VSP Joint Technical Panel (TP) and Statewide Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings are hybrid meetings, with an opportunity to attend in-person or online.

Each joint meeting of the TP and SAC is held regionally, allowing for those counties and conservation districts nearest to the meeting location to attend in person. Each meeting will still have a web meeting component, but we encourage nearby VSP stakeholders to attend in person.

At each regional meeting, the group of counties has the opportunity for dialogue between the county and the TP and SAC, in preparation for the next five-year report. Each county is invited to participate however they see fit. Examples of participation methods include, but are not limited to:

• a conversation with the SAC and TP
• a presentation by the county (with or without PowerPoint)
• a tour (virtual or actual) of county VSP projects

Counties are free to attend, or not attend, these meetings and are free to bring whatever issues they want to bring to the TP and SAC for comment. Issues might include monitoring, data collection, five-year report data entry, outreach and education, etc.

The concept for this dialogue time for each county is that is has a dedicated time to meet with the TP and SAC on an on-going basis. The purpose of this meeting is to reinforce the communications, focused primarily on issues related to the next five-year report, between the state agencies on the TP, counties, county workgroups, and technical service providers, and representatives on the SAC.

These meetings do not replace interactions between all of those entities at the local county watershed workgroup level, but may complement. Some state agencies (WDFW is a good example) use regional staff to engage at the local level, and this scheduled communication is not intended to replace that, but to broaden the ability of the entities to coordinate communication with the county watershed workgroup.

The Commission stresses that the time set aside on each agenda dedicated for each county is not the only time that the county workgroup could attend or communicate with the TP and SAC, but each county receives priority for the timeslot they are assigned.

Other counties can be on the agenda, but their timeslot availability is subordinate to the dedicated timeslot of the assigned counties. All counties and county watershed workgroups are welcome to contact the Commission’s VSP Coordinator at any time to see if there is room on an upcoming meeting agenda. Subject to availability, any county can come and present any issue they want at that joint meeting.

Again, this schedule does not replace communications that are ongoing between any VSP entities at the local or state level but provides a dedicated “check-in” opportunity for any county that wants to make use of it.

2024 Joint meeting schedule:

• March 12, 2024 - Lacey and online
• April 9, 2024 - Wenatchee and online
• June 4, 2024 - Spokane and online
• Aug. 13, 2024 - Walla Walla and online
• Oct. 10, 2024 - Lacey and online