DOCUMENT RESUME ED 108 892 SE 019 072 AUTHOR Culhane, Paul J. TITLE The Lake Michigan Federation: Evaluation of an Environmental Interest Group. LNSTITUTION Northwestern Univ., Evanst6n, Ill. Center for Urban Affairs. PUB DATE 7 74 NOTE I67p.; Occasional marginal legibility EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$8.2.4 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *Environment; Environmental Education; Natural Resources; *Organizational Effectiveness; *Organizations (Groups); *Program Descriptions; *Program Evaluation; Water Resources IDENTIFIERS *Lake Michigan Federation ABSTRACT Since Earth Day 1970, the number of environmental groups has approXimately doubled and the movement articulates a much broader and comprehensive philosophy than earlier conservation or preservation movements. The Lake Michigan Federation, one of the new environmental groups developed from the Open Lands Project, was publicly proclaimed in September 1970. The official goal of the federation is to "save the lake." This study is an evaluation of the Lake Michigan; Federation and was undertaken: (1) to provide the federation with means of examining its performance, (2) to monitor the use of grant monies, and(3) to provide useful information for other environmental groups. The study contains six chapters: History and Organization of the Lake Michigan, ederation, Lake Michigan Federation Operation, Political Effectiveness, Public Information and Membership Evaluation, Lake Michigan Federation Leadership, and Conclusion. The conclusions of the study include: (1) the group functions effectively as a political interest group,(2) federation leadership is very centralized and dependent on the work of the organization's Executive Secretary, and (3) the federation can be used as a model for other groups. Appendices are also included. (TK) ****************f****************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. ***********************4!*********************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION A WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR OROAN42ATION ORIGIN AIING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NUT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY- RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY BarjrSpares__ Nort e-_hwgar, jaulmis.._ TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NATIONAL. IN STITUTE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRO RUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM RE QUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER' -.- A .1. le (-NJ CT CO CO C) LU THE LAKE MICHIGAN FEDERATION: EVALUATION OF AN .ENVIRONMENTAL INTEREST GROUP Paul J.Culhane* Public Lands Project Center for UrbanAfiairs Northwestern University 2040 Sheridan Road Evanston, Illinois 60201 November 1974 *&search Associate, Public Lands Project, andPh.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, NorthwesternUniversity. Copyright ao 1974 NorthwesternUniversity PREFACE "Whatever legacy we L(Ave, Hell, it isn't going to be getting a Cesspool for Winnetka!" Richard Nixon to John Ehrlichman, April 14, 1973 Fortunately for Winnetka and other American communities, the sentiments reflected in the above quote are not universally held. The issues of "cess- pools for Winnetka" and other efforts to protect the environment are contested daily by government agencies, legislatures, and courts, at the local, state, and federal levels, by industries and other users of the environment, and by that collection of organizations, large and small, cosmopolitan and parochial, which has come to be called the "environmental movement." Since Earth Day 1970, a significant event has taken place in American interest-group politics -- the growth of the environmental movement. Since 1970 the number of "environmental" groups has approximately doubled (CEQ,1973), and, as Morrison et al. (1972) and others have pointed out, the movement articulates a much broader and comprehensive philosophy than either of the older conservation or preservation movements. New environmental groups, as well as established organizations like the Sierra Club, have attracted considerable resources: the time and effort of citizen activists, memberships dues, other membership contributions, and significant funding, especially by foundations, One such new environmental group is the Lake Michigan Federation(LMF).l The study was stimulated by one of the federation's major funding sources. iv. A portion of a three-year, $100,000 operating grant from the Ford Foundation to the LMF was designated for an evaluation study to be conducted by "an objective outside agency."2The Public Lands Project3 was contracted by the federation to perform this study in September 1973, and the, study has been conduCted during the past academic year. Our evaluation of the federation has three explicit objectives. First, the study is intended to provide the federation with a means of examining its performance and organization. Providing insights on which to base changes or improvements is implicit in such a goal. Second, the study could be viewed as an informal method by which the Ford Foundation can monitor its grant to the federation (although this goal was never explicitly stated by the foundation). It should be noted, however, that (a) the last year of the grant was not con- tingent on the outcome of this study, and (b) the grant was understood to be 4 one-shot, "seed money" arrangement only. Third, it is hoped that this study will prove useful for other environmental organizations, that an understanding of the experience and performance of one environmental group will be relevant knowledge for similar groups uao are seeking to examine their own performance. This third objective of the evaluation study reflects the rationale of the case-study method in academic social science: the study of one entity among many may provide insights into the common properties of all of a class of entities. In fact, this has been a personal objective of the author in con- ducting this study. While there is a well-developed tradition in the study of politics which argues, that interest groups play a significant role in the development of public policy, there have been relatively few detailed case studies of individual interest groups, particularly environmental interest groups.4 Hopefully, this study can contribute to filling this gap in interest- group literature. While an evaluation such as this should meet the objectives described above, it also presents certain unique problems. The primary or first goal of the study -- to provide the federation with a systematicevaluation of its performance -- does not fit neatly into either of the traditions of evaluation research. One tradition, policy evaluation research, is generally concerned_ with the outcomes or effects of governmental actions. That is, one evaluates whether a governmental decision did or did not have the intended effect and/or whether the decision produced some unintended result. Such an approach (rightly or wrongly) assumes that a governmental action has a direct and straightforward effect on some physical, social, political, or economic environ- ment; that is, the referent system includes only a governmental entity and some relevant environment which is being acted upon. However, an interest group like the Lake Michigan Federation does not operate in such a simple system. The LMF's actions (1) are at least one step removed from the actual decision, and (2) compete with the actions of others (e.g., industrial dischargers) and are reinforced by the actions of others (e.g., other environmental groups with the same point of view on given issues). The second tradition in public policy analysis focuses on the decision- making process in government. However, a process in which one entity (a government agency or legislative body) both receives pressures and makes a decision is much more amenable to both quantitative and qualitative analysis than a process in whcih one entity (an interest group) seeks to influence many decisions made by many governmental bodies. (Another plausible evaluation would be to examine the management efficiency of the federation's activities. This has not been a focus of the study, and the author's interests and competences would not enable him to perform such an evaluation. In addition, such an evaluation would not be particularly productive for an organization as small as the federation, with six full-time employees, etc.) V. A view of the federation as a discrete entity whose sole role is to influence public policy significantly underestimates the federation's ac- tivities. A major focus of the federation has been to "promote citizen participation in the public policy decisions needed to protect" Lake . Michigan.5This statement is not a myth generated by the federation to increase the legitimacy of the organization in the eyes of decision makers or to protect its "non-political" tax status. This function is widely perceived by officers, staff, and members