This President's Message is an excellent opportunity for us to reflect on GRA's mid-year performance and to discuss actions implemented to address concerns voiced by our membership during 1996. 

Mid-Year Reflections 

We held a retreat in January 1997 to establish short-term and long-term goals for the organization that addressed issues associated with our organizational growth and defined our vision for the future. We developed our mission statement which says that GRA is dedicated to resource management that protects and improves groundwater through education and technical leadership. A variety of committees were created and action items were identified to obtain our goals. Activities that are currently ongoing consist of developing educational seminars and meetings, including teaming opportunities with other organizations; reviewing our bylaws and proposing changes that reflect our current status; continuing to make our Web Page more informative; and many other activities. 

In addition, we have recently appointed an Executive Director and contracted with a Membership Database Administrator to assist us in achieving our goals. I am pleased to announce that GRA has appointed Mr. Harrison Phipps as our new Executive Director. Harrison will assist GRA in promoting our mission, keeping us abreast on legislative issues, and obtaining foundation grants and funding for the organization. I am also pleased to announce that we have contracted Ms. Paula Noble as our membership database administrator. Paula will be responsible for updating and maintaining our membership database (see lower right portion of this page for information on how to contact Paula). GRA will certainly benefit from the efforts of these two individuals. 

Actions Implemented to Address Member Concerns 

Feedback from our membership on our performance last year indicates that there were five areas that GRA should examine to improve the organization. These areas are as follows: 

1. Better Communication Between State GRA and the Various GRA Branches
2. Timely Mailing List and Directory Updates
3. Policy on Endorsements for Political Appointees to Groundwater/Water Organizations
4. Clarifications to the GRA Bylaws

Better Communication Between State GRA and the Various GRA Branches 

Communication between GRA state officers and the various GRA Branches has always been a concern. The widespread geographic locations for our Branches increases the potential for communication breakdowns. In response to the breakdown in communication that occurred last year, we have undertaken the following specific actions to improve communications between the GRA state officers and the various Branches: 

Creating a GRA Web page and providing each Branch with their own mail box. Statewide and Branch activities and HydroVisions will be reported on the GRA Web page. The page is currently being used and to date has been visited over 950 times. As we all become more comfortable with using the Web page, more benefits will be experienced by GRA members. 

• Distributing copies of our Board of Director Minutes to the various Branch Presidents. (We are currently considering posting the final minutes on the GRA Web page for member review.)
• Encouraging the attendance of Branch Officers and interested members at GRA Board meetings. The schedule and location for GRA Board Meetings have been identified in HydroVisions. At least one week prior to the Board Meeting the Branch President is provided with a copy of the draft agenda and asked to comment on it.
• Assigning a member of the Board as a Branch Sponsor and encouraging Directors to attend Branch meetings.
• Establishing a Liaison Committee.
• Listing in HydroVisions phone numbers and e-mail addresses for members of the Board of Directors, State Officers, and Branch Officers.
• Contracting with Harrison Phipps as our new Executive Director. Harrison will be preparing an informal newsletter for Branch and State Officers and the Board of Directors that will keep us abreast of activities and legislation of interest. 
• Contracting with Ms. Paula Noble as our new Membership Administrator. She will be contacting each of the Branches to discuss the format and schedule that they would like for receiving membership information updates.

GRA acknowledges that during 1996, difficulties were encountered in the distribution of updated mailing lists and directories to our membership. Prior to 1996, we had contract labor perform these activities with much success; however, following the resignation of Ms. Wendy Ernst, membership renewal notices and reminders were not accomplished in a timely manner so distribution of the Membership Directory was delayed. 

To mitigate these problems, we have contracted with Ms. Paula Noble to maintain our membership database, distribute updated mailing lists to Branches, send out renewal notices and reminders, and send out an updated membership directory. Paula will provide updated membership data information to the Branches monthly, or as needed. Mr. Paul Dorey, Membership Chair and member of the Board of Directors, will be working closely with Paula to ensure that GRA's needs are communicated to her. As noted above, Paula will be contacting the Branches to discuss their specific needs. This year we will be providing our members with the directory on computer disk. The directory should be available about the end of July 1997. 

Policy on Endorsements for 
Political Appointees 

GRA, in the past, has neither endorsed nor provided monetary contributions to political candidates. We do not yet have a policy on non-monetary endorsements and would like your thoughts and suggestions for consideration during our August 1997 Board Meeting. 

Clarifications to the GRA Bylaws 

The GRA Bylaw committee has reviewed our current bylaws and has proposed changes to clarify the Board of Director terms and selection process. In addition, GRA is proposing increasing the size of the Board to eleven individuals so that the State officers have a vote. These proposed changes will be finalized in August 1997 and will be submitted to the membership for approval by mail prior to this year's annual meeting. Results of the Bylaw changes will be announced at our 1997 Annual Meeting, being held September 15 and 16, at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento. 

Summary 

The GRA Board of Directors and State Officers have made concerted efforts within the last six months to address most of the concerns identified by our members. We hope that some of our efforts have already improved communication between the Board, the State Officers, and the Branches. Please feel free to contact me to share your thoughts or comments (e-mail 73661.1162@compuserve.com). I look forward to hearing from you.