Several members of Water 1st! became involved in water issues through attempts to curtail the excessive and harmful water withdrawals of a local water bottling company. Through these efforts (which are ongoing) we became aware of the general public's (and our own) ignorance about how water is managed in our town and in our State. We began reading about water issues, in particular Robert Glennon's book Water Folies, Maude Barlow's Blue Gold, and Jared Diamond's Collapse. We became aware of both the complexity and importance of water issues. Importantly, we have identified the need to educate ourselves and our fellow citizens now, before irreparable harm is done to our water resources, about the threats to our water and measures needed to preserve clean, healthy water systems for our children and grandchildren. We decided to create a new, separate group - Water 1st! - to address water concerns in our communities broadly, rather than being tied to a single issue. Our first step have included planning a series of educational forums on issues surrounding water resources. The first two were held in February and in August of 2005; a third is planned in November. The November forum will expand our outreach from Randolph to the entire White River watershed and is tentatively planned to be held at the Vermont Law School. The meeting will focus on current efforts in Vermont to place groundwater in the public trust. To publicize this meeting, we will have to triple our mailing list and publicity to include more towns. We plan to hold more watershed public forums in mid winter and late spring of 2006. The topics covered will include an explanation of aquifer mapping to be used as a tool in town planning and water conservation, the proposed legislation designating water as a public trust, how to find information about water conservation measures, creation of stream buffers, and other water resource protection measures that can be taken by local citizens, towns or the state. We are seeking funding for the planned November forums two additional ones in 2006. As part of these educational forums, we plan to create a brochure and at least two more newsletters. Our first newsletter, "Undercurrents", which was published in July, 2005, is enclosed. In addition, we must make a much broader publicity and media campaign. Finally, we intend to create a website to spread educational information and provide links to other water conservation and environmental groups, both regional and national.