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CONSERVATION EDUCATION: FACILITATING INCREASED MEMBER INVOLVEMENT

Over the past five years, the work of the Education Committee has grown from a focus on a few internally-generated, long-term projects to consideration of a wide range of issues, from specific requests for information, program reviews, and web-based tools to general explorations about how SCB can promote conservation education for a particular audience. It is clear that the task of conservation education has outgrown our current committee structure. Traditionally, the committee membership for the coming year has been established in September or October. However, ideas and requests for projects often come to us at other times of the year. As a result, the expertise needed to deal most effectively with a project is not always represented on the committee. Thus, important projects do not always get the immediate attention they deserve, and relevant expertise from among SCB's membership is not always involved at the critical times. We need a better model for how to get this work done.

And here it is.

Those of you who renew your SCB membership on-line will notice that page 3 of the registration form (Personal Information) includes the following question:

Committee involvement: Are you interested in being contacted on occasion by any of the following committees about participating in committee activities? For example, by the Education Committee to review textbooks or regarding conservation education projects . . . (Information about these and other committees is available.)
Awards Development Education Policy

SCB hopes that members will check the boxes that relate to their interests. With respect to conservation education, our committee hopes that members who are potentially interested in working on education-related projects will check the "Education" box.

How will SCB carry out new projects related to conservation education? When a request for a project comes to the Education Committee (whose function will now largely become associated with long-range planning), we will send an email message to all SCB members who have checked the "Education" box in their membership profile. The message will describe the project and ask anyone interested in working on the project to contact the Education Committee. We will then draw from those people who express an interest in the project to form a working group.

By following this process, all projects can be addressed quickly rather than being deferred until new working groups are formed at the start of the committee's annual term. Further, all projects can draw on the interest and expertise of any SCB member who, by checking the "Education" box, has expressed an interest in conservation education.

What then should you do?

1. When renewing on-line, check the "Education" box on your personal information page.

2. If you choose not to renew on-line but would like to receive email inquiries about education projects, just drop me a note (Trombulak@middlebury.edu) and I will make sure your name is added to the email list.

3. If you have an idea for a project, a request for a program review, or anything else you think might benefit from SCB involvement, send me a note and I will set the process in motion.

As I have often said, if we want conservation education to improve, then we must step up the plate and work to make it better. We hope this will make it easier to get a turn at bat.

-- Steve Trombulak

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