It's common to call a strategic plan “visionary,” but this time around it feels almost prophetic.

On August 18, the 61‐member AWWA board of directors adopted its new 2025 Strategic Plan. It's fascinating that the development of this plan began in advance of two monumental events in our society—the first being the impacts of COVID‐19 on health and business conditions and the second being a revived societal drive to address racial inequality.

Our Strategic Planning Committee and board members were seemingly prescient when they crafted elements of the plan that clearly speak to AWWA's role in both of these societal events. As a result, AWWA's new 2025 Strategic Plan aspires to the right objectives at the right time.

The 2025 plan renews the legacy of AWWA's vision of a better world through better water as well as our mission of providing solutions to effectively manage water—the world's most vital resource. This plan bolsters three important themes that address the impacts of COVID‐19 on the water community and steps we can take toward better diversity and inclusion.

First, technology has never been more essential in meeting the needs of water professionals. This is true not just because we are a mobile society, but also because we all still need access to technical knowledge and human networks when we are sheltering in place and cannot travel. AWWA has been investing in technologies that share training videos, publications, educational programs, and more. Most recently, we have also invested in an online conference platform; in fact, our first virtual conference, called Virtual Summit, will be held September 23 and 24. The goal is to get these technology tools into the hands of all water professionals so they can access the technical knowledge they need and connect to others no matter where they are.

Second, while advancing diversity and inclusion is a core principle for AWWA, it is more than that in the 2025 strategic plan. The plan lays out a strategic objective that AWWA will advance a culture of diversity and inclusion that is reflected in AWWA leadership and member experience. On multiple levels, the importance of this objective cannot be overstated. With the help of AWWA's Diversity and Inclusion Committee—a committee reporting directly to the executive committee of the AWWA board—I have confidence that we will make significant strides in fulfilling this objective.

Third, the plan highlights the need to strengthen the public's trust in water. A recent AWWA/Morning Consult survey carried the good news that 77% of adults say the quality of their tap water is excellent or good, but we know that this sentiment is not evenly shared across all income and racial demographics. While the overall statistics are encouraging, AWWA's president Melissa Elliott points to the fact that “the survey underscores that there is still a lot of work to do to earn trust among Black and Hispanic water consumers and among people with low and middle incomes.”

通常将战略计划称为“预想”，但这次却几乎是预言。

8月18日，由61名成员组成的AWWA董事会通过了新的2025年战略计划。令人着迷的是，该计划的制定是在我们社会发生两次重大事件之前开始的，首先是COVID-19对健康和商业状况的影响，其次是复兴的社会对解决种族不平等问题的动力。

我们的战略规划委员会和董事会成员在制定计划要素时似乎具有先见之明，这些要素显然说明了AWWA在这两个社会事件中的作用。因此，AWWA的新《 2025年战略计划》渴望在正确的时间实现正确的目标。

“ 2025年计划”延续了AWWA关于通过改善水质来改善世界的愿景的遗产，并重申了我们为有效管理水资源这一世界上最重要的资源提供解决方案的使命。该计划支持解决COVID-19对水社区的影响的三个重要主题，以及我们可以采取的改善多样性和包容性的步骤。

首先，技术对于满足水务专业人员的需求从未如此重要。这是正确的，不仅因为我们是一个流动的社会，而且因为当我们在适当的地方庇护并且无法旅行时，我们所有人仍然需要获得技术知识和人际网络。AWWA一直在投资于共享培训视频，出版物，教育计划等的技术。最近，我们还投资了一个在线会议平台。实际上，我们的第一次虚拟会议称为虚拟峰会，将于9月23日至24日举行。目标是使这些技术工具掌握在所有水务专业人员的手中，以便他们能够获取所需的技术知识并与他人建立联系他们在哪里。

第二，虽然推进多样性和包容性是AWWA的核心原则，但它比2025年战略计划中的要多。该计划提出了一项战略目标，即AWWA将促进多元化和包容性文化，这反映在AWWA的领导和成员经验中。在多个层面上，这个目标的重要性不能被夸大。我有信心在AWWA的多元化与包容委员会（直接向AWWA董事会执行委员会汇报的委员会）的帮助下，在实现这一目标方面将取得重大进展。

第三，该计划强调需要加强公众对水的信任。AWWA / Morning Consult最近进行的一项调查显示，好消息是77％的成年人说自己的自来水水质优异或良好，但我们知道，这种情绪在所有收入和种族人口统计数据中均不平均。尽管总体统计数字令人鼓舞，但AWWA主席梅利莎·埃利奥特（Melissa Elliott）指出，“该调查突显了要在黑人和西班牙裔用水者之间以及中低收入人群之间建立信任，还有许多工作要做。”