Class2010Jan15

**Class Assignments and Agenda for Week 1, 2010 Jan 15**
Class meets from 9:10 - 11:55A in 3214 Jordan Hall on the NCSU Campus. You are free to bring food and drink to this classroom.


 * The major objectives for our first session are to ...**
 * meet everyone involved in the course
 * understand course objectives and approach
 * develop a deeper appreciation for the problem with which we are grappling
 * start planning


 * Things to do before our meeting**

To make the best use of our time together, there will almost always be a number of things to be accomplished before we meet. Early in the semester, instructors will determine what those assignments are; once we get moving, students will make that determination, under guidance of the instructor(s).

Item 1: Short biography, due noon Wed 13 Jan.
 * So that we know something about one another before we meet, I'd like each participant to create a short biography, including a small .jpg photo of yourself. (Please scale down the photo to < 1Mb before inserting). Not looking for a CV here, but something more fun that lets everyone know a little about who you are. Here's mine as an example: [|GeorgeHessBio.pdf]
 * Please send this to me ([|George Hess]) in a Word or PDF format. Use the same file name format as I used for mine: FirstLastBio.doc or pdf. I will distribute to all students in the class.
 * I will zip them up and make them available to everyone by Thurs morning.

Item 2: Please read / scan the following.
 * Triangle Land Conservancy Mission, Vision, Benefits - [|MVB2009.11.12b.pdf]
 * Heinz Center State of the Nation's Ecosystems [|Highlights Report]
 * Orange County, NC [|State of Environment] (2009)
 * Orange County, NC [|State of Environment] (2004)
 * Draft Triangle SOE Outline (a starting point for ideas) - [|SOEOutline.2009.12.14.pdf]

Item 3: See if you can find one more State of Environment report and link it below this line (put your name after the report you found)
 * [|Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture: Environmental Resources Indicators (2009)] (Katherine Hebert)
 * [|US EPA Report on the Environment (2008)] (Amanda Willis)
 * [|State of Georgia's Environment Report (2009)] (Lauren Forbes)
 * [|City of Ann Arbor's State of the Environment Report (2009)] (Leah McManus)
 * [|State of the Environment Norway (2009)] (Elina Inkiläinen)
 * [|State of Environment Report India (2009)] (Ginevra Ryman)
 * []State of Environment Reports for Kentucky (Steve Allen)
 * [] National Conference on Science has a lot of links (Steve Allen)
 * http://www.enr.state.nc.us/pdf/SOE_book1_7_09_web.pdf North Carolina - 2008 (Jessica Stocking)
 * [] Australia (Amanda Campbell)
 * [] West Virginia (Amanda Campbell)
 * [|State of the Bay report, 2008], from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (Amanda C.) <>


 * Agenda for class session**

9.10 **Introductions** (Hess, 20 min max) - Be prepared to introduce yourself in 90 seconds or less. - Please include
 * name
 * school and degree being pursued
 * your major interest in this course
 * where you grew up
 * how many children you grew up with and your birth order (eg, oldest, youngest, middle, 7th of 9)
 * for you, what was the most difficult or important challenge of being a kid?

9.30 **Course format** (Hess, 15 min) - Hess will talk about how he expect the class to work - Questions and discussion - Who is going to keep time - reminding us when the agenda says it's time to move on (rotating duty) - Who is going to post notes to the wiki for this week's class? (rotating duty)

9.45 **Introducing Triangle Land Conservancy** (Jones, Brice, 30 min max) - Jones / Brice will talk about TLC's mission and goals and provide a brief history of the organization - Why does TLC want to create a State of Environment Report? What is the purpose / goal of the report?

10.15 **Break** (15 min)

10.30 **Discussion** (Hess, 30 min) - Discuss example reports (see readings list above) - What do you like and why? What problems to you see and how might they be overcome? - Discuss rough outline by Hess (see readings list above) - What do you like and why? What problems to you see and how might they be overcome? Is there a good connection to the public benefits?

11.00 **Learning Needs** (Hess, 30 min) - What issues have been surfaced? - What do we need to learn before we can proceed? - Who has strong interests in following up on particular items?
 * I suggest we each spend a few minutes writing down some ideas (perhaps on sticky notes)
 * Then post, organize, prioritize them as a group

11.30 **Next Steps** (Hess, 25 min) - Where shall we go from here? - Generate any action items

11.55 **Adjourn**


 * Notes**

Notes by jessica stocking. (A note to those doing this in the future - don't spend much time formatting.) <>
 * Meeting 2010 Jan 15**

0925 – Introductions (It was a pleasure!)

0940 – Introduction to the course – George Hess “a lot of chaos and a little organization” – G.H.

0950 – [|Triangle Land Conservancy] introduction – Kevin Brice
 * TLC Mission ** : //to protect important open space – stream corridors, forests, wildlife habitat, farmland, and natural areas – in Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Lee, Orange, and Wake Counties to help keep our region a healthy and vibrant place to live and work.//

- History of TLC and comparison between local land trust and national organizations, such as [|The Conservation Fund], [|The Nature Conservancy], etc.

- Previously, TLC measured success in dollars raised and acres conserved. In an attempt to become more focused on the work and message in the community (thereby also being more competitive for the public/donor monies on which the organization relies), they have [|restructured the goals and measurements] to reflect impacts on the following categories:
 * Wildlife habitat
 * Water quality and availability
 * Local food and farms
 * Connecting people to nature

- TLC would like to define where it fits and how to be leaders/influencers in regards to those public benefits. The [|Irvin Learning Farm] site was cited as an example of the multiple benefits land can serve (even outside the traditional scope of a land trust) through collaboration.

- The State of the Environment report (or whatever we end up calling it) will serve as a tool for keeping TLC on track. Broadly, it will serve as a basis for the Triangle – and people, entities within – to determine what it can do in regards to the state of the environment; TLC’s work will be encompassed therein.

- Stress on the fact that internal and external messages must be the same (in response to the idea of creating separate documents). [break]

1040 – Discussion – G. Hess - We talked about the different reports but had a little difficulty getting started. It was emphasized that we all need to come into class on the same page, prepared to discuss, not read or present, materials. Ginevra pulled up the SOE-India page, and we began there. - Concerns that arose included:
 * Audience
 * Scale
 * Presentation method
 * Scope and context

- George proposed an vague outline common to the reports: 1. Why is it important to look at these things? 2. What can be measured? 3. What does the measure say?

- We spent time ironing out (beginning to iron out) the purpose of the report, which George has summarized here. [|SOEOutline.2009.12.14.pdf]

1115 – Next steps It was decided that we wouldn’t break up into groups yet but instead create a page for each of the four public benefits and one for the region/demographic information. The outline generated by G. Hess is broken up and presented on those pages; we are to add to and amend those by Wednesday, Jan. 20th at 8pm for next week’s meeting.