FAQ

The Strategy Review System (SRS) was created to help the Chesapeake Bay Program apply the adaptive management decision-making framework to its work toward the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Following the adoption of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, Goal Implementation Teams developed Management Strategies for the outcomes that support the Agreement's goals. These strategies explain how the outcomes are to be accomplished and how the progress will be monitored, assessed, and reported. The SRS is the process of adaptively managing and implementing the Management Strategies and their long-term goals through short-term action. To learn more about the SRS, visit the Strategy Review System Overview page.

The Management Board manages the partnership’s work to achieve the outcomes of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. This includes the Strategy Review System. The Management Board has charged the Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management Goal Implementation Team (GIT 6) with facilitating the SRS process; the SRS Workgroup manages its implementation.

A Quarterly Progress Meeting (QPM) is a meeting between the Management Board and a pre-defined cohort of workgroups and Goal Implementation Teams that report progress toward their outcome, explain challenges, and make requests for action, support or assistance. These meetings take place every three months and there are eight QPMs during a single cycle of the Strategy Review System.

A cohort is a pre-defined group of the workgroups and Goal Implementation Teams that represent a set of outcomes. There are four cohorts, and each one participates in its own Quarterly Progress Meeting with the Management Board. These cohorts were designed to bring related work together and to cue discussion at the most appropriate times. Their placement in the Strategy Review System schedule was determined with the timing of data updates and key meetings in mind.

• The Living Resources Cohort includes the Blue Crab Abundance, Blue Crab Management, Oysters, Forage Fish, Fish Habitat, Wetlands, Black Duck, Brook Trout, Fish Passage and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Outcomes.

• The People Cohort includes the Stewardship, Local Leadership, Diversity, Public Access, Student, Sustainable Schools and Environmental Literary Planning Outcomes.
• The Healthy Watersheds Cohort includes the Stream Health, Forest Buffers, Tree Canopy, Healthy Watersheds, Protected Lands, Land Use Methods and Metrics Development, Land Use Options Evaluation, Climate Monitoring and Assessment and Climate Adaptation Outcomes.
• The Clean Water Cohort includes the 2017 and 2025 Watershed Implementation Plans, Water Quality Standards Attainment and Monitoring, Toxic Contaminants Research and Toxic Contaminants Policy and Prevention Outcomes.

Quarterly Progress Meetings take place every three months. Dates and deadlines specific to your cohort can be found on the Meetings and Deadlines page.

Before each Quarterly Progress Meeting, workgroups and Goal Implementation Teams (GITs) should submit an Outcome Review Summary to the SRS Workgroup. A Presentation is optional but recommended. Workgroups and GITs are also invited to

• Host a workgroup meeting with the Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting (STAR) Team and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) to conduct the logic analysis, identify science needs and draft their Outcome Review Summary.
• Join a check-in meeting with the SRS Workgroup to discuss meeting preparation.
• Present a “dry run” of their QPM presentation at a Coordinator/Staffer Meeting with STAR to practice and receive feedback on what they are planning to present.

Visit the Strategy Review System Overview page to learn more.

The Strategy Review System Coordinator is an advisor who is available on an as-needed basis to walk you, your workgroup or your Goal Implementation Team through key documents and review these documents before you submit them to the Management Board.

The Download Templates section of ChesapeakeDecisions includes links to the SharePoint document archive, as well as the Outcome Review Summary and Work Plan templates.

If you experience difficulties with accessing SharePoint, please contact the CBPO Help Desk at 410-267-5769 or helpdesk@chesapeakebay.net. If you have questions about the current templates, please contact the SRS Coordinator.

Final versions of the Outcome Review Summary and optional Presentation should be sent to SRS@chesapeakebay.net by noon on the day two weeks before your Quarterly Progress Meeting (QPM) or earlier. Dates and deadlines specific to your cohort are available on the Meetings and Deadlines page.

If you choose to participate in the SRS check-in meeting seven weeks prior to the QPM and would like feedback on your draft Outcome Review Summary, you should submit your draft one week in advance.

If you choose to participate in the "dry run" and plan to use slides, a draft should be sent via a reply-all email to the invited participants.

Email your finalized Outcome Review Summary and the optional Presentation, if you are using one, to SRS@chesapeakebay.net by the due dates provided on the Meetings and Deadlines page. Include both Word and PDF version of your Outcome Review Summary, as well as PowerPoint and PDF versions of your Presentation if you are using slides. Editable versions of your SRS documents are archived on SharePoint to prevent file loss during instances of staff turnover. PDFs versions are posted publicly on ChesapeakeDecisions.

The Goal Implementation Team or workgroup chair, coordinator or other subject matter expert serving on the team that is responsible for achieving your outcome should present at the QPM. However, the SRS Workgroup recommends the appropriate GIT chair introduce the speaker and discuss any requests of the Management Board after the updates are given.

Be clear about what you need but be open to several possible solutions. If possible, indicate how not responding to this request could hinder the partnership’s progress toward your outcome. Describe what the workgroup has already tried to address the issue and consider whether you need direct action from the Management Board or whether the Management Board can facilitate action by another group. Where appropriate, coordinate similar or shared requests with other Goal Implementation Teams and workgroups. The SRS Workgroup recommends using the SPURR thought model described below, to shape your request to the Management Board:

S = Specific and actionable

P = Programmatic partner

U = Urgency of the needed action

R = Risk of not acting

R = Resources required

Your Goal Implementation Team or workgroup can request facilitation support to refine your request for action, support or assistance from the Management Board, to develop strategies necessary to solicit feedback from your teams, or to hone techniques to help you frame the request during your presentation. Such requests should be described in an email to the SRS Coordinator and the Cross-GIT Coordinator, and should include an estimated number of hours required for the support.

If an outcome's team has chosen to give a brief update rather than a full presentation, the person designated to present should give a concise account of the status of the outcome and recommendations for the future. Following this update, the speaker may be asked to reply to several clarifying questions from the Management Board. In total, brief updates last 15 minutes.

When representing an outcome that is giving a full update, each outcome’s speaker will deliver a presentation, lasting about 15-minutes, to the Management Board. The presentation should indicate whether the Chesapeake Bay Program’s assumptions about an outcome have changed and whether the partnership’s actions are having the intended effect. It should include potential adaptations or changes in management approaches and its course for the next two years. When requests for action or decision are made to the Management Board, the GIT chair often speaks at the end the presentation to emphasize the importance of the request. The presentation is followed by approximately 15-minutes for clarifying questions and discussion with the Management Board. If a request for action, support or assistance from the Management Board has been made, an additional 15-minutes will be spent on focused discussion and identification of next steps. Some QPM agendas also include time for discussion of issues that affect multiple outcomes.

After each Quarterly Progress Meeting, draft actions and decisions will be distributed to the Management Board chair and coordinator; Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management GIT (GIT 6) chair; and outcome leads for their review. These actions and decisions provide clarity on next steps needed to resolve outstanding issues. Outcome leads, or other responsible parties, can then begin working on follow-up actions needed at the next or subsequent Management Board meetings, if applicable. Teams will need to revise their Management Strategies and develop Work Plans for the upcoming two-year period. Visit the Strategy Review System Overview page to learn more.

Your previous Management Strategy documents the factors influencing your success, existing efforts, and gaps or overlaps in management efforts that your team was aware of in the past. Any newly identified influencing factors, efforts and gaps identified in your Outcome Review Summary should inform your Management Strategy going forward. If new or substantially different approaches were identified in your Outcome Review Summary, and will have a long-term impact on the effectiveness of your work, they should be added to your Management Strategy. Similarly, factors, efforts, and gaps may be removed from your Management Strategy if they no longer impact your work towards achieving the outcome.

The long-term management approaches identified in your Management Strategy are meant to be achieved through the short-term actions identified in your Work Plan. These short-term actions should be traced back to the factors, efforts and gaps identified in your Outcome Review Summary. Visit the Strategy Review Overview page to learn more.

The Strategy Review System Workgroup strongly recommends revising Management Strategies to ensure that management efforts are correctly and completely described. After reading and reviewing your Management Strategy, if your group determines that the version from the last SRS cycle accurately and fully represents the current direction and management approach of the efforts to achieve the outcome, you may submit your Management Strategy unchanged. This document is a product of the group responsible for the outcome and its parent GIT. The full membership of these teams should discuss and agree on the analyses and information provided in this document.

Final versions of your revised Management Strategy and your new two-year Work Plan should be sent to SRS@chesapeakebay.net within 12 weeks of your Quarterly Progress Meeting. Dates and deadlines specific to your cohort are available on the Meetings and Deadlines page.

Submit your finalized Management Strategy and Work Plan to SRS@chesapeakebay.net by the due date provided on the Meetings and Deadlines page. Include both Word and PDF versions of your Management Strategy. A Word or Excel version and a PDF version of your Work Plan should both be submitted. If you do not use the provided template for your Work Plan, please ensure that your document is formatted for printing on standard 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Editable versions of your SRS documents are archived on SharePoint to prevent file loss during instances of staff turnover. PDFs versions are posted publicly on ChesapeakeDecisions.

If you need to request an extension, the GIT chair should send an email as soon as possible to the Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management GIT chair and vice chair, as well as to the Strategy Review System Coordinator. The request should include the reason an extension is needed, how much additional time will be needed and careful consideration of the impacts the extension will have on staff who may also be supporting other cohorts.

The Management Decisions page contains a complete list of requests for action, support or assistance from the Management Board. You can use this page to track the status of your requests or contact the SRS Workgroup if you need to bring something to the attention of the Management Board.

The Strategic Science and Research Framework (SSRF) was developed by the Chesapeake Bay Program to help focus existing science resources, leverage the research enterprise, and more effectively provide science to advance Bay Program’s efforts and decision-making. It arose from a need to track and assess the abundance and breadth of science needs across the partnership more consistently. The SSRF was developed in coordination between the Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting (STAR) team, the Goal Implementation Teams, and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). It was specifically designed to consider both short-term operational and long-term fundamental science needs, to integrate STAC report recommendations, and to be repeatable and consistent by connecting to the Strategy Review System process. Through the SSRF, the Bay Program can better look at science needs across the program, assess whether those needs are being met, and recommend approaches to address them.

The Chesapeake Bay Program has developed the Strategic Science and Research Framework (SSRF) to consistently identify and assess both short- and long-term science needs of the partnership. These science needs are captured and tracked in the Science Needs Database, which is continually updated throughout the year. The database provides the most up-to-date list of science needs from across the partnership and additional information on each need such as a detailed description, status, and engaged or potential resources identified to address the need. Science needs captured in this database are identified:

• By Goal Implementation Teams, as necessary, to make progress toward Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goals and outcomes.
• Through the Strategy Review System.
• From the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) report recommendations.

The Bay Program uses this database to engage science partners, identify opportunities to better align or evolve resources, update activities and workgroups to address needs, and inform STAC of research priorities. This database can also be used by science providers to identify projects or collaborations of interest on which to engage the Bay Program. Science providers can represent a wide range of entities including, but not limited to, academic institutions, federal and state agencies, local entities, nonprofit organizations, and community science programs.

As requested by the Management Board, a team was created to carry out the Strategic Science and Research Framework (SSRF). The team includes members from the Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting team (STAR), Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), and the Goal Implementation Teams (GITs). During each monthly STAR meeting, the team will engage the user community on moving the process forward. STAR works with the GITs to identify and update science needs in consultation with STAC. STAR leadership maintains the Science Needs Database and oversees edits and additions to the science needs.

A key component of the Strategic Science and Research Framework is that it coordinates with and integrates into the Strategy Review System (SRS), the Bay Program's adaptive management decision-making framework. The SRS runs on a two-year cycle to give each cohort of workgroups and Goal Implementation Teams an opportunity to report progress on their associated outcome in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting (STAR) team works with cohorts to consider new science needs while developing their SRS materials, identifying any changes to those needs and making connections between their materials and the science needed to accomplish their goals.

Coordinators and staffers participating in the SRS are encouraged to invite STAR and Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) representatives to a workgroup meeting that takes place before their cohort’s Quarterly Progress Meeting.

Cohorts may update their science needs while going through the Strategy Review System (SRS) process every two years. Specific times are identified in preparation for and follow-up from the cohort’s Quarterly Progress meeting to discuss science needs with the Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting (STAR) team and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). Outside of the SRS process, new or changing science needs may be discussed with STAR and updated in the Science Needs Database.