February 3, 2017

A group with diverse skills and jurisdictional representations made excellent progress at a Phragmites workshop this week. The workshop was held at the US Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center and focused on development of a Common Agenda for the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative. Under the theory of Collective Impact, a Common Agenda is a shared understanding of a specific problem and an agreed-upon path to addressing it. Over two days, facilitator Erik Lockhart of Queen’s University used digital tools to combine and collate participant feedback on needed goals, activities and deliverables for the Collaborative over the short and long term.

This work toward a Common Agenda will be refined into a draft document and shared with the GLPC’s Advisory Committee in the coming weeks. Phrag experts across the Great Lakes basin will then have the opportunity to provide feedback and join one of several working groups focused on several subject areas.

Workshop attendees should be commended on their enthusiastic participation and excellent feedback.

Updates on the Common Agenda and invitations to comment will be provided on this website as well as the Phragmites listserv.