{"id":668,"date":"2013-05-23T20:46:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T20:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.auburn.edu\/aww\/?p=668"},"modified":"2023-05-17T14:32:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:32:52","slug":"aww-program-updates-and-important-announcements-shared-during-the-2013-annual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/aww-program-updates-and-important-announcements-shared-during-the-2013-annual-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"AWW Program Updates and Important Announcements Shared During the 2013 Annual Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 10th<\/sup>, the 2013 AWW Annual Get-Together took place in Auburn, AL at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve. The evening began with a lovely Social Hour during which old friends had a chance to catch up, and folks had a chance to start new water watch friendships. \u00a0Jennifer Lolley, Preserve Administrator, gave a presentation and tour to introduce attendees to the beautiful Preserve.<\/p>\n

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Bill Deutsch, AWW Director, celebrates the collective efforts of hundreds of volunteer monitors throughout Alabama<\/p><\/div>\n

For the official start of the program, AWW Program Director, Bill Deutsch, welcomed the 80 attendees to the 2013 AWW Annual Get-Together.\u00a0 <\/strong>Representatives from almost 20 AWW Groups were recognized, as well as Auburn University Administrators, AWW Association Board members, partner organizations and AWW program staff.\u00a0 During his talk many important topics were discussed and are outlined in the following sections.<\/p>\n

Resilient Program <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last 12 months, AWW conducted 72 workshops, had 320 active monitors from 70 groups, and received 3,700 data records from 550 sites on 217 waterbodies\u2026evidence of a vibrant program and committed volunteers in spite of recently slashed budgets!\u00a0\u00a0 Bill and Mona Dominguez, Monitor Coordinator, presented some of the highlights of the results of the 2012 Monitor and Supporter Survey. <\/strong>It was especially interesting to compare the 2012 results with those of a similar survey from 1996. <\/strong>\u00a0We learned that AWW has become more \u201cgender balanced\u201d with close to 50\/50 men\/women; that we are more of a \u201chomegrown movement\u201d with a higher proportion of monitors \u201coriginally from Alabama\u201d; and that we are, on average, older (higher percentages over age 50 and 70). Efforts to recruit youth and young adults are obvious and underway with some exciting new programs including the launch of a Young Water Watch program, and collaboration with the 4-H programs of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES). Click here<\/a> for more information about the AWW\/4-H Partnership. The survey also indicated that people think there is good opportunity for AWW expansion because of increasing concern among Alabama youth and adults about water and the environment. AWW monitors want to know more about interpreting and using their data to protect water quality, and they want to connect more with other AWW groups within their watershed. AWW will respond with more watershed-scale or regional meetings to facilitate this learning and connecting\u2026we call it our \u201cRoad Show\u201d and we gave an open invitation to speak at AWW group meetings more, so invite us!<\/p>\n

Challenging Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

During 2011 and 2012, the AWW staff submitted 14 proposals for nearly $2 million to various governmental and private agencies and organizations in an effort to fill the funding gap when core funding from ADEM and EPA ended in 2010, while still maintaining day-to-day operations of AWW. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Big Announcements<\/strong><\/p>\n