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SLOW'~FLOW COLO:RADO .11 CENTER FOR J ReSource .~ CONSERVATION From: Center for ReSource Conservation Kara Csibrik:, Water Conservation Program Director To: Colorado Water Conservation Board Veva McCaig Tammie Petrone Slow the Flow Colorado Irrigation Audit Report (for 500/0 of completion of project) Task 1: Hiring of Auditors Task 2: Prepare & Conduct Field Audits Description of Task 1: Solicit, interview and hire auditors for the program. Accomplishments We hired 16 auditors plus a scheduler/program assistant. We hired one less auditor than anticipated, but our scheduler program/assistant started earlier and we k:ept on two auditors past the audit season to assist in office worl( for the Slow the Flow Colorado program. Obstacles encountered We were able to hire all auditors prior to the start of the program. Though advertising for positions started early in the spring, we found most inquiries for the position still occurred in late April or early May. It seems that seasonal position seel(ers tend to look for openings closer to the season for which they are wanting to worl(. This can be disconcerting as the start of the audit program is fixed and staff needs to be hired and trained in time for the beginning of the program. The cities of Aurora and Greeley were located farthest from our office headquarters and we found it more difficult to find employees that lived near these areas than in cities closer to our home office. Targeted job announcements (to universities and non-profit job boards) seemed to be overall more successful than classifieds in local papers. Classifieds were also very costly. We did send out job announcements to irrigation contractors and companies and received no response from these entities. Description of Task 2: Train auditors and assure qualifications to conduct audits (by CLIA- Kara Csibrik). However the auditors will not become certified by the Irrigation Association as CLIA 'so Accomplishments Auditors were trained during a three and a half day session by Kara Csibril( - CLIA and Jeannine Shaw (auditor for Slow the Flow Colorado 2004 and 2005). Auditors were tested out of training and were reviewed many times during the summer by experienced staff for quality control purposes. Bi-weekly meetings were held to address any questions, concerns, share tips, and review irrigation lessons. Obstacles encountered The training was very comprehensive and we felt confident our auditors could accomplish the tasks asl(ed of them. Though auditors are not expected to manually fix or repair any problems found during the audit, we find that this type of hands-on training is essential for a full understanding of irrigation analysis and to answer clients questions or to make recommendations.