Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2008 — Community Consultation Network to help engage Hawaiians in conversation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Community Consultation Network to help engage Hawaiians in conversation

In 1897, a group of women traveled across Hawai'i to hold discussions within the Hawaiian community on the subject of the annexation of Hawai'i by the United States. What eame about from those meetings were the Kū'ē petitions signed by thousands of Hawaiians who opposed annexation. More than a century later, we at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs look to the spirit that carried those women from home-to-home in their quest to seek the mana'o of the Hawaiian community. OHA has numerous methods that we use to communicate with beneficiaries and the puhlie - newspaper, radio, television and

the Internet. And what we are learning is that when we eomhine the use of these tools, outreach to the conununity becomes even more effective. On Oct. 23, during a keynote speech at the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs Convention on Kaua'i, I announced a new initiative that OHA will be undertaking to coimnunicate and consult with the Hawaiian community on ahnost any topic. The Community Consultation Network, or CCN, will incorporate the use of the following: • Ka Wai 01 a, OHA's monthly newspaper with plans to expand to an additional electronic edition mid-month. • Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino, OHA's radio show, whieh ean be heard statewide. • Ho 'oulu Lāhui Hawai'i, OHA's community television show. • OHA.org, OHA's web site.

• Pacific Network TV, a webbased television network created by fihmnaker Edgy Lee and underwritten by OHA. The reason we are calling this a network is because we will be using all media at our disposal to get the word out about these eommunity conversations. Earlier this year, OHA trustees and staff traveled across the state to educate beneficiaries and the puhlie about the settlement proposal with the state over past-due revenue from the Puhlie Land Trust. During these coimnunity meetings and subsequent legislative hearings, we heard from beneficiaries loud and clear - eome and talk with us early on. We are listening, and this iniīiative is a big step in doing just that. With the Kau Inoa registry nearing 100,000 names, the first use of the CCN network will be to hold a conversation with the Hawaiian

coimnunity over nation-building. It is time for us to extend the conversation to allow eommunity members to tell us what they believe are the next steps in nationbuilding. It is an attempt to reach people in their homes or at eommunity halls so they ean candidly tell us what is on their minds. To accomplish this, one of the tools we plan to use is videoconferencing so that we ean have eonversations with Hawaiians across Hawai'i and the continental U.S. This could be at the OHA boardroom, a living room in Southern California, a meeting room in Dallas or a meeting at the Anahola coimnunity center on Kaua'i. The purpose is to gather as mueh information as possible in an eeonomieal fashion. We simply can't afford to fly people all over the United States and it's heeoming increasingly expensive to fly people to the neighbor islands. OHA will also provide the equipment to groups wanting to host videoconferencing meetings. OHA's web site and other media will provide information on the

meetings and collect coimnents from the meetings. We are also producing a 12-min-ute DVD to set up the background for the nation-building discussion. We hope to partner with other Hawaiian organizations like the civic clubs to also carry on these discussions. At the civic club convention, we set up a demonstration of how this videoconferencing meeting might work. Our coimnunications network was in full swing to publicize the demonstration of this initiative: You are reading about it here in Ka Wai Ola, I did a radio interview on Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino prior to my speech, and the radio show aired my convention speech live as I was making the announcement. During the demonstration, we had a group of OHA staff members at OHA's offices role play a meeting while I stood at the podium at the convention about 100 miles away. We conversed, asked and answered questions and exchanged ideas - as we hope to do with the coimnunity in the near future. E3

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By Clyde Nāmu'ū Administratur