Communications Camp 2024

8:00-8:30

How Well Do You Know Water
Loralyn Spiro, City of Springfield & Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission; PNCWA Communication & Outreach Committee Chair

This interactive game will test attendees on their knowledge of the world of water and provide everyone with an opportunity to get to know each other.

9:15-10:15

Gail Shaloum and Todd Loggan, Clackamas Water Environment Services

With limited staff allocated to watershed restoration and watershed health education, Clackamas Water Environment Services relies on partners to round out our restoration and education work. We use a competitive grant program to select the partners and projects each year. Through the RiverHealth Stewardship Program, WES has been able to involve the community in improving watershed health, educating students and the community, while also satisfying our stormwater permit requirements. Learn how we developed the grant program and how it has progressed in its ten years.

Mobius Discovery Center: How Education Programs and Community Engagement Go Hand in Hand in Teaching Kids about the Environment

Mobius Discover Center

Mobius sparks curiosity and ignites imaginations of all ages through exploration and play, hands-on exhibits, and STEAM learning experiences. Mobius Discovery Center provides a unique continuum of experiential learning that cultivates critical thinking and problem-solving abilities – foundational skills that create lifelong learners. Mobius is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Their mission is to create innovative experiences that equip and inspire creative problem solvers of all ages.

Loralyn Spiro, City of Springfield & Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission; PNCWA Communication & Outreach Committee Chair

The Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission and the City of Springfield, along with the City of Eugene and support from other community partners, offer the Clean Water University program to Eugene-Springfield area 5th grade classes, free of charge. Traditionally held in person in the fall at the MWMC’s Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, Clean Water University provides an opportunity to learn about wastewater, stormwater, and drinking water. The program’s overarching goal is to teach students about the importance of clean water.

Attendees will learn how the program was developed and refined over the past 15 years to meet agency and teacher goals.

Hannah Thomascall, Spokane County Public Works

The content for the general public tour of Spokane County’s Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) will be presented to the tour group. Verbal explanations, graphics, and physical samples will be used to describe the process used at the treatment plant to communicate how each process treats wastewater.

No Child Left Inside – Spokane County’s Water Education Program

Laura Goff and RaeAnn Nolander, Spokane County Public Works

Join Spokane County Water Resource Educators to learn about the Wetland Explorers curriculum and field experience that hosted over 1700 5^th graders over 6 weeks at the newly restored Saltese Wetlands and Doris Morrison Learning Center. The program immersed students and teachers in genuine field science at, and in, the wetland to learn about water quality, the value of a managed wetland habitat and the beneficial role that wetlands play in our ecosystem and community. This is the outdoor learning component of our water education efforts in Spokane County.

Why Color Theory Matters to Your Water Agency’s Education Programs and Community Engagement

Loralyn Spiro, City of Springfield and the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission

Color theory is an art and design principle that encompasses the ideas, principles, and applications of color, and includes three elements – the color wheel, color harmony, and color application or context. While all three are important, color harmony is the most important to be considered by communicators for its complexity due to our responses to color being both emotional and intellectual. Water Agencies and communicators need to keep this in mind when branding or rebranding their agency. Learn how color can help tell your agency’s mission, vision, values, and overall story to community members and how it can strengthen your engagement with them.

Feedback & Wrap-Up