REPORT
ON
8. FEEDBACK FROM SCCED'S "CLOSING THE LOOP" CONFERENCE
, November 18, 1998
Response:
We
received 24 forms plus 3 written comments. This is a response rate of 22% from
the 125 participants and speakers.
Overall
Rating
:
The overall rating of the conference averaged to 8.9 out of 10, while the
vendor booths averaged 8.0 out of 10. When asked if they would be interested
in attending a next step conference,
92%
said yes. (Only one person was unsure and one did not respond.)
More
dialogue
:
59% of respondents wanted more dialogue with speakers while 70% wanted More
dialogue with other attendees.
Location:
71%
were positive about the location. The negative comments were mainly on the
distance to drive and the traffic. Three people said the vendor booths on the
Santa Monica Promenade were too far away from the conference meeting site.
Topics
for Future Conferences:
Desired topics are listed in order of interest:
Bid Specs for Buying Recycled Products
Cooperative Purchasing
Less Toxic, More Eco-Safe Products
Educating End Users
Working Interdepartmentally
Policies/Resolutions for Buying Recycled Products
Recycled Products Details/Testimonies
Incentives for Buying Recycled
Working with City Councils
Price Preferences
Sustainable Cities Programs
Building a Team for Environmental Responsibility
Using Internet Resources
Working with Vendors
Eppnet Listserve
Presidential Executive Order
Buying Renewable Electricity
Specific
products people were interested in included:
paint,
automotive and vehicle maintenance, paper and office products, janitorial
supplies, non-toxic cleaners, and any "new or unusual yet usable products."
One person suggested there be some sessions on ideas and issues relative to
recycled products for schools and universities.
Piggybacking
on other contracts:
70%
wanted more information on piggybacking on a state master contract, while 61%
were interested in the City of Los Angeles master contract.
County
coordination
:
26% were interested in looking at ways to coordinate within the County.
Consumer
Reports
issue
:
Of those responding, 86% said they would benefit from a
Consumer
Reports
magazine issue dedicated to buying recycled products. As one participant
commented, "I think EVERYONE would benefit from this type of issue. What a
great idea!"
Services
from SCCED
:
35% wanted to purchase a SCCED Buy Recycled Resource Guide, 26% were
interested in individualized consulting with their municipality, and 26% were
interested in being part of a SCCED Buy Recycled Task Force.
Other
suggestions/comments
(all comments received are included below):
Need
to hold this conference in other parts of the state--we would again help with
advertising.
I'd
like to see an Northern CA location as well.
I
think the conference was very informative, and I was able to go away with great
resource opportunities and opportunities for future networking.
Nice
job on the conference. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Thank
you so much for including EPA in your conference. I really enjoyed the program
& meeting you. The purchaser turnout was the best I've EVER seen!
Congratulations!!! You really did SCCED ("succeed").
Thank
you very much, I REALLY ENJOYED THE CONFERENCE.
The
people that I talked to seem to think that the conference was worthwhile. I
would offer to speak again, but earlier in the day. You ran a little long in
the afternoon and many folks seemed to have left to beat the traffic and I
understand that need.
I
would have liked to hear more from the recycling coordinator from the City of
Santa Monica. He had some very useful hints on working with Purchasing. Also
the last session which was mediated by the City of Riverside was not good at
all. It didn't address the topic at hand.
A
roundtable with piggybackable bids would have been nice. The agencies with
piggybackable bids need to provide their formal bid limit, was the procurement
over the formal bid limit, a copy of the specs, the vendor list, a staff
report, how long is the bid good for, and a copy of the P.O. Of course, they
need to add a piggyback clause to their IFB and verify w/the vendor, if they
will honor the agreement with other agencies. Once you can post the appropriate
info to your Website, I will have our webmaster add SCCED as a link.
Thank
you for an excellent conference! You and your staff are doing a fantastic job
of educating the community and helping us work together to bring about
positive changes to our world.
Excellent
program, "yar did good!" I would be happy to host anytime in the Inland Empire.
Great
conference, maybe next time it can be a two day event.
Combine
efforts with CRRA or attend the June conference in San Francisco.
I
was a speaker in the Maintenance Track and I thought that section went quite
well. I enjoyed the other speakers and loved the tour of City facilities with
actual users giving presentations about their experiences.
All
the speakers were very informative, but there was a lot of repetition between
the panels/speakers.
The
Conference was, in general, informative.