Will people join an inquiry not mandated by authority?

In the Governance Project, we are recruiting people from across the NRM system in the Corangamite region in Victoria. The Project will be more effective the more people it engages, so how do we get the numbers up?

Myself and Moragh Mackay, the co-facilitators, have no positional authority, but reasonable reputations. The purity of our aspiration is not enough. Our tactics currently are to: a) name our sponsors (a consortium of Landcare Networks); b) publicise who’s in already; c) report the methodology and results as we go; and d) make it plain that this inquiry requires voluntary commitment.

To expand the last point, the inquiry is for those who identify with the idea of improving governance. There are no required outputs, only outcomes as sought by participants, and the inquiry brings only one new accountability, and that is to others who also consider themselves innovators in governance.