028: Listening Tours—Is Your Member Org On Tour?

 

Tia Lebherz is the Director of Outreach and Special Projects for California Water Efficiency Partnership. She has spent her career working with environmental and water non-profit and municipal organizations both in her home state of California and across the county including WaterNow Alliance, Imagine H2O and Food & Water Watch. Her experience and skills include organizing, advocacy, facilitation, coalition development, and strategic engagement. She also has extensive media and communications expertise. Tia graduated with honors from University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and completed Green Corps, a competitive fellowship program for environmental organizing. In her spare time, Tia enjoys coaching youth soccer, finding any excuse to travel up and down the West Coast and working on her side-project to launch a “water-neutral” winery in California called R. Debauche.

Top Takeaways

Make sure you’re bringing all the stakeholders to the table. All categories of water users, utilities, private sector companies, etc should have the opportunity to lend their perspective.

Tia shared with us some of the tools CALWEP is using to dispel the myths and rumors circulating about the new California water conservation regulations.

Hear some of the outcomes from the listening tour CALWEP conducted for their partnership members to ensure the organization’s focus was on the areas that add the most value to their members.

Tia gives some great tips for young professionals just starting out, especially related to networking and getting the most from those experiences.

Resources:

Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins.

Sponsor:

Utilities can now automate leak alerts with Dropcountr – the customer portal built for water utilities. Dropcountr helps customers manage their water use and avoid unwanted usage with leak alerts. The team works with the utility to set automated burst and continuous usage thresholds for their users, to help them avoid bill surprises, reduce customer calls and improve customer satisfaction. The leak alerts run in the background, your team never needs to think about them – it’s kind of like magic. Find out more about Dropcountr and the work they’re doing at the.com/dropcountr.


Please consider rating the podcast with 5 stars and leaving a one- or two-sentence review in iTunes or on Stitcher.  This helps tremendously in bringing the podcast to the attention of others. We give a shoutout to everyone who rates the podcast with 5 stars in future episodes.

Give us some love on Twitter by tagging us @THE_ or by using the #WaterInRealLifePodcast

If you know someone you think would benefit, please spread the word by using the share buttons on this page.

Thank you for sharing some of your time with us. We know how precious those minutes are. Share your story, you never know who needs to hear it and remember, “Those who tell the stories, rule the world.”

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Leave a Comment