Events and Results: Participant Summary

Reinvestment vs. Expansion System Improvement Priorities Expansion Priorities

To date, Dots & Dashes has been played by over 100 individual regional stakeholders in 25 working Dots & Dashes groups. Participants have included:

• Representatives of DVRPC’s member cities, counties, and transit agencies (including NJ TRANSIT, PATCO, and SEPTA);
• The members of DVRPC’s standing Regional Citizens Committee (RCC);
• Members of the public and representatives of other interested stakeholder agencies who participated at our central public event, held at the Center City Loews hotel on the evening of November 7, 2007.

In each of these cases, participants were randomly assigned to groups, in order to ensure a level of negotiation and consensus-building among disparate stakeholders within each group. Participant ZIP codes were collected, and the map below illustrates the geographic distribution of participants from throughout the region.

As this map indicates, we were able to attract participants from throughout the DVRPC region, including representatives from each county. Dots & Dashes is a significant component of public outreach related to DVRPC's long-range planning efforts, and diverse public outreach methods were utilized to advertise the game.

The primary outlet for participation was an event held in November 2007 in Center City Philadelphia. To promote this event, postcards were sent to contacts on DVRPC’s extensive public participation outreach mailing list, which includes residents, local government officials, businesses, and non-profit & civic organizations. A website, www.dotsanddashes.org, was developed for participants to obtain information about the event. The program was also advertised via DVRPC’s various committees, including the Regional Citizens Committee and through “fax blasts” to businesses and organizations in southern New Jersey. In addition, the game was also advertised at several street fairs and conferences throughout the autumn of 2007.