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<br />response to this, and it gave us the impetus to continue with other <br />meetings that'perhaps were organized around some controversial ideas <br />and some ideas that were relatively unknown. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />In February, in cooperation with our annual meeting, we had the ground <br />water symposium, '.'where we took two days to investigate the issue and <br />the facts of ground water. <br /> <br />Now, the idea behind all these conferences is not only to distribute <br />information to the public, but it is to really manifest the idea of a <br />forum. That is to bring together people from across the state and <br />have them discuss the ideas face to face and discuss the ideas with <br />people that are known as experts, perhaps, in the field. <br /> <br />We move on now from just the information idea or aspect of our program <br />to the traditionally educational setting. Now, this is something where <br />very recently -- This is a new project for the Colorado Water Congress. <br />But as I mentioned, with the changing needs of the state, the idea of <br />education is changing, the concepts behind it. The Colorado Water <br />Congress members have been very interested in participating in these <br />changes, and so I have been participating -- and the Water Congress <br />staff has been participating -- actually with teachers: in the education <br />community., We have experienced field programs where we can develop <br />field investigation and lesson plans with teachers, where we can attend <br />programs in group communication, learn how to develop simulation games <br />with the idea in mind that we are addressing a new community. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />These are programs that are sponsored by the federal, state and local <br />agencies. We ,perceive that as'another very important element of our <br />education program. This represents a group that we are involved with <br />called the inter-agency, which is very new, and it brings together <br />resource people ,from state, local and federal agencies to exchange <br />education, conservation education, technology, to discuss their prob- <br />lems, their problems of communicating with the public, their resources, <br />how to let the public know what their resources are, and the problems <br />of the regulation of their resources. We feel that this is very <br />important also, in that one of the biggest problems in conservation <br />education today is that there is absolutely no communication between <br />federal, state, and local agencies. This group is starting to bridge <br />the gap that is there right at this point in time. <br /> <br />One of the maj or portions of our education program is the Captain Hydro <br />program. As Fred explained, this was something that received an <br />initial grant from the state of Colorado last January. F~om that point <br />forward, :with:the encouragement of the Colorado Water Congress members, <br />we have been able to devote time to the development and administration <br /> <br />-25- <br />