Explanation of Indicator
Florida is host to approximately 200 local, regional, national, and international organizations involved in education, advocacy, and group activities concerning environmental issues. Determining the number of organizations that address coastal issues is difficult, however. These organizations typically sponsor recreational and educational events, engage in public policy debate, and provide technical assistance and specialized knowledge. Public membership in these organizations indicates awareness of and concern for coastal issues. Specifically, public membership shows the strength and breadth of support for coastal policy issues and physical resources, provides an additional source of revenue for land purchase, research, education and other activities and actions usually sponsored by the government, focuses public attention through activities and education, and affects public policy by providing political support. An educated public is important for the successful development and implementation of coastal policy. This indicator will show the change in membership in coastal advocacy organizations, which affects the activities listed above.
Data Characteristics
SOURCE
There is currently no source of data for this information.
ACQUISITION
Not applicable.
COLLECTION
Not applicable.
Recommendations
Currently there is no source for these data. Several entities such as 1000 Friends of Florida, Florida Environments Magazine, and Pro-Earth Times maintain contact lists for a variety of environmental groups; however, the lists are incomplete, no membership numbers are stated, and they are not differentiated by coastal and non-coastal groups.
Alternative 1
The Florida Coastal Management Program (FCMP) should assemble a directory of all public interest organizations that address coastal issues This search could be guided by the Florida Assessment of Coastal Trends issue areas, and the lists maintained by the above-mentioned entities could provide the initial contacts. Determination of whether the organizations are involved in coastal issues should be left to self-reporting by organization representatives.
Once an appropriate list has been assembled, the organization contacts can be surveyed for, at a minimum, the following information: membership size, scale of organization (city, county, state, national, etc.), types of activities (recreation, education, activism, lobbying, networking, etc.), budget, founding year, written or stated mission or purpose, and annual dues. In addition, to assist the FCMP in identifying other groups for surveying, the survey should ask if the respondent is aware of other coastal advocacy organizations.
The survey should be a mailed questionnaire that would be updated annually. For this indicator, total statewide membership in a coastal advocacy interest group would be reported. A potential shortcoming of this method would be the existence of individuals with multiple memberships, which would cause a double counting problem; an increase in the number of memberships statewide may have a component that only indicates the intensity of interest by a fixed number of individuals.
Alternative 2
The FCMP should develop the Florida Coastal Issue Survey to elicit responses from Florida residents concerning this issue. The survey should contain a question asking the respondent if they belong to a coastal advocacy organization.
Sample question: Do you currently belong to one or more non-profit organizations that are involved in coastal environmental, educational, or recreational activities? How many? Which organization(s)?
Summary of this information would show the number of coastal organizations to which each resident belongs; this figure could be converted to a statewide membership estimate. This approach would eliminate the double counting problem mentioned in Alternative 1 above.