Several federal agencies and organizations representing industry and non-government organizations have indicated they will join and support the Roundtable. We plan to have one Roundtable meeting each quarter, probably three in Washington and one elsewhere in a locality with major water issues. There is a planning committee composed of those roundtable members who can contribute either time or financial resources to the work of the Roundtable. Financial resources are used principally to cover such items as meeting facilitation, travel for non-governmental participants, and to provide a way to carry out actions that a Roundtable meeting may undertake, such as compiling water resources indicators or doing research about water resources supply, demand, forecasting, and similar subjects. Any actions of this kind are determined by the participants at the Roundtable meeting. SWRR meetings are convened under the auspices of the Water Environment Federation (www.wef.org), a national organization of water and wastewater scientists and engineers, and are held at non-governmental facilities. Please contact etsmithusa@netscape.net if you would like to join and help support the Roundtable.

Under the SWRR Terms of Reference , much of the Roundtable effort is carried out by work groups that are developed to examine some aspect of sustainability as it relates to water resources. Please contact us if you would like to establish such a work group under SWRR auspices. We can help with ideas and guidance, but cannot guarantee resources to conduct the work. A work group would generally develop its own work plan and carry it out to produce some specific result, such as a report. In addition to the outreach a work group does to its own constituency, we can help disseminate the results to a broader audience that may provide different perspectives about the effort. Those in such a work group might prepare journal articles and similar products. For example, the Universities Council on Water Resources (www.uwin.siu.edu ) is planning a future issue of Water Resources Update on sustainability.

You can learn about SWRR and keep up with what is going on, by sending your e-mail address to etsmithusa@netscape.net. We will send out messages periodically about such things as the results of meetings and documents that are available for review and comment. We will take care so that participants are not overloaded with a great number of miscellaneous messages. Sometimes we will ask for your ideas about future activities, and will let you know what input has been received.

You can also access the Roundtable web site at

This site gives all the background information about the Roundtable and related activities. There is also a summary of Actions and Activities to date, and a compilation of data on status and trends from which water indicators might be developed. We are always looking for ideas about how the web site might be improved.