Wolf Creek Watershed Project

Minutes of Strategic Planning Meeting

September 13, 2003

Attendance:

WCWP Planning Committee:

            Angela Manuszak, Miami Conservancy

            Bruce Kettelle, Editor, Farmer, Trotwood Community Activist

            Graham Cochran, OSU Extension, Five Rivers Metroparks

            Caroline McColloch, Montgomery Soil and Water Conservation District

WCWP Stream Team Volunteers:

            Nancy Bain

            Larry Bell

            Wendy Boucuvales

            Trish Brechlin

            Deb Hull

            Steve Krieg         

Local Government / Environmental Agency:

            Jeannette Vail, City of Clayton

            Mike Cross, City of Dayton

            Mike Enright, Five Rivers Metroparks

All attendees were provided with a resource packet that included the following: agenda, attendance roster, list of volunteer activities (2002-03), Wolf Creek Watershed map, diagram of the process of building a watershed project. 

Activities and accomplishments of the Stream Team volunteers were reviewed, which may be summarized as follows:

v      Three introductory workshops, three monitorings completed in 2002

v      Six monitoring practice sessions in 2003

v      Two local tours

v      $700 grant money awarded

v      Related workshops attended by volunteers (grant writing, headwaters evaluation)

v      Stream Team Web site published

v      Storm drain markers installed in Brookville

v      12 watershed signs installed in four different local jurisdictions

v      Six newspaper articles published about group activities

Also reviewed were the steps recommended by the Ohio EPA in the process of forming and implementing a watershed project.  In general there are six steps: build public support, create an inventory of the watershed, define the problems, set goals / develop solutions, create an action plan, and implement/evaluate the plan.  It was noted that our group is accomplishing parts of the first two steps: establish a core watershed group; promote activities in the watershed; and assess the quality of the resources. 

The discussion then proceeded to long-term goals. Since our Stream Team is a small group (7-8 active members), it was agreed that stakeholder recruitment should have a high priority; which is to say, to enlarge (as above) the core watershed group, who would continue promoting activities in the watershed and assess the quality of the resources (develop baseline monitoring data).  A good deal of time was spent elaborating the concept of stakeholder, and listing possible groups from which new stakeholders might be recruited, as well as outreach methods.  There was general consensus that a stakeholder may be defined as any entity that potentially impacts the local water resources either detrimentally or in a positive way:

v      Farmers

v      Businesses

v      Developers

v      Local Governments (in terms of development policies)

v      Waste Water Treatment Plants (Brookville)

v      Home Septic System Owners

v      Five Rivers Metroparks (preservation/education)

v      Montgomery SWCD (conservation practices, education)

v      Adventure Central (educational)

v      Schools (educational)

We discussed having volunteers give presentations to stakeholders (as listed above) being an important outreach tool.   In the case of local governments, the activities of the Wolf Creek Stream Team can be included as part of their storm water management plans.  Nancy Bain and Bruce Kettelle both volunteered to develop a list of contacts for speaking engagements.  Mike Cross, Steve Krieg, and Caroline McColloch can assist with graphics resources for visual aids, and case histories to illustrate some of the threats to water quality in the Wolf Creek Watershed. These would be used to develop a standard presentation suitable for various stakeholder audiences. 

All present generally agreed that the major threats to water quality in the Wolf Creek basin are sedimentation (from agriculture, construction), impairments from accelerated storm runoff, and abandoned industrial sites (brownfields).  Mike Cross provided a short talk and photos of sedimentation problems in Wolf Creek.

A significant portion of the meeting was used to develop a vision statement.  Since funding for our group was identified as a valid long-term goal, a vision statement is also needed (see addendum for definition of terms), so that funding organizations get a clear picture of the group’s funding needs. Steve Krieg related that the grant-writing workshop he attended emphasized “Don’t let funding drive what you do.”

The participants brainstormed a long list of words and phrases that might be used in a vision statement.  They included the following:

Education                      Evolving             Process                        Growing

Preserve                        Natural                          Environment                 Community

Watershed                    Compliance                   Involvement                    Awareness

Recreation                     Wolf Creek                Play in Water               Safe

Beauty                          Healthy            

Development Practices

Help Municipalities

Core Community Values                                                 

 Health, Safety, Legacy, Responsibility, Hard Work

The following vision statement resulted from the discussion:

To preserve, promote, and improve the natural integrity of the Wolf Creek Watershed.

Although most of the allotted time was used up at that point, we briefly discussed the volunteer program.  We set the short-term goal for each team (of at least 2 volunteers) to complete one monitoring session in September and one in October.  The site choice will be first come, first serve. 

Caroline McColloch will continue to edit the Wolf Creek Stream Team Newsletter, maintain the web site, monitoring database, stream kits, and associated facilitation of activities as resources permit.

Next Steps

Several members feel that a quarterly meeting of all volunteers would help foster group cohesion and sustainability, however there needs to be a commitment to this by all active members and actual scheduling of dates.  Such could be one agenda item at a future volunteer meeting.  Another agenda item might be discussion of a mission statement and strategic plan (3-5 year long-term goals)

FYI

For medical and liability purposes, Stream Team volunteers will be registered with Earth Team, a Federal volunteer program sponsored by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Registration is by activity (i.e. watershed sign installation, monitoring, etc.)  And each person needs to keep track of hours.  Just indicate volunteer hours to Caroline for monthly reports.

Addendum

The following link provides good information on the differences between vision and mission statements: http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs/spfaq7.html

From this web site comes the following:

A vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a contribution to society. If a strategic plan is the "blueprint" for an organization's work, then the vision is the "artist's rendering" of the achievement of that plan. It is a description in words that conjures up a similar picture for each member of the group of the destination of the group's work together

Generally, a mission statement is “A few sentences that describe the essence of an organization to its stakeholders and the public”.

To summarize: a mission statement is the “who”, the vision statement is the “what”, and the strategic plan is the “how”