April 27, 2021
RE: Follow-up Annual Meeting and Leadership vote
Dear Siuslaw Watershed Council Community,
It was great to see so many of your faces and hear your voices at the Siuslaw Watershed Council (SWC) Leadership meeting January 27, 2021! At the meeting we got to listen to a traditional Siuslaw song. We heard about the magnificent Fivemile Bell Project. And we introduced our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy work. This work is ongoing so please provide us your thoughts at any time. We also dedicated a portion of the meeting to proposing improvements to the bylaws.
Our bylaw improvements were focused on expanding the composition of the Leadership Body and Board to allow for engagement of more voices and perspectives at various levels of the SWC as well as expand the capacity of the Council. Through voting, we saw that you all recognized that our 2013 Bylaws need to be updated to expand our capacity and we received strong support for all our proposals! However, we were remiss in posting these proposed bylaw changes 30-days prior to the Annual meeting. At this time, the Policy and Bylaws Committee is recommending a more comprehensive review of the bylaws including the changes proposed at the January meeting expanding leadership representation and Board participation. These changes will be provided to you following review by the Board of Directors at their June 2021 meeting and we anticipate consensus voting to take place after the 30-day review period, at a July Watershed Community meeting.
Lastly, we are commencing Committee work for 2021 and would love to extend participation to our community experts and enthusiasts. If you have interest in any of the following Committees, please email Mizu Burruss at mizub@siuslaw.org or 541-268-3044.
- Policy and Bylaws
- Fundraising
- Outreach and Education
- Human Resources, Employee Benefits and Recruitment
- Finance
- Ad-hoc Strategic Planning (not yet formed)
We recognize that part of our growth means making mistakes! Please excuse our error and help us finalize a lasting change to support a healthy watershed and stronger community here in the Siuslaw.
Respectfully,
Margaret Corvi, Board President and Mizu Burruss, Executive Director