Water Boards' Strategic Plan

Background Material

The Water Boards established a collaborative process in early 2007 to update the 2001 Strategic Plan and identify key areas of focus to develop the Water Boards as performance-based organizations. With the guidance of the Center for Collaborative Policy at the California State University, Sacramento, the Water Boards held two statewide forums – one for staff and the other for stakeholders – to receive input on the various trends that affect water quality and water rights programs, and on priorities for the coming years. Each Regional Water Board also held a stakeholder outreach session in their region to solicit additional comments.

Several drafts of the Strategic Plan Update were released to solicit comments from Water Board Members, Water Board staff, stakeholders, and the public. Each version of the draft plan built upon the previous draft using comments received.


  • Public and Staff Input and Forums
    • External Stakeholder Summit - March 12-13, 2007 in Sacramento. Stakeholders addressed issues and trends relating to water quality and water rights and identified key areas of focus for the Water Boards to consider in their planning for the next five years. The concepts raised at the stakeholder summit are presented in a mind map.
    • Regional and State Water Boards Staff Summit – April 16-17, 2007 in Sacramento
      Staff representatives provided varying perspectives about our priorities and measures of success for the future.  The concepts raised at the staff summit are presented in a mind map.
    • Mind Map of Trends Affecting the Water Boards (from March and April 2007 summits)
      A Mind Map is a diagram that outlines concepts linked to and arranged around a central word or theme. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas.  For the Water Boards' strategic planning process, this technique was used to capture the trends affecting the Water Boards and what we need to consider as we plan for the future.  The input collected has been used in the development of the "Draft Strategic Planning Proposed Goals: 2008-2012" document.
    • Regional Outreach Meetings-April-June 2007 in each region Each Regional Water Board hosted a public meeting to discuss the input received during the statewide summit and provide additional input.
    • Summary of Stakeholder Input (March-June 2007) This document summarizes results of the small group discussions conducted at three different forums designed to share and collect perspectives on water resources and water issues:  (1) the Statewide External Stakeholder Summit convened in Sacramento on March 12–13, 2007; (2) the Regional and State Water Board Staff Summit held in Sacramento on April 16–17, 2007; and (3) public outreach meetings held in each region during April-June 2007.
    • Strategic Plan Workshop - February 6, 2008 in Sacramento

Questions or Comments about the Strategic Planning and Implementation Process?

Please contact Dorena Goding or by phone at (916) 327-8101.