Watershed wide, Citizen-Led, Water Quality Conversation

The public is invited to attend a watershed wide, citizen–led conversation on water quality issues facing the Minnesota, the Blue Earth and Mississippi River south of the Twin Cities to be held on Tuesday December 6 at the Mankato City Center Hotel from 5 to 8 p.m.  The event is free, but advanced registration is required.

The conversation is being sponsored by a wide range of grassroots citizen groups, farm groups, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and InCommons.  The dialogue comes on the eve of public comment periods for proposed water quality goals for the three rivers.  The purpose of the meeting is to explore how citizens, businesses and government can share leadership by collaborating to restore water quality in the Minnesota, Blue Earth and Mississippi Rivers.

The meeting will feature a meal and round table discussions facilitated by InCommons  - a community-based initiative that connects Minnesotans to share tools, knowledge and resources to address complicated problems.  This past summer, InCommons helped sponsor a series of meetings around the state about the state government shutdown and revenue shortfall. 

For this meeting, InCommons was asked by event organizers to connect with “Art of Hosting” trained facilitators to help facilitate “courageous conversations” about proposed water quality goals among farmers and environmentalists, upstreamers and downstreamers, business owners and government agency employees, urban and rural citizens.

“We hope to create a judgment free space where we can experience what it is like to really listen to each other with everybody taking on a piece of the work, based on what the proposed water quality goals are,” said one of the event organizers.

The public is invited to attend. To register for the meal and dialogue call 1-877-269-2873 by November  30, 2011.  Seating is available for 80 people on a first come, first served basis.  Organizers are expecting a full house, so don’t delay.