A recent quote from Shamar Bibbins, Managing Director of The Kresge Foundation’s Environment Program, sums up a main purpose of our Annual Meeting convening well:
[We must] build deeper connections, foster collaboration across silos and sectors and strengthen the networks that sustain our work and each other. This is how we stay resilient – and inspired – as we build toward the future we believe in.
The 2025 meeting exemplified collaboration and network building. Let me elaborate.
1. Collaboration Across Silos and Sectors
There can be no better place to start our discussion of collaboration than the keynote address given by Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. Entitled, “Progress Through Partnerships,” her presentation underscored the emotional intelligence municipalities must embrace to be effective: honesty, humility, active listening, and working problems hand-in-hand with community partners. (She also offered a lot of good one-liners: On building GSI without considering maintenance -“Just don’t do it. Take up knitting!”)
The tours revealed these values in action. On the Doan Brook Tour, we saw how a partnership between NEORSD and the Cleveland Museum of Art restored Doan Brook, reconnecting the public to the stream channel, preventing erosion of the bank supporting the museum’s entrance drive, enhancing natural habitat, and addressing flooding.
The Pepper Pike Stream Restoration Tour showcased a partnership between NEORSD, the City of Pepper Pike, Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio wherein NEORSD completed a significant stream restoration and flood control project, making way for a pedestrian trail.
Perhaps the piece la resistance of partnerships was the Watershed Stewardship Center. A collaboration among West Creek Conservancy, NEORSD and Cleveland Metroparks, the partnership thrives on “utilizing each others strengths” to meet their missions, which, revolve around land conservation, stormwater management and public parks, respectively. Here, we saw the power of NEORSD’s stormwater fee to provide gap funding to make collaborative projects that benefit the public happen. The partners noted that together, “we can turn $200,000 into $2 million!” The beautiful educational facility and its grounds are a testament to that statement.
A final word on collaboration comes from the numerous local government, nonprofit and private sector organizations that made up our Great Lakes Panel. This panel spoke to the recommendations in a recent report the Exchange commissioned for Resilient Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities (RISC), a group of Great Lakes-based GSI practitioners. The bottom line is that regional collaboration and resource sharing, especially building on each other’s successful models, will be key to overcoming barriers to taking GSI to scale to counter increases in annual precipitation and extreme rain events in the region.
2. Network-Building
In a presentation with Rose Jordan on progress on our Framework of Practice, I asked this (rhetorical) question: “If surveys tell us people are clamoring for information on GSI standards, best practices and case studies, and experts say a framework is a way to codify those things to achieve scale, and our mission is about taking equitable GSI implementation to scale, shouldn’t the Framework of Practice be a major driving force for our organization?” Our governing body, the SPPC, thinks so and we organized the conference sessions with this in mind.
Whether the green infrastructure is part of a consent decree for combined systems, for a new stormwater utility, investments for community needs, or for private property owners who are looking to be part of a stormwater solution, our funding and financing panel addressed solutions across sectors and scales.
Another panel addressed overcoming obstacles to achieving buy-in on GSI projects from stakeholders in Oregon, Georgia, Missouri, and Nebraska. What really stood out in these presentations was the efforts made by local governments and private sector practitioners alike to build relationships with stakeholders and develop a shared vision for the GSI solution.
Christine Mettler, a landscape architecture student from the University of Guelph, conducted a session asking Exchange member experts for their input on questions she is researching in her studies around how GSI planting design impacts maintenance and public acceptability. These are important inquiries, as she pointed out, because co-benefits are richer when planting is richer.
Another cross-sector panel addressed how certification and workforce development programs have been developed in different regions and expanded nationally, with a focus on programs targeting GSI maintenance. The discussion exposed a huge need for us to come together as a discipline and agree on a curriculum and a process for delivering it that will work for all, a sentiment best summed up by Aaron Kirkland, Maintenance Supervisor, Philadelphia Water Department, who said: “There are a lot of little kingdoms. We don’t love GSI enough to come together.”
The final word on strengthening our network came in a presentation that I did with our SPPC co-chairs, Claire Maulhardt and Beatrice-Ohene Okae, on the State of the Network. Many people may not know that membership has grown by nearly 70% recently and that, with 1/3 of our members coming from the nonprofit, private, state government, and educational sectors, we are becoming much more diverse.
Beatrice had the final word here, noting that the network is strong and from a position of strength, we can climb to new heights. Discussion ensued about the possibility of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with a lot of positive sentiment being expressed about the idea.
3. Decrescendo
We ended the meeting with a lot of thanks, a few laughs, and a big announcement about next year. First, we owe so much to the sponsors who made it possible for us to keep costs at a minimum and to offer travel scholarships to more than a few members for whom the trip would not have otherwise been possible.
Second, we want to recognize the Annual Meeting Committee, especially its chair, Chris Hartman who was a great leader and a really good sport. (Ask him about the Bob Ross unmentionables. I can’t believe he left them in the bag of laptops we borrowed for his IT Dept. to find).
Finally, we need to recognize and thank our GSI Ambassador Awardees, which you can learn more about in this presentation. Without members acting as leaders, framers, trainers and evidence-builders, we go nowhere and we came up with the pin, shown below, to recognize their invaluable contributions to our work.
Last, but not least, there is the big announcement. We’re off to the home of the Krispy Kreme Challenge in 2026. That’s right, we’re headed to Raleigh!
A big thank you to Heather Dutra and Sally Hoyt for taking on the role of co-chairing next year’s Annual Meeting Committee! Anyone interested in participating on the Committee should reach out to Nina Baldwin. And, if you attended and have not filled out the Attendee Survey, please do so by Friday, May 30. It’s mercifully short, but hugely important to our planning efforts.
