for mutual
respect.
• Converting respect to a yes, is much easier than
converting unawareness into yes.
Conclusion
May sound like a lot of work, BUT:
• NGO’s are uniquely qualified
• Agencies will pay a fair wage for these
professional services
• The alternative – losing an election – is
harder and more distasteful.