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Western States Water Council Executive Committee Minutes Sioux Falls, South Dakota May 3,2007 . Duane mentioned that he has been invited to and attended various meetings with respect to the projects for the water report. For our next Council meeting, we will begin to see more significant progress from the federal agencies. To this point, the WSWC has been the driver ofthe effort. This presents a very unique opportunity for the Council. We need to determine how the Council wants to sell this effort when we meet next spring in Washington, D.C. It will be very critical as far as what recommendations come out of the water report, and what effort is made to sell it. For the Washington, D.C. seminar next spring, from Duane's perspective, it is not in the Council's best interest to meet with a bunch of other groups. A joint session with Bob Hirsch of USGS and others is useful. But in meetings with the delegations, we really need to focus on a Western States Water Council driven effort and elicit the WGA to help set up the meetings. The Washington, D.C. meeting should be a pointed effort with a specific purpose of presenting the recommendations from the 18 governors, with WGA's help, in setting up appointments with the delegations. Some concerns with respect to the DC meeting include the timing - - competing with elections and the kind of action that will be happening in DC at that time. Are we really getting the biggest bang for the buck in going to DC this time? That needs to be under consideration, and thought out, and planned for. That said, Duane is very encouraged and expressed appreciation for everyone's support. Weir suggested that once the Corps of Engineers completes their effort and the WSWC comes out with their recommendations with respect to the water report, each individual state's Council representatives ought to go talk to their governors. Get the Governor involved in these water issues and make that pitch to the governors. . Duane then recommended that the Management Subcommittee and/or Executive Committee should sketch out an implementation plan and a checklist for what Council members should do relative to the report. Certainly talking to the Governor and to the congressional delegation is a good idea. It is important that we participate and share the level of activity that is going on. Craig stated that it is typical for the WSWC to provide a written report as part of the briefing materials of each of the affiliate organizations to the Western Governors' Association in connection with the WGA's annual meeting. At a minimum, a report will be in their briefing materials. There may not be a formal presentation made at the meeting. The Governors would be less interested in just hearing an update. They would be more interested if there is something needed from them. It may be that the Council will have some recommendations that could be endorsed by the Governors that would build on their initial report that could then be taken to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. But the projection is for the Council to have a final report and any related recommendations submitted to the governors in June 2008. There was some discussion about the possibility of moving the DC meeting back to June or July and holding the spring 2008 meeting in Oklahoma. Further, a question was raised as to whether it may be better to wait until Spring 2009 to hold a meeting in Washington, DC, once a new administration is in place. The downside of waiting to Spring 2009 is that many of the federal appointees are just being named and trying to get up to speed. It was decided to go ahead and hold the meeting in Washington, D.C. in Spring 2008. There is a lot of meat in the existing document, and building on that from existing WGA policy. A smaller group could go to Washington, DC at another time to do some special presentations. We could use the WGA lead governors on water to help champion the cause. . 6