Latest / Clean Water Conversations / Episode 14 with the backbone organization (our team)

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Episode 14 with the backbone organization (our team) · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hello everyone and welcome to Clean Water Conversations, the podcast where we have casual discussions about creating clean and clear waterways right here in Lancaster County.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Ken.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_04: Hey everybody, I'm Allison.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Allison, we have something a little bit different today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_04: We do.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's pretty exciting.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: It is very exciting because we have a really amazing team that we work with, and they are here.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: They're all here.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: They're all here.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we're going to let them introduce themselves and what they do.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: This is basically all about shouting out the amazingness of our team internally plus all the partner organizations.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: So we've been sharing with you guys on the podcast voices from our partners and the network of collaborative organizations that are doing this work in Lancaster County.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_04: And today you're getting kind of a behind the scenes sneak peek at backbone organizations.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: So we as staff at the Lancaster Clean Water Partners are working some magic to make all these pieces come together, but it's really to add capacity to you all as partner organizations doing the work.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_04: So we want to give you a little bit of that sneak peek, hear from our backbone staff what they do on a day-to-day basis.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: But then what does that mean for you as a partner organization?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: So that's our goal today.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I say goal because we're doing this a little bit differently, but we're also kind of using this as a halfway point in our season two.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_04: So a chance to take a break, look internally as we live our value of transparency.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_04: We want to make sure that we're really open and honest about what we as a staff do because it plays a role in this network.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: And the intention is that that support results in bigger and better clean water work coming from you all as partners.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: So this is a chance to uh see a little bit of how that happens.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they're so quiet right now.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, just for now.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Who we start with?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Who wants to introduce themselves and tell us uh what you do?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'll go.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Alex.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Alex Cooper.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the uh project coordinator at the Lancaster Clean Water Partners.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Came on here about nine months ago.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Been in Lancaster for about a year now.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been it's been great working with this team.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like Ken and Allison said, it's interesting to be on the inside here, like listening out of the cleanwater conversations.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're usually down the hall listening uh to hear seeing all the people come in and out.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: What's happening on the other side of the wall?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: You're now on this side?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I actually we hear people I can hear people laughing sometimes when I'm here.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's a good sign.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I know you guys are having fun.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Now you talk to a lot of the partners.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: You you're making some really good uh relationships there.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Is there is there anybody that you want to kind of give a shout out to?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but right now I think some of the projects that I've been working on a lot lately, there's a lot of professionals we work with and groups, and clean water brings a lot of different people to the table.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: But we need, I think, people that volunteer their time, a lot of time, makes things happen.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh right now we're working with some congregations, and actually, Ken, you're with me.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: We went out to visit one of them, and yeah, it it was it neat to see um how they organize the community.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they're doing that, that's what they do.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them are full-time nurses or have a completely different career, but are doing this because they're interested in it and it makes the community better.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And they're also pulling together pretty neat projects.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to give them a shout out.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: I guess specifically Ascension Lutheran Church, uh, Rhonda and their greening coordinator and really the whole congregation there.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a neat organization.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: Alex, thanks for your leadership within that project.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: I know that was recently funded with some dollars from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_04: So one of your backbone roles is to be that project coordinator within a specific grant that we have right now called the Crescendo in Collaboration.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: So being able to bring organizations like congregations together with Conservation District, with private landowners.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_04: I just appreciate the way that your work can be in a backbone format, but then also supporting individual partner organizations where they are the ones seeing and receiving the benefits of that kind of work.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: So thanks for your role.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna keep going to the next person in our table of team here, and that's Christina Martin.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, I am Christina Martin, and I have been with Clean Water Partners for almost six months now.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: I am the finance and grants coordinator here.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd like to say a little do a little bit of the behind-the-scenes stuff.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I am the one that pays the bills, does the invoices, keeps track of all of our grants that we help to manage and subgrant.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I help do our budget reports.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we thank you so much for that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you have no idea.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: It is an essential role that we need as a backbone organization to keep ourselves compliant, to keep our partner organizations supported in the way that they need to be as well, so that we can continue to amplify, continue to bring in more dollars, but the processes are so important.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: So thank you, Christina, for your leadership there.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: I will say that it got me really excited just to watch you be so happy to talk about spreadsheets and putting puzzle pieces together that that is what gets you jazzed and excited.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_04: And we need that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: I am a huge fan of spreadsheets personally and professionally and details.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm all about that.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Megan.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Megan Blackman.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the director of projects here.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the places where my head has been at today is with the the County Water Action Planner, the CAP that we help to administer with the conservation district and other partners.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: We have what's called a CAP coordinator team in the county.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that is us, the Clean Water Partners, the Conservation District, and then there's three other partners, David Miller Associates, Land Studies, and Lincoln Farmland Trust.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens is every year, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is uh really they're helpful in the implementation of the CAP.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so they provide funding annually for the implementation.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of have the, we as a partners kind of the more fund role is the partner-facing entity to gather projects from our partners for that implementation.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then some of these other partners that I listed are the behind the scenes, especially the conservation district.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're currently reviewing a bunch of agricultural best management practices, projects that we got in to make sure that they all make sense and to make sure that they provide their feedback in a timely manner so that they can be addressed if needed.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I've been doing lately is kind of playing that in-between role of interpreter and getting those messages back to people and uh making sure that that's all rolling along for our application into the Department of Environmental Protection later this month.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Megan.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the leadership that you provide for that whole team really advances the ball.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: It allows us to make the local decisions that help us move along at the pace and the scale that we're really striving for.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's one of the network benefits is that our partner organizations have open opportunities to apply for dollars, but you are the one putting the steps in place to make that easy for them and then translatable for DEP.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's a really integral role.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, thank you for your leadership.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you had asked about a shout-out though.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I was gonna say the conservation district staff because I think that it's a less fun role, but maybe they don't view it that way of reading through the conservation plans and making sure that everything makes sense.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we we get to more talk to the people and gather the projects.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then Ken's our storyteller for many of those pieces.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: They they all know who I am by now, I think.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, if it's your first time listening, I'm Ken Bennett.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: I am the communications coordinator for Likes Clean Water Partners.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I, yeah, I get the fun job.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: I I tell the stories of all of the awesome work that our partners are doing in the efforts for clean water.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: And now I get to tell the story of my awesome team.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And they, as a backbone team, provide the assistance to our partners and just try to smooth along the process and make relationships and help in any way they can, and they do an amazing job.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in awe of all of you.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, Allison, introduce yourself.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: Me, I'm Alison Gibson.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: My role is executive director, and I, as you said, Ken, I'm so grateful for the team that's here because my work is providing the kind of vision and strategy for the work that this team is doing, but keeping it coordinated, keeping it tight.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: I so appreciate the way that the team makes that so easy.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_04: There's an amazing amount of content, projects, details, multitasking.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_04: There is amazing work happening.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: I am never pulling teeth to get this moving along.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so just being able to have fun with it and creating a culture where people are excited to be at work so that we have a really strong, effective, and inclusive backbone organization is one of my goals.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: We get to do that by making sure that we have the funding and the collaborative approach for this work.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: We use a collective impact model.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_04: So having elements like the common agenda, that's one of the places where my head has been to use your approach here, Megan, I like that, of making sure that the common agenda is a tool our backbone organization can use.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's a strategic plan, if you want to think of it like that.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_04: But it's also a tool for our whole network.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: So what was written in 2018 as a common agenda still resonates with our backbone and our partner organizations.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: But I'll give you all a sneak peek that we're gonna start revising that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: And that needs lots of voices.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_04: That needs an entire network.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna make sure that we can continuously measure what matters because we got to keep making progress.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: We wanna make sure that our partners have the communication tools that they can use to tell that story.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the priorities is our stream delisting strategy.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: So those are some of the places where my work as an executive director lives on a day-to-day basis.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: But I received a really important piece of mentor feedback from somebody a couple of years ago that really functioning and operating in the two to five year vision space is where I should be.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm always trying to get there, but oh man, there's a lot going on day to day that is so much fun and that I get to be part of.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I love being able to be in both places.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your leadership.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: You do an amazing job.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you do it.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that is much appreciated.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that's our team.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now, like I said, this is an abbreviated something a little interesting, a little different.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: This one is going to be much shorter than our usual podcast, but I wanted to let you know what is coming up for the rest of the season, what you can look forward to and who you can anticipate hearing from.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Joe Wickham from the Department of Environmental Protection will be on our next episode.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: After that, Dave Koser and Kim Shorter from the Lancashire County Community Foundation.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: They'll be discussing the extra give.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: Extra give is coming up, it's a big deal.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is on November 22nd, in fact.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Hilary Harp Falk from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will be here.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Melissa Tennyson from High Industries and Jenna Beckett from the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and also the Lancashire Clean Water Partners Board.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: Quite the lineup.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it's exciting, and we we are starting to plan season three already.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so send us your feedback.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: If you have recommendations or somebody that you think should be on the podcast, send us an email at infolancaster cleanwaterpartners.com.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: That is our show, and we will be back in just a couple of weeks.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Until then, take care.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Cleanwater Conversations is brought to you by Lancaster Clean Water Partners.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you have comments or suggestions on the show topics, please contact us at infolancaster cleanwaterpartners.com.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening.