Does anyone currently use an LMS for district or statewide staff training? If so, which one, and what has your experience been like (ease of use, cost, features)? Any recommendations or lessons learned would be appreciated!

The State has made efforts to allow for the formation of stormwater utilities but there has been little movement at any level. Of our 356 municipalities, only 4 have formed utilities. Having seen the public response to those attempting to form such a utility, I see Districts as a technical support mechanism and not the actual utility. Municipalities which have formed utilities have instituted an additional property tax levy which has not been warmly received by the public. Additionally, there is an unrealistic expectation that the utility will be immediately addressing all stormwater issues in the muncipality/region. Every storm event has questions over every puddle or flooded roadway and why 'nothing is done about it'. 

There is too much liability in my opinion. 

I'd be happy to speak with you in greater detail if you want to. 

First, the Conservation District Handbook provides guidance on many common issues and policies. It is available on the Oklahoma Conservation Commission website under Internal → District Resources at the bottom of the page. That section also includes standard forms and other helpful reference materials.

Second, our District Services Division includes a dedicated team that works directly with districts to address operational and legal questions. Many inquiries involve issues that have already arisen in other districts, allowing staff to provide timely and practical guidance. Questions that cannot be resolved by District Services are forwarded to our legal staff for formal review or legal interpretation.

Finally, under Oklahoma law, the official legal representative for a local conservation district is the local District Attorney’s Office. In practice, the DA’s office is most often used for matters that require direct legal action or formal representation of the district.

1. Do any Conservation Districts themselves either serve as regional stormwater utilities or host them?
2. If not hosting the stormwater utility directly, do any Conservation Districts partner with stormwater utilities or receive funding from them (for example, for outreach and education or technical assistance)?
3. For districts that are part of MS4 compliance, does that work intersect at all with stormwater utilities? And what does that partnership/workflow look like?

This is an area I don't have a lot of experience in, so any thoughts about what works or doesn't work for Conservation Districts in the regulatory clean water space around stormwater management would be really helpful.

Thanks!

Clare

• Are districts utilizing social media? Yes


• Who administers social media accounts? The SWCDs administer their own


• social media accounts


• Are there templates that are provided for what to post etc.? Other than Social


• media Best Practices guidance provided by NACD and NCDEA, I know of no


• social media use templates provided to SWCDs, other than ideas or


• templates that they may share with each other.


• Do any states have a curriculum or program that they use to provide education


• in schools or at engagement events, Yes if so what are they? Project WET, Project WILD, Project Learning Tree, Stewardship Week.

We support development of statewide educational curriculum in some contexts, but it's more minimal, and usually anything in-schools is developed on a district-by-district basis, though we may be supporting the development of more standardized tools that are an option to use for some particular programs (like Envirothon) in the future.