Governance

Composition and Decision-Making Process of the StreamWatch Steering and Technical Advisory Committees

The StreamWatch steering committee is composed of representatives of partner organizations. The steering committee is the program’s ultimate decision-making body.

Partner organizations endorse the StreamWatch Principles and Objectives, and contribute in-kind and/or financial resources to the program.

The technical advisory committee is composed of members of partner organizations and other organizations in the environmental management and conservation community. Partners may seat representatives on both the steering committee and the advisory committee, but steering committee representation is limited to one representative per partner.

Substantive decisions require the approval of the steering committee. Before decisions are made, information and opinion must be shared through both the technical advisory committee and the steering committee.

Decisions will be made by the consensus method whenever possible and practical. Consensus procedure demands a high level of respect for unique perspectives, and, simultaneously, a high level of cooperation. Consensus aspires to generate decisions that the group supports enthusiastically. Approval of decisions should be neither spuriously acquiesced to nor spuriously blocked by members. If consensus is impractical or appears to be unreachable after due effort, a steering committee member may move to abandon consensus. This motion, and all voting decisions, must be approved by a 2/3 majority vote.

StreamWatch Steering Committee

name organization
Scott Clark Albemarle County
Kate Cooper Fluvanna County
Dan Frisbee City of Charlottesville
Rochelle Garwood Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission
Angus Murdoch Rivanna Conservation Society
Alyson Sappington Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District
Ridge Schuyler The Nature Conservancy
Andrea Terry Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority

StreamWatch Technical Advisory Committee

name organization
Tamara Ambler Albemarle County
Samuel Austin U.S. Geological Survey
Stephen Bowler Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
George Constantz Canaan Valley Institute
Diane Frisbee The Nature Conservancy/Rivanna Conservation Society
Greg Harper Albemarle County
David Hirschman Center for Watershed Protection
John Kauffman Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Karen McGlathery University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences
Rick Odom Ecologist, GIS specialist
Brian Richter The Nature Conservancy’s Freshwater Initiative
William Van Wart Virginia Department of Environmental Quality