Working groups form within the I-80 Corridor System Master Plan to explore topics and issues of corridor-wide significance. Each group approaches the exploration in ways that make sense for the issues they are discussing. Many issues are, and will likely remain ongoing. These groups serve as learning communities that provide a forum for continuous improvement and feedback. Other groups are exploring issues that will likely result in an acceptable conclusion. These groups will resolve concerns and issues and move on to identify additional concerns throughout the corridor that require attention. Ultimately, working groups will explore their topics and issues and report their findings back to the Planning, Technical, Partner States, and Implementation Task Forces.

Each working group is facilitated by a chair and co-chair. These individuals are responsible for ensuring each member of the working group has voice and becomes an integral element in the overall dialogue. They will work with group member to shape meeting agendas that fully explore the breadth and depth of all issues. Father, they will track the dialogue and assist the group in formulating jointly understood data, draw preliminary conclusions about the data, generate ideas and action strategies, establish feedback metrics, and effectively document the process. Ultimately, the working group chair and co-chair are responsible for facilitating an open, balanced dialogue.

Working group members are responsible for the content of the group’s dialogue. Each group will begin their dialogue with an initial sampling of information about their topic based on existing planning documentation compiled by corridor stakeholders. This information is meant to establish a corridor level understanding of the topic, additional data needs, and guide group members in identifying additions information sources for the group’s consideration. The goal is to identify enough information that allows the group begins a consensus-based discussion about the implications of the information, potential action strategies, and preliminary conclusions. Further, as the group progresses through their dialogue, they will report their progress to all study stakeholders through the task forces. It is likely through this reporting out process that working groups will be able to find additional mutual gains action strategies with other working group strategies.