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Meeting Date: March 8, 2003 (9 am - 6 pm)
Meeting Location: Butte Community College, Chico Career Center, Dominic Drive
Cost: $5-25 sliding scale to cover logistics.
Lunch: Bring your own or fill out order form in the morning.
Agenda Preparation and Facilitation: Kevin Wolf, kjwolf@dcn.org, Otis Wollan, otis@foothill.net
Website Forum and Listserv: Contact Kevin for the web forum password and access to the listserv.

Background:
The Sacramento River and its watersheds need help if they are going to be restored to sustainable conditions for the species that depend on habitat and corridors in this ecologically important region. There are many threats to and opportunities for habitat and restoration in the watershed. They include: flooding and the Comprehensive Management Plan; pollutants, TMDLs and the end of the ag waivers; habitat restoration and local opposition; Endangered Species Act, Habitat Conservation Plans and "take" permits; Sites Reservoir, expansion of Shasta Reservoir and export of water from the basin; recreational benefits to the local economy; FERC relicensing: wilderness and wild and scenic river efforts, and more.

The environmental community and its allies have not traditionally done big picture, collaborative strategic planning to advance common restoration goals. By creating a united plan around the goals and strategies for which they agree, all environmental organizations and allies in a watershed can increase their own effectiveness, and together, move forward projects and proposals that none could do alone.

Proposed Strategic Planning Meeting Goals:
1. Environmental groups and their allies concerned about the Sacramento River watershed unite in advancing priority strategies and common goals.
2. Communication, planning and mutual support among environmental allies improves.

Proposed Strategic Planning Meeting Objectives:
1. Prioritize 1 and 3 year restoration goals for the Sacramento River watershed.
2. Agree on the top strategies to pursue that will most effectively advance the priority goals.
3. Identify the substrategies, tactics and next steps to advance the top 3-6 priorities. Develop a process/committee for advancing the plan. Choose committee chairs and members if appropriate.
4. Determine how participants will work together over the next year. Set up an executive and/or steering committee. Set future meeting dates including next year's strategic planning retreat..

Pre-Meeting Activities:
Note: Each of the areas below will have discussion sections in the web forum.

1. Goals: Add to list of goals and improve the wording of each. We would like to walk into the March 8 meeting with a complete list of goals that are already wordsmithed.
2. Strategies: Propose new and clarify existing strategies and discuss any of them. Start creating substrategies and tactics for the different strategies to help clarify them.
3. Coordination: The Steering Committee will draft and circulate for comments a proposal on how to coordinate and organize after the meeting.
4. Participation. All participants will be encouraged to help invite others. The website will include information from all who respond, but only the contact information they want to make public.
5. Agenda and Meeting Groundrules. A facilitation team will continue to work on the agenda and meeting groundrules. Everyone is welcome to comment on the process before the meeting. Additional facilitators may still be needed.
6. Listserv and web forum. Use listservs and secure web forum for sharing information to and among participants. Only those who RSVP will be able to access these resources.

Proposed Groundrules:
1. Stay in speaking order. Only the facilitator can interrupt a speaker. Raise hands after a person is done speaking. Use "point of process" or "point of clarification" to speak out of turn.
2. Stay on subject. Don't discuss items off the agenda item.
3. Be concise. Don't repeat yourself or others.
4. Be polite and respectful to everyone.

Morning Speaking Restrictions:
Participants are to have read and posted additions and comments to the strategic options before the meeting. As a way to encourage this pre-meeting activity and to be fair to those who did read the material beforehand, each participant will only be able to speak once for up to a minute during the morning clarification period. Depending on the number wishing to speak, the discussion on strategic priorities will be limited to 1-2 minutes per person.

Breakout Groundrules:
1. The basic groundrules of raise hands, stay on subject, be concise and be polite will be in effect. The facilitator can participate in the discussion by adding his or her name to the speaking list and speaking in turn.
2. Everyone attending a breakout group needs to support the top three priority strategies of that group and agree that these will be the focus of the discussion unless additional time is available. Any participant can use the "point of process" groundrule to help the focus not wander into arguments against the priority strategies or premature discussion of secondary priority strategies.

Voting Process:
(Note: The groundrules below were effectively used at the CA Urban Forest Summit which I facilitated in 1999. You can find this and other voting groundrules at http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/kjwolf/participate.html)
1. Voting rights: All participants who sign the participation agreement, including the facilitators are eligible to vote.
2. Calling the Question: Anyone, including the facilitator, can use "point of process" to call the question and request a formal vote on a proposal. Upon such a call, the facilitator asks for a clarification of the proposal to be voted on. Once it is clear, the facilitator asks for a show of hands of those ready to end discussion. If 51% of voters raise their hands in support of an immediate vote, discussion is over and a vote occurs. If less than 50% support occurs, debate continues.
3. Voting: Once the question has been successfully called, the facilitators conduct a vote. A 75% supermajority of the number of the combined Yes and No votes cast, passes any proposal. Participants abstaining from the vote are not counted in the total. Thus, if 45 participants vote Yes and 15 vote No, a motion passes with no votes to spare. A second show of hands may be requested any time a vote is close. When facilitators feel that near-consensus is reached, they can call for a voice vote. If it is not immediately obvious that a supermajority plus has been reached through a voice vote, a hand-raising vote can be called for by any participant using Point of Process.

Draft Agenda
8:30 Pre-meeting coffee and conversation
9:00 Welcome and introductions
9:15 Agree on groundrules and agenda review
9:30 Review and add to goals. Clarify each one. Add any that are missing.
9:45 Begin clarifying strategies and adding any additional ones to each goal.
Ensure that new strategies are added to "voting" sheets.
10:45 Break
11:00 Panel of experts. Short presentations by a number of experts.
11:20 Open discussion on which strategies and goals are most important.
12:25 Review "voting" directions. Clarify who will be counting votes, where and when.
12:30 Lunch. Lunches brought in for those who ordered them.
12:45 Votes turned in and counting begins.
1:15 Reassemble, review vote outcome and agree on breakout groups.
1:35 Move to breakout meetings.
1:45 Breakout meetings begin. Each has a facilitator and note keeper.
Agenda for breakout groups.
     5 min. Review agenda.
     5 min Identify (brainstorm) important factors to consider in
          determining tactics and next steps.
     20 min Discuss these factors. Is there agreement on the top factors?
     10 min Brainstorm steps to take over next 6-12 months.
     20 min Discuss and come to conclusions.
     15 min Wrap up. Prepare for presentation to group.
3:00 Break
3:15 Plenary Session. Reports from Breakout Groups
5 minutes for the review and 5 minutes for comments and questions
4:15 Overall next steps for advancing communication and collaboration.
Review and advance the proposal that was developed before the meeting.
5:15 Concluding comments by participants.
5:45 Meeting evaluation.
6:00 pm Adjourn. Begin dinner meetings for all those interested. Meet at restaurants.

Meeting follow up:
Circulate meeting notes including detailed breakout meeting notes to participants.
Continue using web forum and email listserv for follow up communication.
Set and hold any follow up meetings.
Provide accounting for event and pay expenses. How much is left over, if any?