I could have spent the day on email but instead...

I love my work. Especially when it involves spending time with smart and creative people in some beautiful place. Today we had lunch under the shade of a tree at Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa with the smart and creative people of LandPaths. It was a heart-warming, soul-nourishing and mind-stimulating experience. 

Why can't we do this?

There's a lot that the land conservation movement can learn from museums.

Rene de Guzman from the Oakland Museum of California spoke at our 2014 Open Space Conference about some of the parallels between these two worlds: places of reflection, cultural spaces, public institutions, struggling to connect with young people, vast troves of institutional and personal knowledge, and more. You can see Rene's presentation here.

Perhaps because of Rene's talk, my eyes lit up when I read this article about Dave Krugman.

The Met in New York City gave special access to Dave and some of his friends/colleagues to the museum when it was closed. They took pictures and posted to Instagram (and other sites too, I'm sure) using #emptymet. The result: the Met has seen a huge jump the number of people following them on Instagram and other social media sites. That could translate to more visitors, more members, and more donors. 

Wouldn't it be fun to do something similar for parks, farms, ranches, and other open spaces? 

It's a low-cost way of reaching new communities and populations. You get people talking and sharing and reposting. Buzz is generated. The photos are awesome. 

The parallels aren't perfect here, but let's not let that dampen the idea. Parks are often empty so we'd have to come up with some other kind of special access. Something else that's limited, with permission only, and unique. I'm confident that we can come up with something good. And give it a hashtag, of course. 

Why can't we do this?

Reconciling

The early days of my second son's life were a heady time for me. The country was changing as Obama had been elected and then was sworn in a month after Benny was born. My parenting paradigm for my first son - Alex - completely changed with Benny's arrival and I felt unsure of every parenting move I made. And of course there were the many sleepless nights and wildly fluctuating hormones.

Add on top of that climate change and I decided to make some changes. Maybe being sleepless and hormonal aren't optimal conditions for life changes, but looking back on it I think I did alright.

The first thing I did was launch Outside Kids. We called it Nature Walks then and it mainly consisted of 2-3 friends and their families. It's since grown to over 100 families and dozens of walks and a deeply rewarding endeavor. More on that some other time.

The second thing I did was decide to focus my work on environmental issues. I was having a very hard time reconciling the doom and gloom of climate change (and all other uncertainties about the future) with the bundle of love I was holding in my arms.

Focusing my professional energies on the environment felt like the right thing to do. And it continues to today. I want to do what I can to leave a better planet. It feels like the most responsible thing a parent can do.

Gluten free sandwiches and other lessons

How does it feel when a friend or acquaintance surprises you with your favorite treat?

Or when someone brings you the ice-cold soda you’ve been pining for on a hot day?

The good feelings aren’t limited to your taste buds. It’s like they read your mind. You feel understood. That’s what happened when we ordered a gluten free sandwich for an attendee at one of our events in 2011.  There were 100 people there that day and most would eat a sandwich fully loaded with gluten. We knew that that one person would appreciate being able to actually eat something from the buffet at lunch. And he did. He thanked us profusely and has mentioned it several times since. That one gluten free sandwich was an a-ha moment for me: there are easy ways to make real connections between people and your organization. Executed well and consistently, these simple acts can have a huge impact.

Over the past 4 years we at the Bay Area Open Space Council have increased our reach from 1,000 to 5,000+ people, generated 5 times more event sponsorship, increased membership dues by 360%, and doubled event attendance. We have been called “essential,” “connective,” and “inspiring” by event attendees.  Our approach to building community is being copied by others (which is definitely flattering!) and we’re being asked to present on our work more and more.

It’s more than just gluten free sandwiches. We have dozens of lessons, tools, tips, and perspectives on how we now have more people caring about and involved with our work. They range from the language you use (sentences that an 8-year-old can understand work best), pictures tell more than 1,000 words (they make the intangible more tangible and employ peer pressure in a really good way), and move past the standard thank you note (there is a range of tools available to thank donors – use them!). I have data, examples, and stories. And I want to share them all.

The lessons we’ve learned can be applied to nonprofits who want more people to care about their work, companies who want to build relationships with current and potential customers, schools who want more engaged parents, and public agencies who want to get past forms to connect with the community they serve.

You’re invited to virtually sit with me to eat some sandwiches – with or without gluten – and talk shop.

Is this thing on?

Photo by Spark CBC