MEETING #1: Balancing Environmental Stewardship and Economic Development

You are invited to participate in a Zoom meeting as part of the 
Lake Beulah Collaborative Stewardship Initiative. 
When: Oct 24, 2023 06:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) 
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsc-Cppj0tGdJQwny-AABrclZI_vW2eUc6 
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Lake Beulah Collaborative Stewardship Initiative

Synopsis: The goal of the Lake Beulah Collaborative Stewardship Initiative (LBCSI) is to provide a forum for sharing differing perspectives, and to foster the civil dialog needed to identify shared values, seek common interests, and align those interests through collaborative decision-making.  Four dialog sessions will be held that focus on critical issues involving the stakeholder community of Lake Beulah and the Town of East Troy.  The topics to be addressed include:
 
o   Balancing environmental stewardship and economic development
o   Providing access for competing recreational uses and user groups
o   Assuring a safe and inviting environment while protecting ecological integrity 
o   Strengthening collaborative environmental governance and decision-making 
 
These sessions are not intended to serve as a venue to push one’s point of view or to argue/debate what is the right/wrong way to think about or act on a contentious issue. Rather, the aim is to listen to those who think differently on an issue and understand the values and interests that underly their position. We begin under the premise that everyone participating wants what is best for Lake Beulah/East Troy and that conflicting views on the best path to take reflect honest differences in how we weigh risks/rewards, costs/benefits, and our hopes/fears.  
 
Each LBCSI Session will consist of 3 parts: In PART 1, attendees will observe a facilitated panel conversation comprised of 4-6 Key Stakeholders or Community Leaders with varying perspectives, interests, and positions on the issues. The facilitator will present the panelists a series of 3 questions related to the topic, and each panelist will have time to answer, drawing from their personal experiences, feelings, and perspectives. Panelists will not be able to question each other, debate facts, or challenge each other’s reasoning. Part 1 will conclude with panelists being asked what they heard, if anything, that “stood out” to them from the conversation. We will then move into PART 2 with attendees assigned to breakout group dialogs made up of 6-8 individuals.  Participants will have the chance to respond to the same questions asked of the panelists.  Students and alumni of the UW-Milwaukee Sustainable Peacebuilding program will facilitate breakout groups and make (anonymous) notes from the conversation.  For PART 3 attendees will reconvene in the main room for a brief reporting-out from the breakout sessions.