Our January Gathering focused on the future of California State Parks. I loved the Gathering for a few reasons. One was the very cute baby who helped us all maintain some perspective, and remember who we're working for. Another was the significant turnout of Executive Directors, General Managers and other leaders in the region. It was a who's-who of land conservation. We ended the program by singing Happy Birthday to State Parks to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. I loved that we had some fun along with some heavy discussion of a complex subject.
January marked the start of the strategic planning for what is currently called the Your Bay Area initiative. We formed a Working Group of Open Space Council members which met twice for 4 hours each time. Working with Lightbox Collaborative, we conducted research on other campaigns and we interviewed key stakeholders. We conducted strategy sessions with 25 member organizations and collected a lot of input and ideas. All of this led to the development of a vision and theory of change.
I went out on a ledge for our March Gathering. We called it Stewardship Palooza and invited 10 projects to set up interactive booths around the Tamalpais room at the Brower Center. For the first hour we walked around and interacted with a miniature watershed, made tea bags from local and native plants, observed muscles eating algae, and so much more. It was a lot of fun. Then for the second hour we sat down and tried to have a conversation. I learned a good lesson about how people are seated and its impact on conversation. Everyone was seated theater style which is not conducive to discussion. Next time we do a Palooza, we'll change how we're seated, or change our expectations of a large group discussion.
Attending the Native American Land Trust Alliance summit at Costanoa in May was amazing. I was one of 25 people sitting in circle talking about how Natives and non-Natives (the labels we decided upon together, fully recognizing that they're not perfect) can work together on common goals. It was a humbling and profoundly eye-opening experience. I was honored to be in the room. And I'm very much looking forward to continuing the conversation.
The 2014 Open Space Conference was big. So big we had people in every corner and every crevice. It became very clear that we need a different space that can accommodate the increased interest. One of my favorite things about this year's conference was how interactive it was. Attendees spent more time in conversation than sitting and listening. We had different activities throughout the day and lots of ways of engaging, interacting and connecting. I also loved that Rue Mapp showed this video:
In 2014 I worked with two great people: Matt Jones and Crystal Simons. Unfortunately both left the Open Space Council for bigger and better things. I learned a lot from both of them and think of them constantly as I think back on what we did this year.
In September we released the Progress Report of the Conservation Lands Network. Crystal led the charge and I'm so proud of the results. It's an impressive body of work with an important message: we have made progress towards some big goals!
I took another risk at the September 25 Gathering at the Moore Foundation. We set up the room with 120 chairs in concentric circles. The speakers sat in the middle and had a conversation about ecosystem services. Each speaker had a mic and we all listened into their conversation. It was fascinating and in my opinion really worked. The speakers didn't do a show 'n tell about their projects. They engaged in conversation. It was a lot of fun to watch unfold.
Trevor Rice joined our team in September and I almost can't remember a time without him. He served as our first Communications Intern. He sat next to me at the September Gathering to live-blog and it felt like it was the 10th time we had live-blogged instead of the first. Trevor led our member-thanking campaign with Quiz Show Fridays. Every Friday he ran a quiz show on Twitter that highlighted and promoted our members as they renewed their membership. He was masterful at the planning and execution. And we have very interesting analytics that show a big increase in our reach because of it.
I had a lot of fun writing two pieces for the Olive Grove blog. This one about incorporation as a 501c3 reflects on years of work internally to become our own separate nonprofit. And this one is about the role we play in the conservation community as a backbone organization. I also started this blog as a way to capture ideas, reflect on my work, and do stuff like write down the highlights of 2014.
October brought two new staff: Yoko Narter as Operations Coordinator and Zach Bolick as Development Coordinator. Both have been such grounding forces for me and for the organization. Thanks to Zach we are building the back-office of a real Development Department. Because of him I can focus on things like donor meetings instead of the form that a member needs us to fill out in order to process their membership dues payment. He has made a huge difference for me, and for the organization.
The Gathering held on November 20 was a more typical format of short presentations and a Q&A session. We focused on innovative ways to connect more people to nature. For a year I'd been talking with Kirk Anne Taylor at ChangeScale about partnering, and this Gathering was the first time that we put those words into action. It was a lot of fun to create the Gathering with her. About a month before the Gathering I received one of those phone calls that are really, really fun to get. The Environmental Education Funders Collaborative wanted to sponsor the Gathering. Yes! The event turned out to be standing-room-only with new funders in the room, high energy, and great partnerships being born. I could say this about many Gatherings, but this was one of my favorites.
November 20 was a really long day. After the Gathering I went upstairs to a 3 hour meeting with the Your Bay Area Strategy Team. This group of people included members of the Working Group we convened in the spring, along with new folks from organizations and companies who we want to involve in the project. Lightbox Collaborative facilitated the meeting in order to get input on the brand platform for the initiative. "Your Bay Area" was always a placeholder name that I made up. With a vision and theory of change in hand, it was time to give this thing a proper name, tagline, visual identity, and messaging. This kick off meeting on November 20 was the start of that process.
I was thoroughly exhausted at 6pm on November 20.
December meant the 24th anniversary campaign. The Open Space Council was founded in 1990 which means that 2015 is our 25th anniversary. So why not prime the pump with a 24th anniversary celebration?! Doesn't everyone celebrate their 24th anniversary? We went nuts with the number 24: the goal was to raise $24,000 and we counted down the last 24 days of the year with 24 reasons to give. The results aren't final yet, but I think we'll get there and achieve our other campaign goals too.
- Write and speak about about the work I do and things I see in the field of conservation. With all of the events I curate, I see themes and gaps and stories that need to be told.
- Build the development program at the Open Space Council now that we have the fundamentals in place. Raise some money, especially from new foundations, corporations and major donors.
- Launch the "Your Bay Area" initiative. Get it off the ground.
- Gel as a team of Open Space Council staff. There will be a big transition on staff and I want to make it to the other side as a team.
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015.
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