Message from Clay Rahn, President of RMWEA

Refreshing RMWEA’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Strategic Plan – A Follow Up!

By: Clay Rahn
 
Have you ever been in a work meeting or overheard a discussion amongst friends or colleagues and soon realized in your mind, “Wait a minute…this topic is way outside my comfort zone…I pretty much have nothing valuable to contribute…”?  I must admit, these thoughts have crossed my mind several times during the past months as we are in the throes of refreshing RMWEA’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Strategic Plan (VMV/SP). I’m an engineer by training which makes communication-style initiatives a stretch for me! Thus, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the expertise and generous service that so many of our leaders are providing to make this initiative possible! We have made good progress so far and I am excited to share a few updates.

We held our annual Winter Planning meeting on March 6th at the Delta Hotel in Northglenn, Colorado, formally kicking off the process. Our moderator, Simon Watson (Black & Veatch’s National Asset Maintenance Solution Lead), led us through the day’s goals, background, the “why”, what it means to be a Member Association, and two group exercises focused on RMWEA’s membership needs and an evaluation of our current VMV. Manon Fisher (Brown and Caldwell, RMWEA Trustee) also led discussions on strategy, strategic planning, and kicking off the nitty-gritty concerning our new VMV. Stephanie Segler (Black & Veatch, WEF Delegate for RMWEA) and Carol Martinson (Providence Engineering, WEF Delegate for RMWEA) provided valuable updates and had discussions focused on the national level with WEF. And Muzit Kiflai was instrumental in leading groups through the new VMV development phase. 

Winter Planning was divided into two sessions. The morning session included the Executive Board, a smaller group to help focus the discussion, while the afternoon session added committee leaders, past presidents, and others to not only hear the progress that was made in the morning but also to provide us with more holistic feedback. A goal of the VMV/SP initiative is transparency so that our leaders are at least informed of what is happening but also can participate if they so choose. We concluded the meeting with a solid draft of the new VMV along with a path forward, which includes four more VMV/SP-focused meetings along with five report-outs during our monthly board meetings. 

Afterward, we headed to Prost Brewing at 5:00 pm both a little wiser and a little dazed after spending hours discussing and scrutinizing every word and phrase (e.g. “Is stewarding different than protecting?”, “What’s the difference between collaboration vs. connecting?”, “But I like ‘Elevating Water Professionals’…to name a few!). 

Finally, please stay tuned as we work through the meetings and offer updates during our board meetings. Feel free to ask questions or offer comments when you hear our progress reports. Feedback certainly goes a long way and is very appreciated! Thank you once again for allowing me to serve all of you during my time as President.