Iowa Water Center seeks partners for community arts event

We’ve got something brewing over here at the Iowa Water Center, and we’re pretty excited about it.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Iowa Water Conference (in its current form), so we thought we’d make it kind of special. The conference agenda (which will be released soon!) is particularly spectacular this year, but we can always do more.

The idea started off that we’d have Luther professors Jodi Enos-Berlage and Jane Hawley bring their Body of Water performance to Ames for conference goers to attend on the first night of the conference. This multimedia approach to water education seemed like a provocative addition to our two-day event, and we’ve had requests for several years to bring back an evening reception/activity for those attending from out of town. A lovely idea!

But then, we learned about a project that local Ames High School students are working on that also combines art and water education. The students within The Bluestem Institute at AHS are creating photo collages combined with text from interviews to define water quality terms from a technical, social and cultural perspective. They’ll be presenting during the Iowa Water Conference, but the work they’re doing is something to behold, so we didn’t want to limit it to conference attendees.

LIGHTBULB. Gallery session before the Body of Water performance. A community event, adjacent to the Iowa Water Conference, but not solely for paid attendees. Invite the community, far and wide.  These unique approaches to water outreach and education need to reach as many people as possible. Our state has some incredibly innovative environmental education efforts (Water Rocks!, anyone?), and it’s our job to display, disseminate, expose and otherwise facilitate learning. We at the Iowa Water Center are on a mission to better the state of water in the state of Iowa. Education and outreach are a big part of that.

But, we can’t do it alone. We want this evening event to be well-attended and free of charge to patrons. So we’re asking for partners – be it financial sponsors, connectors, marketers – whatever you can do to help make this happen, we want to talk to you. If you are interested in learning more or helping us brainstorm, contact us. We can’t wait to talk with you!

Iowa’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts – Good conference, good people

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we headed down to Prairie Meadows in Altoona for the 2015 Iowa Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioners 69th Annual Conference. The Iowa Water Center has exhibited at the last three conferences, and we must say, it gets better every year. Clare Lindahl and her staff at Conservation Districts of Iowa work incredibly hard to put together a fun, informative conference with some big names in the business – the luncheon speaker on Tuesday was Kirk Hanlin, Assistant Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and on Wednesday, Iowa’s own Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

Our limited budget doesn’t allow us to exhibit at a lot of conferences each year, but we make sure to include this conference at the top of our list. We always see good friends, like Jamie Benning, who masterfully connects people and watersheds to Extension programming as the Water Quality Program Manager for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and Jackie Comito with Iowa Learning Farms and Water Rocks! (who, by the way, was honored this past spring as a recipient of the National Wetlands Award).  We were happy to see we were positioned next to our perennial neighbor at this conference, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. It gives us a chance to catch up with our colleagues – these are busy times in the Iowa water landscape, so we don’t always have the time to keep up with each other like we’d like to!

Another reason we keep coming back is the quality conversations we have with attendees of the conference. Our booth is boring compared to some others – we don’t hand out pens, or candy, or keychains – in fact, this year, we just had our display, Iowa Water Conference Save-the-Date postcards, and copies of our white paper of Water Resources Priorities from the 2015 Iowa Water Conference session. But the district commissioners don’t care that they won’t pick up a water bottle or a stress ball from us. They want to know who we are, what we do, what we’re working on, and how they can use us as a resource. These are elected officials who will go back home after two days of soaking up information and will use it to better soil and water conservation management in their district. There are 500 soil and water conservation district commissioners, and they want to talk to you (yes, you!) about what can be done in YOUR district for soil and water. Find contact information for your commissioners and have a conversation about conservation.

Long time, no see: Updates from IWC

When we started this blog, we promised a post at least every other week – what do you mean, April 30th was more than two weeks ago?

The summer is flying by at the Iowa Water Center, but our blog silence doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy (just the opposite, as you might imagine). Here are some things we’ve been working on:

  1. Iowa Water Conference 2016.  The dates have been set – March 23 and 24. Why the switch? For several years, we’ve received many comments on the difficulties of a Monday/Tuesday schedule, and many years we’ve run into the lion-like weather issues of early March. With that in mind, we’re giving the later dates a chance. There are some challenges to these dates as well (cutting it pretty close to field work), but we’re hoping everyone can make the trip in later March.We’re also accepting applications to speak at the Iowa Water Conference – please read the call for proposals on the IWC website and follow the link to the web form within the call to submit your presentation proposal.
  2. New graduate student grant competition. In addition to the 104(b) research seed grant competition, IWC will seek proposals this fall from graduate students looking to delve deeper into their currently funded projects. Up to $5,000 is available for supplemental funding to achieve additional research goals. Funds can be used for analytical costs, materials and supplies, domestic travel, and publication fees. In fact, publication fees must be included in the budget; a major objective of this program is to encourage students to seek publication of their work. More on this new program in a later post. The RFA will be available by the end of August with a due date in mid-November.
  3. Future state-wide water event. Now, we can’t say much on this one, but one of Iowa’s fantastic water organizations has a vision for a state-wide water event to complement the Iowa Water Conference to occur late next summer. The plans are just now beginning, but we can assure you that you won’t want to miss this event in 2016.

There’s a lot more than that going on in the world of Iowa water – what is your organization working on? Tell us so we can share far and wide!

ONE WEEK TO GO! Iowa Water Conference Update

With one week left to go, we are just about all set for the 2015 Iowa Water Conference! A little hiccup with the website last week (thanks to a university-wide outage) had us answering a lot of calls and emails about registration last week, but everything is up and running and rarin’ to go. A few key points:

–Early registration (a $25 discount) has been extended to this Tuesday, February 24 at midnight.

–Oral research presentations – a chance to showcase your research in a 15 minute presentation during breakout sessions – are still being solicited until Tuesday at midnight also. (The online form does have a deadline of Feb 20 – please disregard.)

-We are offering an optional workshop on the front end of the conference again in 2015 (Monday from 8-10) – this year we’re learning about Portland, Oregon’s Green Infrastructure efforts. The fee for this workshop is $50, which you can select as an option during registration, or register onsite the day of.

-At the tail end of the conference (Tuesday from 3-5:30), we are hosting a listening session on behalf of FEMA related to the new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard. More details, including documents regarding the Standards and the Draft Implementation Guidelines, can be found at the Iowa Water Center website’s event listing.

-We have a GREAT list of exhibitors, both commercial and non-profit/educational. They are:

COMMERCIAL:

Non-profit/Educational:

That’s it for now – the long and short of it, if you haven’t registered, there’s still time! We have a fantastic program this year and wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Oklahoma State University Student Water Conference now accepting abstracts

On March 26-27, 2015, Oklahoma State University will host its Student Water Conference in Stillwater, OK, and they’re looking for students to submit their abstracts in water research.

From the website:

“About the Conference: The conference will consist entirely of student presentations to be judged by a panel of faculty members for providing constructive feedback to students in regard to their research presentation skills. Awards will be given for outstanding student presentations. Also, student activities will promote interaction among students of all disciplines.”

A note from Dr. Garey Fox, interim director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center, mentions that there are travel assistantship funds up to $500 for participating students. They’re hoping to have students from all across the country.

This conference comes at a great time for students looking to present their research in a contest format – the Iowa Water Conference is just a few short weeks before and features a student poster contest as well as a non-judged format with 15-minute oral research presentations. The Iowa Water Conference would be a great warm up for those students looking to compete at the Oklahoma event!

COLLABORATION: North Central Region Water Network

One thing about water – it affects everyone in some way, every single day. Water can bring us together (or tear us apart, but let’s focus on the positives).

One thing about the Iowa Water Center – we are innately connected to every other Water Resources Research Institute in the country (53 others – one in every state and four territories) through the National Institute of Water Resources. Collaboration is at our core.

Collaborating for better water management is one of IWC’s primary principles. To that end, this is the first post in the COLLABORATION category.

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The North Central Region Water Network

Mission: “We work together to ensure safe and sufficient water supplies by increasing the scope and positive impact of multi-state water outreach and research efforts in the North Central Region of the United States.”

Twelve states, working together for clean, abundant water. The North Central Region Water Network came together in 2013 as a mechanism for collaboration between Extension water resource professionals and university, federal, state, NGO and industry partners.

The Network as identified five priority areas:

-agriculture and water quality
-ecosystem restoration/protection
-water supply and waste systems
-water literacy and stewardship
-water management planning and leadership

The Network has a number of ways it is working toward making impacts in these areas. Today, we’ll highlight three – The Current webinar series, seed grant competition, and the North Central Region Water Network 2014 conference.

The Current Webinar Series

Self-described as a “speed networking webinar series,” The Current offers four, 10 minute “project snapshots” and 20 minutes for Q&A.  Past webinars include topics like soil health, social science in water, and decision support tools for nutrient management. The webinars are free and easy to access: a quick online registration form will get you signed up.

Seed grant competition

The Network’s seed grant competition is for multi-state initiatives in Extension or capacity building. Requests can be made for up to $30,000 per project. The current deadline is November 30, 2014.

What kind of projects is the Network looking to fund?

-planning projects
-program delivery projects
-professional development for Extension professionals to improve water-related Extension programs.

Proposals must include three states, address Network goals, and show the potential to demonstrate and document impact. The website currently has the 2014 RFA available for download; if you’re interested in the 2015 RFA you can contact Rebecca Power.

2014 North Central Region Water Network Conference

The Network’s inaugural conference was held last week in Bloomington, Minnesota. Over 100 Extension educators and researchers attended for an excellent opportunity to network, build partnerships and establish relationships for collaborative efforts.

Among traditional professional development presentations (including one from IWC Director Rick Cruse on the Iowa Daily Erosion Project), one of the most valuable activities at this year’s conference was the “Topic Table” discussion session. Attendees were split up based on their focus area of interest (seven in all, plus an ad hoc “watershed planning” group). At these tables, participants were encouraged to discuss current programming efforts and future needs and potential projects. In terms of spurning collaboration, this activity hit the nail on the head.

 

So, give the North Central Region Water Network a try. Hey, they’re even on Twitter!