Message from Clay Rahn, President of RMWEA March 2025

Refreshing RMWEA’s Vision,

Mission, Values and Strategic Plan

Clay Rahn, RMWEA President

Spring is in the air! The sight of budding green leaves, colorful flowers, and warmer days are just around the corner. We will soon be able to enjoy a hike in nature without having to bundle up, Or a jog along one of the Rocky Mountain region’s numerous river trails without the worry of slipping on ice, Or enjoy that dinner on an outdoor restaurant patio with the whole family. Spring is a time of renewal, rebirth, and even a refreshment of sorts! It plays right into a major initiative that is in the works for RMWEA: A refreshment of our Vision, Mission, Values (VMV), and Strategic Plan (SP).

A little perspective: The VMV has not been updated since the 2016 Summer Planning meeting in Salida, and the SP was last published in 2021. Typically, a hard look (at a minimum) at both should be completed every three to five years. Thus, now is the time to update the SP, and maybe we are a little overdue on the VMV.

Action: I am excited to share with you that our recent Winter Planning event, held on March 6, served as our official kickoff for refreshing RMWEA’s VMV and SP. We began with a morning session consisting of just the Executive Board (a smaller group) to analyze the current VMV/SP and offer changes that are consistent with who RMWEA will be in 2025. You might be asking, “Why just the Executive Board?” Typically, a smaller group (usually an executive board or similar for most organizations) is ideal. Otherwise, the conversations can go in too many directions, and consensus can become impossible. So, after a four-hour long morning session, we opened the afternoon session for the larger group (including leaders of all sorts) to get input on the Executive Board’s overall direction with the VMV/SP.

Remember, Winter Planning served as just the kickoff for the refreshment. Several meetings will be held in the coming months before we are ready to roll out the new VMV and SP. Our goal is to have them published for all to see by the Rocky Mountain Water Conference in Keystone. It is a lofty goal, so please have grace with us if we need time beyond the late August conference.

Additionally, I would like to extend a special thank you to Simon Watson (Black & Veatch), Manon Fisher (Brown and Caldwell), Muzit Kiflai (Metro Water Recovery), and Stephanie Segler (Black & Veatch) for all their help and expertise in leading this effort. Simon helped the California Water Environment Association (CWEA) work through their VMV and SP, which made him our ideal candidate to facilitate this effort at RMWEA’s Winter Planning. Manon, through her professional expertise, helped to plant this idea as the main focus for Winter Planning in the first place when we met for lunch back in August. Muzit has extensive relevant experience in her career working through VMVs and SPs, as well as facilitating groups, so she too was ideal for this task. I very much appreciate Stephanie’s support in bringing everyone and everything together to make this happen.

Switching gears, and as an aside, you may have noticed that my place of employment has changed to HDR. First, let me stress that I absolutely enjoyed my nearly two years with the City of Westminster and learned a great deal about a wide variety of topics that I never would have been exposed to while working in private consulting. Previously, I worked for HDR from 2015 to 2023, so I am very excited to return to the family I got to know so well over almost eight years! However, I will miss my Westminster family a great deal, but I look forward to seeing many of them regularly going forth!

Finally, I cannot express how excited I am to refresh the VMV and SP. I think this will serve RMWEA well for years to come! As always, thank you for allowing me to serve all of you during my time as President. Spring is a time of renewal, rebirth, and even a refreshment of sorts! It plays right into a major initiative that is in the works for RMWEA: A refreshment of our Vision, Mission, Values (VMV), and Strategic Plan (SP).