Workshops
Saturday:
2010 SWCS Conservation Leadership Development Workshop
Sunday:
1. Start Connecting With Absentee Landowners
2. ESD 101 - How to Build an Ecological Site Description
3. Tellin’ Ain’t Sellin’ (Marketing Conservation Programs for Field Staff)
4. Communicating Your Science (aka How to be a Human)
Wednesday:
Carbon Markets - Expanding Opportunities
2010 SWCS Conservation Leadership Development Workshop– 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fee: $65 ($75 late). Lunch and breaks provided in workshop fee.
The Leadership Workshop is designed to provide conservation professionals with tools to improve the function and capacity of their chapters. This year’s workshop has something for everyone, whether you are a new chapter officer or committee chair, or someone who has been around a while! The workshop will feature two breakout sessions:
1. The Basics of Chapter Leadership session is for the new board member. Whether you have a year under your belt or are taking a new position on the board, this session will prepare you to lead more confidently. Some of the topics include Why A Society – the history and future of SWCS, the importance of budgeting and planning, running a successful meeting using parliamentary procedure, leader roles, and examples of annual activities.
2. The Board Capacity Development session is for the advanced board member. In today’s economic and regulatory environment, the expectations and responsibilities of board members are more important than ever. This class will focus on the best policies and practices for attracting diverse board members and improving board function. In addition, expectations for the board as the governing body of the organization (especially those articulated by the IRS) will be discussed and distilled down to an action plan for nonprofit organizations. This session will help you position your board of directors to be the best possible asset of, and governing body for, your organization.
We are also bringing back the popular panel discussion where you’ll hear from award winning chapters from across the country on topics such as how to rejuvenate your chapter, creative fundraising, and the art of collaboration and partnership building. Is your chapter capitalizing on the green movement by holding “green meetings”? If not, come and learn how to easily employ some of these methods into your chapter’s activities. A highlight of the workshop for all attendees is the opportunity to meet and hear from SWCS leadership and headquarters staff.
Presenters will include subject matter experts and award winning chapters. Dan Sise, an instructor with the Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program at the University of Missouri will be the presenter for the advanced board development session.
Sunday Afternoon Technical Workshops – 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Workshop fees: $25 ($45/late)
1. Start Connecting With Absentee Landowners
Do you consider sales and marketing to be part of your job description? Whether we like it or not, many of us are in the business of “selling” conservation. Just like selling cars or windows, selling conservation requires hard work, numerous contacts, and a thoughtful, targeted approach. This is especially true when targeting a new audience.
Presently, over 40 percent of our nation’s agricultural landowners do not operate the land they own and are considered “absentee”. Nowhere is effective communication and “sales” more needed than with this growing number of absentee landowners. There is a clear need to help absentee landowners understand and implement natural resources conservation on their land. Yet, conservationists across the nation are ill-equipped to address their needs for information, education, and assistance.
Agren, Inc. has initiated multicontact, multimedia direct marketing campaigns to absentee landowners throughout the central United States since 2006. Through this fun, fast-paced, and interactive workshop, Tom Buman and Jamie Ridgely will discuss the potential conservation opportunity this audience holds, share the highlights of what they’ve learned, and provide you tools to improve your landowner outreach program.
Instructors: Tom Buman & Jamie Ridgely, Agren, Inc.
2. ESD 101 - How to Build an Ecological Site Description
Ecological Site Descriptions (ESD) are one of the emerging 21st century environmental technologies. Similar to early soil survey, when there were few soil scientists proficient at mapping and describing soil properties, there are limited numbers of soil and vegetation specialist with ESD knowledge and experience. This workshop will focus on ESD basics and the resulting State and Transition Models for a sample ecological site. State and Transition Models can assist land managers in identifying where they are today, where they can go based on goals and objectives, and how to get there.
Ecological site descriptions create a foundation that support land management decisions. Topics to be covered include: Overview of Ecological Sites; What makes up a Ecological Site Description; How do Forage Suitability Groups and Forests Fit In?; and Building an Ecological Site Description
Instructors: Homer Sanchez & Cheryl Simmons, USDA-NRCS
3. Tellin’ Ain’t Sellin’ (Marketing Conservation Programs for Field Staff)
The workshop, targeted for field staff, will be an interactive workshop with a number of activities designed to teach the following topics:
• The mindset for selling
• Features vs. Benefits
• Fundamental skills for selling
• Closing the sale
• Questioning and listening skills
• The human side of selling
• Dealing with customer attitudes
Instructor: Roger Montague, Sales Training Manager, Bayer CropScience LP
4. Communicating Your Science (aka How to be a Human)
Quick! You have 30 seconds to tell your neighbor why your work is meaningful and relevant. Can you do it? The How to be a Human workshop will provide you with a template for creating a clear message about your science regardless of the medium. Learn how to apply the method to poster presentations, seminars, one-on-one conversations, media interviews, and any other venue where you are called on to communicate with other people. Participants will leave already applying these principles to their current work.
Instructors: Kendall Lamkey and Tyler Teske, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University
Carbon Markets – Expanding Opportunities
Wednesday Workshop – 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Fee: $75 if registered for the conference; $125 if not.
The National Wildlife Federation and the Soil and Water Conservation Society will host a one-day symposium in conjunction with the SWCS annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, on Wednesday, July 21, 2010. This symposium will focus on the opportunities created by the anticipated expansion of markets for land-based greenhouse gas mitigation activities. Specifically, the symposium will focus on two aspects of the anticipated carbon market:
1. Innovative new practices and systems that could be developed into saleable agriculture-related carbon offsets. We would seek presentations that explore potential offset activities beyond no-till agriculture and that present anticipated credit generation potential, measurement and verification protocols, etc.
2. Co-benefits to wildlife, soil, and water resources of measures designed to store carbon or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and policy proposals to incent such cobenefits in the implementation of a carbon offset market. Presentations could focus on the quantification, design, or incentives for co-benefits of carbon offset practices.
The symposium will come at a time of heightened attention to state, federal, and international efforts to reduce global warming and can help inform the debate with regard to carbon sequestration and related benefits.
Go to the workshop agenda and call for presentations...
