Roles of Committee Chair: Report Dissemination and Impact

Most studies are carried out for the purpose of having some impact on public policy. Dissemination is essential to this purpose as was recognized in the original charter to the National Academy of Sciences: "....the Academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science and art."

Every report has one or more audiences and should be disseminated. Dissemination planning should start well in advance of a report's release.
Dissemination requires cooperation among the chair, members of the committee, the project staff, and the staffs of the Office of News and Public Information (ONPI), the Office of Congressional and Government Affairs (OCGA), and the National Academy Press (NAP). The chair and staff together generally represent the committee in working with ONPI, OCGA, and NAP and preparing a dissemination plan.
The dissemination plan should reflect an agreed-upon sequence of activities and events that can include press conferences, public presentations, congressional testimony, and the preparation of press releases, report summaries, and op-ed articles. The media relations strategy should be coordinated through ONPI and the congressional relations strategy, if needed, through OCGA. The plan should be shared with the committee.
Dissemination events requiring the participation of the chair and members of the committee should be rehearsed.
Dissemination activities should be followed up by the staff, committee members, and institution's leadership, as appropriate, to ascertain the impacts of a report over both short-term and long-term periods. "What difference did the report make?" is a strategically important question for the institution to explore because the answers could have significant leverage in its future activities and outreach.