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• Board Meeting Date: 3/18/2008
• Description: OWCDP Section - Presentation on the 2008 Statewide Water Education Task Force Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

ColOl'ado \Vatel' Education Task Fone

Januar" 11,2008 Update

Background:

This initiative is conducted by the Colorado Water Education Task Force (WETF), which is funded by the Colorado
Water Conservation Board (CWCB) in partnership with the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education
(CAEE) and Colorado Watershed Network (CWN). In order to better understand the current status of water
education in Colorado, we are conducting a survey to gather information from as many water education providers as
possible.

Responses will be used to compile a catalog of water education programs and materials currently available in
Colorado. Survey results will be discussed in Focus Group meetings during February and a final report will be
compiled by March 2008. The final report will be freely available in electronic form to serve as a springboard for
improving the availability and effectiveness of water education in Colorado.

Overview:

Goal I. The planning committee met October 29th to confer on the scope of work and initiate the first components
of the project. This committee is comprised of a small group of water education professionals including Veva
McCaig, Reagan Waskom, Wendy Hanophy, Jacob Borustein, Jo Scarbeary, Doug Kemper, Rob Buirgy, Ali
Sweeney, Dan McAuliffe, and Diane Hoppe.

The goal of the October 29th meeting was to plan for a successful survey and a productive series of task force and
focus group meetings. During this meeting we accomplished tlle following:

1. Finalized survey format and questions.

2. Developed the basic structure of the focus groups (e.g. Youth, adult, and state government.).

3. Generated a list of groups and individuals to participate in the survey, task force, and focus groups.

4. Assigned responsibilities for contacting participants.

During the month of November, members of the planning committee finalized the lists of participants, finalized the
survey, and planned the November 29th task force meeting.

The task force met for the first time on November 29th, with 23 people attending. The goals of this meeting were to
orient task force members to the objectives of this initiative, fine-tune the schedule, review plans for the survey, plan
focus group meetings and discuss production of the final repOlt. During this meeting we accomplished the
following:

1. Finalized membership in the task force and agreed on roles of task force members.

2. Finalized the scope of work, milestones and schedule. Established March 1,2008 completion date.

3. Reviewed and edited the survey fornlat and questions.

4. Agreed on preliminary concepts for focus group participation and critical outcomes.

Goal II. The task force will generate a report detailing the current status of water education available in Colorado.
Members of the planning committee will manage the production of this report by compiling survey results and
drafting the report for review and comment by the task force.

Goal III. Three focus groups (State Agency, Adult, and Youth) will meet February 4tll - 6tll to accomplish the
following tasks:
1. Review the 'State of Water Education' report for accuracy and completeness.
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of current water education relative to their specific audience.
3. Produce meeting summaries describing the most effective aspects of current programs, outlining beneficial
changes or extensions, and identifying the resources necessary to optimize water education for their
audience.