Stakeholders help build best practices

'Being a stakeholder means reviewing a draft of proposed best practices and providing insight based on experience and knowledge.'

By Gerry DuBreuil, CSP
Over the past few years, I’ve participated as a stakeholder on several of SIMA’s Best Practices projects. It’s been interesting being behind the scenes and seeing how these new industry guidelines are developed.

Being a stakeholder means reviewing a draft of proposed best practices and providing insight based on experience and knowledge. SIMA compiles all stakeholder comments, reviews them and finalizes a set of best practices. Stakeholders are offered a final review of the best practices before they are published.

The process doesn’t end there, however. SIMA provides the guidelines to anyone in the industry, and there is an open-door policy. Anyone at any time can recommend edits or changes to best practices. The goal is to create a transparent process that adjusts to changes and needs over time, while ensuring quality reviews of information.

SIMA is now entering a new phase of best practices creation. This fall, SIMA released the Best Practices Guidelines for Sustainable Salt Use. Next, SIMA is gearing up to conduct a stakeholder review process tied to how facilities and property managers create RFPs for snow services.

SIMA has tried to make the guidelines as accessible as possible and recently created a new Best Practices page where visitors can download the best practices individually or in a convenient all-in-one package. To download your copy, visit www.sima.org/bestpractices.

I truly enjoyed the opportunity to serve as a stakeholder and felt it was a great way to gain perspective from multiple sources. I encourage anyone in the industry who wants to get involved and share their expertise to become a SIMA stakeholder content reviewer. Email Brian@sima.org to volunteer. 

Gerry DuBreuil, CSP, is manager at R&D Paving in Franklin, NH. Contact him at Gerry@rdpavinginc.com.