The American writer and journalist, Margaret Fuller, is reported to have said, “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” I believe that’s the heart of our network. It’s our members being a source of illumination and guidance, helping people navigate through the darkness of ignorance or misunderstanding. In short, it’s all about the people. A network is nothing without active members driving its work forward:
“The network is all about the people … Networking … is most successful when the members are sharing resources. They become hotbeds of innovation, information sharing, and inspiration.”
~ Plastrik, et al. Connect, Innovate, Scale Up: How Networks Create Systems Change (2022), p. 138.
And so, the Exchange has started a new tradition of recognizing the people who go the extra mile to advance the mission of the Exchange as GSI Ambassadors. What is a GSI Ambassador? It is someone who, through their (unpaid) words and deeds, demonstrates a substantial commitment to advancing the Exchange’s mission of equitable GSI implementation.
What we mean by advancing the mission can be summed up with our theory of change diagram, shown below. It includes FIRST, efforts to support the implementation pillar of our theory of change through projects that help to frame best practices and share them with others through training, SECOND, efforts focused on building the evidentiary case for GSI, and THIRD those who are leading and directing various aspects of our work.
At our Annual Meeting in May, we began the awards with efforts we were involved in over the last year to frame principles and best practices. They include our work to build out the Framework of GSI Practice and the Parks and GSI Project, a partnership with the U.S. Water Alliance and the City Parks Alliance to get more GSI into public parks. Our Framing Ambassadors are listed and pictured below.
For the last two years, the Exchange has been focused on the development of courses to meet the training needs of members and nonmembers and ultimately to secure earned income. With support from Spring Point Partners, and the guidance of experienced members, two new courses evolved in the last year, GSI Foundations, targeting a beginner GSI Audience, and GSI and Equity, targeting an intermediate-level audience. Versions of both courses will be available asynchronously shortly. In 2024, the Friends of the Rouge River in Southeast, Michigan received a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) that allowed them to hire the Exchange to do a GSI foundations training for some of their constituents. We were also hired by the GSI Accelerator project to help with the training of representatives of sustainability departments. Education Manager, Veronica Hotton, recruited Exchanger member experts to help develop and deliver these trainings. Our Training Ambassadors are listed and pictured below.
The Exchange has, for the last several years, been engaged in a partnership with the Nature Conservancy and One Water Econ to create an interactive platform and tool to aide practitioners in quantifying the value of a project’s co-benefits, helping to make the evidentiary case for GSI. Once again, we are indebted to the members, shown below, who dedicated valuable time to advancing GSI Impact Hub.
Last but certainly not least, we recognized those, shown below, who have gone the extra mile as leaders, serving on committees, our governing board, and even, in the case of my good friend Aaron Kirkland, being recognized by Exchange member WaterNow Alliance as an outstanding Emerging Leader.
We’re always looking for worthy GSI Ambassador nominees. If you have someone in mind, please contact Nina Baldwin, Program Manager.
