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Greetings, {FIRST_NAME}	July 28, 2009
Those of you that have been to River Network’s annual conference, River Rally, know it is an energizing conference where you meet a lot of great river people and learn more than your brain can handle in a few days. Thanks to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, we helped send five people to Rally on scholarship again this year. We asked them to share a few of the take home messages they learned at the conference. As we reviewed their responses a theme emerged:tell a good story. The items below provide good advice and resources the Rally participants received that will help you and your river group do your work better. You can experience Rally first hand: the 2010 River Rally is May 21-24 in Snowbird, Utah. __________________________ Storytelling Many participants were fired up after Peter Forbes shared an inspiring speech during lunch one day at Rally. Peter is the co-founder and executive director for Center for Whole Communities. While he had many important messages about “a new era of conservation,” such as reconnecting people and the land, his final proposal, below, is they key to it all. Tell a good story. “Here’s my last radical proposal: the way we speak about the work of rebuilding relationship and deep cultural change is not through facts and figures, data or information, but through the power of story. How do I translate what I really care about in a way that brings about a real response in my neighbors? We cannot restore or protect land without re-storying culture. What I mean is this: one can certainly restore a wetland or protect a forest, but that place will be degraded in the future if there are not people who feel connected to it, who tell stories about it, who love it.” I'm sure each of your groups has a member that can tell a great story about why they love their river. You can read the rest of Peter’s message on River Network’s website. Water Words that Work We are big fans of Eric Eckl and Water Words that Work. Eric is a water blogger and environmental communication consultant and his sessions at River Rally are always standing room only. Root River Council Chairperson Bonnie Prochaska attended two of Eric’s sessions which helped her think differently about how her organization creates its message and tells its story. Eric created a four-step method for communicating your environmental message: Begin with Behavior-Your message needs to motivate your audience to implement the behavior you want them to do. Find Foolproof Photos- Start with selecting photos before you write your message and show the behavior you want them to do. (Example: Have your image show someone drinking tap water instead of drinking bottled water and a message of don't drink bottled water.) Swap the Shoptalk- Take out any jargon or technical language. Insert the Words That Work- Replace the jargon with plain English. Eric has also made a list of the 25 environmental words that work the best. We highly recommend checking out the Water Words That Work website. Sharing Water Quality Data Many groups that collect water quality data find it challenging to translate technical information in a way that connects with the general public. Jason Schroeder from Milwaukee Riverkeeper learned that if his group thinks carefully about how water quality information is presented, they can be more effective in explaining water quality issues to the public. Telling a story with the data is a technique that can make the information accessible to a general audience. If people relate to the information they are more likely to advocate for changes, and change their own habits, to ensure clean and healthy waterways. The Wisconsin Citizen Based Water Monitoring Network has been working with several river groups to help them create meaningful press releases and news articles to educate and motivate citizens to get involved in their watershed. Seven published articles are posted on their website. One article from the Courier Press in Gays Mills takes out the jargon (turbidity) and shares a story about the cause of the turbidity from water quality monitor Ellen Brooks’ point of view. “Before we started water monitoring, I didn’t spend much time down by the water,” said Brooks. “It never occurred to me the number of changes that occur with rocks moving, tress falling down or pushed in the way." “They also made some improvements to the road further up stream and we could tell when they were working on the road, Brooks said, explaining that the water got more cloudy during that time." The cloudiness has gone away. Brooks said, “ It cut back since they got done with road improvements, and the stream recovered quite readily.”	In This Issue Storytelling Water Words That Work Sharing Data Save the Date! 2010 River Rally May 21-24 Snowbird, Utah Read the latest issue of our quarterly print newsletter What is the River Rat Saying Today? Missed an issue of The TRIB? All of our past issues are available on our website. Support for TheTRIB is provided by:
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