Convening for Action in British Columbia

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Ted van der Gulik

    A 3-YEAR STRATEGY FOR ENSURING CONTINUITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK: “We have started to engage government with training and will continue through 2024. It is full speed ahead,” stated Ted van der Gulik in his President’s Perspective (Annual Report 2023, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC)


    “A challenge confronting our society is widespread organizational amnesia. The baby boomers have more or less gone out the door. And with them has gone so much oral history. Knowledge and experience are not being passed on. Organizational amnesia is the consequence. It is a race against time to pass on knowledge and experience. It feels like the gap caused by loss of understanding is widening. When those coming into organizations do not know what they do not know, loss of understanding of the WHAT, WHY and HOW is a cause of concern in managing expectations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Smart in British Columbia: There is no time to re-invent the wheel” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2024


    Ray Fung captured the mood of the summit with this summation: “The Partnership is seen as a resource that is stable, that is there, and that people can draw upon. I liked the comment that THIS IS A MOVEMENT. I find that is really inspiring to not see ourselves just as a network. We leave the summit inspired to figure out how the FORM of the Partnership will follow the FUNCTION. We can learn things from expanding our perspective. Part of that holistic approach includes the SPIRITUAL as well as the physical connection to the land.”

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: A message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires and floods” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2023


    “I frequently hear comments and concerns about getting buy-in to asset management within the organization and with the elected officials. Recently I spoke to a mayor who said, ‘I do not understand what this is about’ and added ‘we are already too busy with a very small staff!’. Communications (and miscommunication) continue to be our biggest barrier. This quote sums up some of our issues: The asset management community has lost sight of Sustainable Service Delivery strategies because it is lost in the details of Asset Management,” stated Wally Wells.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: In 2023, history repeated itself in the Kelowna region” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2023


    “Mother Nature has an amazing sense of timing. On the 20th anniversary of the evacuation of 27,000 people from Kelowna due to forest fires, history repeated itself in August in the Kelowna region, in particular West Kelowna. We have had two decades to prepare for the obvious and the inevitable. 2003 was the first of a series of teachable years, with the full onslaught of a changing climate hitting hard as of 2015. Climate change is accelerating. There is no time to re-invent the wheel, fiddle, or go down cul-de-sacs. Understand how the past informs the future and build on that experience,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Fifty Years – and miraculously still here: BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2023


    Most British Columbians do not know a British Columbia without the ALR. “With only about 5% of BC’s land area capable of agricultural use, 50 years ago it was estimated we were losing 6000 hectares per year to non-farm uses. It was clear that local governments could not withstand development pressures upon this scarce provincial resource, In 1973, the Agricultural Land Reserve not only preserved the land for food production for present and future generations, but it preserved the option to plan our settled communities to be more resilient and sustainable,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Build bridges of understanding, pass the baton!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in March 2023


    “Over the past 30 years, a series of provincial government initiatives established a direction for water sustainability, including Stewardship of the Water of BC in 1993, the Fish Protection Act in 1997, and the Water Conservation Strategy for BC in 1998. The high-water mark is Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan, released in 2008. The Water Sustainability Act is another key piece; the Partnership is committed to furthering its implementation and collaborating with the provincial government to fill gaps and improve the legislation.,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    A 3-YEAR STRATEGY FOR ENSURING CONTINUITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK: “Growing and sustaining the network is very much about finding those to whom we can pass the baton. At the end of the day, however, ensuring continuity of the network is really about how organizations continue within the network,” stated Ted van der Gulik in his President’s Perspective (Annual Report 2022, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC)


    “A Partnership strength is the real-world experience we bring because of our multiple initiatives under Living Water Smart Actions. Under that vision, various building blocks processes have evolved over the decades. The Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, an initiative of the current provincial government, is the obvious mechanism to revisit, understand, learn from, and leverage past successes in the building blocks continuum. We have tools to help do the job. We can achieve better stewardship of BC’s water resources for present and future generations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Restore Hydrology in the Uplands to Protect Agriculture in the Lowlands” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2022


    “Although reference continues to be made in engineering reports to the ARDSA drainage criteria, there is an absence of recognition of the underlying cost-benefit rationale for the criteria. I believe this reflects a loss of understanding that could have potentially serious implications for current and future decision-making. In recent years, for example, there have been instances of the criteria not being correctly presented in various engineering reports on lowland drainage, with misleading descriptor words such as ‘should’ creeping into reports,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    FOUR COUNTER-INTUITIVE PRINCIPLES FOR GROWING A NETWORK THROUGH COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP: “It was exciting to hear about the work of the British Columbia Partnership for Water Sustainability and how their approach has exemplified network leadership as I have conceptualized it,” stated Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley


    “The network emerges around a common goal, rather than a particular program or organizational model. The community mobilizes the resources from throughout the network, and based on existing relationships in the community. The solution is emergent and comes from the community members themselves, rather than being pushed from the top down. And finally, once a network is up and running and proves itself to be effective, It becomes the primary vehicle for change, rather than the individual organizations themselves,” stated Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Growing the Network through Collaborative Leadership” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2021


    “Embracing collaborative leadership, growing a network based on shared aspirations, and delivering results across organizational boundaries differs in every way from building an organization in any conventional sense,” stated Mike Tanner. “The Partnership for Water Sustainability is a legal entity. Operationally, however, we function as the hub for a network in the local government setting. This approach reflects The Partnership genesis, first as a technical committee and then as a roundtable, before morphing into a legal entity. We are growing the Living Water Smart Network. We are not building a conventional organization.”

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