ASAP Policy Committee

3/23/2017
4-5pm ET

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In attendance: Ira Feldman (co-chair), Kathy Jacobs, John Bolduc, Karl Schultz, DaviaPalmeri, Sara Moore, George Haddow, John Wiener, Nathan Cogswell, Abby Sullivan,Gavin Dillingham, Beth Gibbons, Emily Hlavka

Intros & Updates

  1. George Haddow- Past Chair of Policy Affinity Group
  2. Karl Schultz- Based in London, In the midst of expert review of Vulnerability Reduction Credit (“VRC”) Assessment.
  3. John Bolduc.- In Cambridge,MA. Cambridge Community Development Vulnerability Assessment Manager.
  4. Kathy Jacobs- Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions, University of Arizona, Tucson.
  5. John Wiener- Research Associate, University of Colorado interested in natural hazards, climate impacts, agricultural sustainability.
  6. Sara Moore- In Oakland, CA. Consultant in Bay Area on Climate change.
  7. Nathan Cogswell- Washington, D.C. Young Professional in the field, anxiously awaiting the moves of the federal government will take.
  8. Abby Sullivan- Philadelphia, Water Utility, first ASAP call/committee.
  9. Gavin Dillingham- Program Director at Houston Advanced Research Center. Looking at adaptation gaps in energy for disaster relief.
  10. DaviaPalmeri- Climate Change Coordinator at Fish and Wildlife agencies, works with state level fish and wildlife departments.
  11. Beth Gibbons- ASAP Managing Director

ASAP Update-- Beth

  • ASAP is working with Resilience Americorps, Rachel Jacobson.
  • ASAP is working with a group of NGOs on promising practices- engaged in review of documents now to identify best practices. Beth will share documents with the group, focus group in the future.
  • NAF is coming up soon! May 9-11th.
  • ASAP Member meeting at NAFon May 8th at 2:45-5:15pm
  • Please take member survey.
  • Davia- Time for the pre forum meeting?
  • Yes, May 8th 2:45-5:15pm
  • Ira- Focus group dates?
  • Beth- Hoping for the first week of April.
  • John Wiener.- NCAR is hosting The Rising Voices of Indigenous People in Climate Change. May 13-15. Could ASAP have a small conference on what climate adaptation tool kits/resources?
  • Beth to share resource list
  • John- Working Group on Thursday afternoon of NAF. We are working with a lot of small groups without economic resources.

Action Items at ASAP level:

Register today for the first All ASAP Member Meeting

– May 8, 2017 a Pre-National Adaptation Forum Event

Complete the ASAP Member and Adaptation Field Survey

– Open until March 31, 2017

Spread the word about ASAP’s activities through social media:

Looking forward to sharing adaptation stories & learning lessons at @adaptprosAnnual Meeting before #NAF2017

Recap our 2017 Policy Committee gameplan– Ira

  • See details in notes from our first two calls of 2017
  • Grow membership
  • Create online platform for collaborative work
  • Of the first wave of 39 members invited to opt in to our Collaborase sandbox, 27 people have joined – good progress!
  • A second wave of 130 invitations just went out 2 days ago, awaiting responses.
  • In the sandbox, a section already set up as a Task Group to discuss working with the Transition Memos
  • Additional spaces for Task Groups will be set up based on today’s discussion and decisions

Discuss suggestions for creating new Policy Committee Task Groups -- Ira

  • John W. suggestion on Collaborase “I would like ASAP and perhaps some others to seek funding for a small conference at which the producers might compare, and see if there is guidance on which tools do what best. With the proposed budget cuts to almost everything relevant, it might be possible for the funders and agencies to more effectively cumulate knowledge and experience with a comparative effort. That in turn might help the intended beneficiaries more.”
  • Beth- The ongoing ASAP work with a group of NGOs (see above) is to analyze the resources out there and how to disseminate the information, possibly hold a convening. There is some funding out there, but can always use more.
  • As a separate activity, Kathy Jacobs and Missy Stults have created a convening called “Science to Action.” 10 different working groups, there will be a meeting of that community at NAF and the ASAP member meeting.
  • Ira- On the first activity – coordination with NGO groups -- Does it make sense to set up a Task Group to accomplish the next steps and to broaden the participants with Policy members?
  • Beth- yes, please.We are looking for people to review and advise.
  • Decision: Create “Review of Resources” Task Group as Section 4 in the Collaborase sandbox.
  • Karl’s suggestion from last call:
  • There is a need at this time to consider international policy and there is a clear gap of adaptation finance. Form a task group, or separate groups, regarding these topics?
  • Karl to prepare a few survey questions to find out what is most relevant and actionable.
  • Ira: Is there a need for us to create an International policy task group and Legal policy and regulation of adaptation finance task group?
  • John W.- Appreciate both ideas. Would the adaptation finance group be U.S. oriented?
  • Ira: Would be applicable at every scale, local through international.
  • Karl: I think the tools apply across the scale.
  • Ira: The rationale for an adaptation finance Task Group in the Policy Committee is that, over time,it might be spun off as its own Affinity Group.
  • George: Would like to volunteer for adaptation finance task group.
  • Decision: Create an “Adaptation Finance” Task Group as Section 8 in the Collaborase sandbox.Karl to set up survey in Collaboraseto help define scope.
  • George’s ideas from last call:
  • Idea 1: Identification and review of adaptation policies at local level.Interested in how these policies are formed and implemented by local decisionmakers.
  • Idea 2: Role of business community -- must be someone outside of government interested in jumping on board.
  • Idea 3: Green bonds and banks
  • John W. - Interested in working with local communities.
  • Beth- Consider the different spokes to different levels of government.
  • John B.- State and local governments are also important to pay attention to.
  • Ira- One way to slice it would be to set up three sections on Collaborase:
  • Local decision makers
  • State and regional
  • International/extranational
  • George: interesting idea for addressing interests of policy members. Green banks idea to be combined with Adaptation Finance Task Group.
  • Decision: Create 3 new Task Groups – Local Decisionmaking; State/Regional; International/extra-national -- each with a section (5, 6, 7) in the Collaborase sandbox. Committee members can opt into level of scale appropriate to their interests.

Discuss options for further use of Transition Memos

  • Task Group already established on Collaboraseas Section 3
  • Beth’s ideas on memo “pathways”
  • Create cover letters for members of Congress that are interested in reasonable action.
  • The message is ASAP is here to help.
  • Moving it to the agencies, are there ways to push it into the leads of the agencies?
  • Kathy: Most agencies have not been staffed yet, so that will change what the cover letters look like
  • Members opting into the Task Group:
  • John
  • Gavin
  • Kathy

Action items at the Policy Committee level

  • All Policy Committee members should opt in to our Collaborase sandbox. If you cannot locate your invitation please request a new one from Ira.
  • Experiment in the Collaborase sandbox! If you have questions on functionality, please contact Ira. Clarifications and helpful hints will be posted.
  • All Policy Committee members can join as many or as few Task Groups as they like. After opting in to Collaborase, go to the Task Group section of interest and post a “comment” saying “I’m joining this Task Group.”
  • These Task Groups need leaders. Some names have been identified within each section, but we are still looking for volunteers who can monitor the discussion space and carry the ball.
  • As discussed and decided in the first 2 calls, Lisa and Ira are structuring the Policy Committee’s activities around these Task Groups, so all are encouraged to actively engage.
  • NEXT CALL – April 27, 4PM Eastern