The Water Advice Network - Knowledge Retention

As a way to ensure the continued availability of knowledge from recently retired and part-time water professionals, I recently launched the Water Advice Network. I started out by signing up folks that I had worked closely with. In a short period of time, word spread and the network is quickly adding more and more top names from the water industry, worldwide. This includes the retired executive directors of the Awwa Research Foundation and his counterpart in Australia; directors from EPA, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and the state of Wisconsin; former chair of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council; highly respected consultants; and two retired VPs of major water utilities. I've also begun to add top researchers from major universities.

The individuals I've added to the network have an average of over 35 years experience and represent a huge wealth of knowledge that would be lost to the industry without this network. While they all want to stay involved, they are not interested in a full time or even a formal job, Their main interest is in sharing their knowledge. So in forming the network, my main goal is in making everything easy for them and also for utilities to tap their expertise. I handle the marketing, billing and other administrative matters. We accept credit cards and make the advisers available on a hourly basis. If you want only an hour of their time, that's fine. If you want something more, that's great too. We're not interested in long-term, large projects. That will be left to the big consulting firms. The services we will offer include:

· Advice – They’ve been there and can help you address difficult decisions. They can provide a second opinion or assist you in complying with regulations.
· Mentoring – Have an experienced professional as your personal mentor and only a phone call away.
· Document review – Obtain an independent, expert review of your plans, strategies and reports.
· Peer review – Bring in a team of independent, highly qualified experts to review your project or program.

Our first client is a very small utility and I was able to provide an international expert (recently retired) to assist them and their consultant. Both the utility and their consultant are benefiting from his wealth of knowledge and he's excited by sharing his knowledge.

To read more about the Water Advice Network, go to http://www.oxenfordconsulting.com/The_Water_Advice_Network.html.