Martin Rauch

President

Martin manages the San Jose office, which is devoted primarily to the planning and implementation of strategic communication programs for public agencies throughout the state. Working closely with the Board of Directors and senior managers, he tailors public involvement projects that range from individual events to major multi-year projects.

He is an expert at effectively communicating to the public about financial needs and realities of water agencies, providing the proper venues for citizens to ask questions and provide input, and then communicating that public input back to public agency staffs and boards.

Martin, his staff, and affiliates have daily experience implementing virtually every type of communication activity from productive public meetings, to small stakeholder meetings, eye-catching mailers, interactive websites and more. These experiences on past projects directly mirror activities that may be needed by the District and provide him and his staff with a broad base of knowledge which they can apply to this project.

Martin also conducts strategic planning sessions for the Boards and senior managers of client organizations, as well as training in effective Board meetings, roles and relationships of Board members and managers and other related topics. He specializes in the preparation and facilitation of a wide variety of meetings. These complex events include focus groups, citizen’s advisory committees, community presentations and public meetings.

Mr. Rauch has served as a speaker and seminar leader for the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), California Association of Sanitary Agencies (CASA), California Special Districts Association (CSDA) and others. He was a regular faculty member of the Special District Institute, is a regular speaker for CSDA, and is on the Board of the Special District Leadership Foundation. He is the principle author of the Special District Leadership Foundation certificate course on strategic planning, as wells as Governance Foundations. He has been invited as a speaker to other statewide associations.

Prior to his work for public agencies, he served for several years as a community organizer and educator for nonprofit organizations, organizing community groups and producing educational and information materials. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Martin’s formal training also includes completion of Business Mediation Training at UC Berkeley, as well as courses in Facilitating and Mediating Effective Agreements. Martin is a certified Balanced Scorecard Professional (BSP) from the Strategy Management Group and The George Washington University College of Professional Studies.