Keeping in mind the whole goal is to accurately represent our Chapter activity as a measure of our support of the VMN Program . . . here are the figures with March added.
So what could these figures mean?
• In 2014, March gave us additional people logging hours showing a “probable” steady increase in participation. However, some retro entry of hours in 2014 could be beefing up 2014 figures.
• In 2015, March gave us a few additional people logging hours
• Trainees in 2014 were very busy people!
• * Trainees for 2015 had not yet started
• As was hinted in the first bullet point, I also am now realizing these figures can only show a trend. Comparing figures from 2014 to 2015 is problematic as last year’s information could be showing hours entered retroactive to the actual month (hours entered later than the actual activity date can contribute to better percentages for 2014 but not 2015 because there is no retro entry to accumulate yet. Each of these early 2015 months may look quite different when we catch up with logging our past activity for this year).
Be that as it may, the trend is not looking good for 2015 so far. We have some catching up to do. I know how tempting it is when you are super busy with important Chapter work but too long a delay will make it increasingly difficult to catch up. So please, take some time to enter those hours. I know there are administrative hours out there to be logged. If I can help in anyway, please let me know. I have no problem entering hours for you, but only with your permission.
April is coming and here are the numbers we have to beat:
If anyone would care to verify these numbers you are more than welcome to do so – just give me a call and I will send you the spreadsheet and a “how to” document.
Headwaters is a growing and evolving chapter. We are about to start our fourth basic training cohort this April. Should all thirteen trainees graduate (not a forgone conclusion) our chapter size could be fifty-three. We may be ready to move toward a more member centric governance as an interpretation of our current Bylaws prescribes. This column seeks to start a conversation about that possibility.
Currently a Bylaws Committee of four is engaging in an overview of our Bylaws and at least one member seeks a comparison between prescription and reality, between original document templates and the current document. How has it changed? Why has it changed? Does it serve us as is? How might it serve us better? A through understanding of the Bylaws then and now and an agreed upon interpretation of the same is necessary for solid and guided growth. This is a conversation that must be held by the membership as a whole. No one is suggesting a dramatic overnight change, but it may be time to start thinking about where governance resides (and why) and how that might shift a bit in the future.
This column is meant to be part of that conversation. I see it as a beginning dialogue from an investigative perspective. It’s not a jazzy subject – most of us want to get this kind of issue behind us as quickly as possible. I know that’s how we began our charter – I was there. And I couldn’t have cared less about the subject. I care now, though. Very much.
Turns out, it can make a difference real fast if interpretation of Bylaws is not addressed, discussed and agreed upon by the majority. Who gets to interpret? Dunno . . . but it’s an important question.
How important is it to take the document as a whole? Very important, I discovered. Words do have meaning and when you change the wording you change the meaning. Where is the original meaning? What is the original meaning? Anyone like to play detective? That’s what this column will be – sleuthing through the documents that govern and guide Headwaters.
So why call it Quixote’s Column? Do I intend for you to take the literal meaning of Cervantes’ knight-errant – running amuck and fighting imaginary enemies? Well no, of course not. But I do admire Cervantes’ literary achievements and his ability to cause the reader to examine the concept of reality, engage in revelatory discourse and scrutinize assumptions. So, although many elements of the story of Don Quixote are farcical – the work itself is not a farce. Literary scholars laude Cervantes’ methods of transporting the reader from the simplistic to the thematically complicated narrative forms throughout the three works of Don Quixote’s world. I am no Cervantes but I do hope to engage, educate and provide a platform for discussion about who we are and where we might be going.
I am hopeful you will respond with questions, comments or whatever suggestions you may have to: headwatersmn.info@gmail.com as the Bylaws committee struggles with providing a guiding document that serves us well and is well understood.
Next month we will look at what our governing documents have to say about authority and governance.
Those governing documents to be inspected will be:
• Headwaters Bylaws as of November 2, 2013 (found on VMN-VMS under Documents and Newsletters)
• The Bylaws template provided by the VMN Program (found on the VMN Program state website)
• The Headwaters Operating Handbook adopted November 10, 2011 (found on VMN-VMS under Documents and Newsletters
• The template for Chapter Operating Handbooks provided by the VMN Program (found on the VMN Program state website)
Correction: from last month’s Resolutions Realized! article are corrected figures in red . . . sort of . . . see below:
Our president, Jerry Hopkins has been true to his resolution for 2015. He has entered his hours on VMN-VMS for January and so has 40.0% (replacing 28%) of the chapter. That’s pretty good for January! But we’ve done better . . . this time last year, 52.5% (replacing 55%) of the chapter had entered hours for January!
I’m thinking a monthly target might be a good incentive – so every month I’ll give you an update on what we did last year for the upcoming month and we can see if we can match or best our own record. In February 2014, 57.5% (replacing 60%) of the chapter had logged hours for that month. Can we do it again this year?
Simple enough, when comparing the first month of each year – or so I thought – but it all depends on your definition of membership. As I started working on February figures, it got very confusing trying compare 2014 figures to 2015 figures. I found myself comparing cumulative figures from one year to monthly figures from another and then on top of that was the complication of who was a trainee (member?) and who had graduated. A trainee in 2014 would be graduated in 2015. Then there is the issue of transferees that are with us now but were not with us then. I wondered whether monthly figures were appropriate or if cumulative figures as we proceed through the year would be better. Maybe both?
Keeping in mind the whole goal is to accurately represent our Chapter activity as a measure of our support of the VMN Program, I created an excel spreadsheet to help me keep it straight. Learned a lot about excel formulas and how to let the formula do the counting (always more accurate than my astigmatic eyesight). Learned a lot about comparing apples to apples when status of membership changes from year to year. So, I thought I would present hours logged in terms of percentages of membership status entering those hours in a table and you could decide . . .
So what could these figures mean?
• In 2014, February gave us additional people logging hours over and above those logging in January.
• In 2015, February gave us NO additional people logging hours over and above those logging in January. In fact fewer logged in for February – too busy with Valentines Day? – therefore the cumulative for 2015 repeated the January percentage.
• Trainees in 2014 were very busy people!
Now I know there are members out there who have hours to log – I have been in committee meetings with them! But still, I don’t think it’s appropriate to “beat ourselves up” over these numbers. Maybe 2014 was an exceptional year? I think 40% entering hours is very, very good – especially in the dead of winter even though there are people with hours waiting to be logged!
But March is coming and here are the numbers we have to beat:
If anyone would care to verify these numbers you are more than welcome to do so – just give me a call and I will send you the spreadsheet and a “how to” document.
Our President, Jerry Hopkins has been true to his resolution for 2015. He has entered his hours on VMN-VMS for January and so has 28% of the chapter. That’s pretty good for January! But we’ve done better . . . this time last year, 55% of the chapter had entered hours for January!
I’m thinking a monthly target might be a good incentive – so every month I’ll give you an update on what we did last year for the upcoming month and we can see if we can match or best our own record. In February 2014, 60% of the chapter had logged hours for that month. Can we do it again this year?
I’ll tell you a story about myself . . .
When my husband and I lived in Detroit (well, really we lived in Grosse Point City but we worked in Detroit and given the situation at the time, you could say I “lived” in Detroit) I had a position at Wayne State University (WSU) in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. I was the Assistant Director of the Office – which meant I was in charge of the “financial side” of the operation.
Our Director was a giant of a man in every way – emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. I admired him greatly, so the day I heard a huge crash in the hall was a day that began a six-month challenge that tested and strained every part of my being. The stroke that brought him down set me on a course that I neither sought nor wanted (much to the University Vice President’s disappointment).
Suddenly, I was in control of the whole operation and we were trying to reach Carnegie I status as a University – that meant millions of dollars flowing into WSU that had to be monitored and reported – a task the Director had kept for himself due to its importance within the University. I figuratively “lived” in those offices for the next six months. It probably would have been easier for me to live on campus, but I had a “new” marriage to nurture too. So home I went – every night (or morning).
One of the mechanisms I used to get from day to day and reporting month to reporting month was to set up little competitions with myself: could I get it done faster than last month? Could I make my manually calculated figures match the University’s developing reporting system within 20%, 10%, 5%? This was in the early 1990’s so computer reporting was still in its infancy. Could I reduce grant/contract “rejects” from the University’s Accounting Office to 20%? 10%?, 5%? Could I get through the next meeting without stripping off my suit coat because I was in the middle of a hot flash?
I am here to tell you I survived and so did the University. We got our Carnegie I status and I got a sizable bonus. I played ball with the “big boys” and I learned I did not like their game. Our Director returned to an intact office and when an opportunity came my way to further my education, I left my position to get a Masters in Inter-disciplinary Studies (MIS). But I enjoyed those little competitions with myself and so I was wondering if our chapter might not enjoy a little competition with itself . . .
What say we give it a “trial”? Ready? . . . Set . . . GO!
Reports are that the Groundhog has seen his shadow … But the weather does not seem to stop our Chapter at all.
The year is getting exciting!
We have made it through January and things are really getting exciting and busy. February is sometimes called the longest month of the year. Reports are that the Groundhog has seen his shadow and we should expect six more weeks of winter. But the weather does not seem to stop our Chapter at all.
Focus Project 2015, Monarchs and More, was really busy in January. Some groups met at their project site and performed maintenance like marking beds and putting down mulch to be ready for the spring plantings. Others completed their landscape designs and list of desired plants to be presented at Sandy Greene’s Rally.
January 29 our Focus Project Chairperson, Sandy Greene, had the Monarchs and More Rally at the Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church [this church just celebrated its 275 year anniversary; the oldest Presbyterian Church in continuous use in Va.]. Each Project Team presented its plan to everyone in attendance and then broke into groups to meet with the Plant Support Team of Chris Bowlen and Kate Guenther and then with Gail Napora to select their sign for their particular pollinator site [it’s a fancy term for garden]. Needless to say there was a fabulous array of desserts from which to choose. There will be more about this meeting from Sandy in this newsletter. Thanks to everyone for their hard work so far; Sandy for her leadership in getting the project moving, Gail for all her design work on signs and continued support for Monarchs, Chris and Kate for their plant guidance, and the site chairpersons and their volunteers on getting their sites ready for planting.
There is a noteworthy guidance to the recording of your volunteer hours from RoxAnna as a supplement to her Snapshot Look at our 2014 Annual Report for the February Newsletter. Please take a moment to review this article as it may help you as you record your hours on our Volunteer Management System. You can click here to access that information: Some Lessons Learned From the 2014 Annual Report Process.
As an update on other activity that has occured in January, there will be a Regional Conference for Master Naturalists this year rather than a State Meeting. This meeting will hopefully enable more in this Region to attend some advanced training programs and not have to travel as far or even spend the night. This is just beginning in the planning stages by the state coordinators and we will have more information in the coming months. If someone has a particular topic they might like covered then please let me know. Also, our Chapter Advisor, Paul Bugas, at the January meeting had one of his staff present a plan that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has for Lake Shenandoah and how our Chapter can participate. We will have more on this project by next month.
As you can tell, January was indeed a busy month and is only an indication of what is coming for 2015. That Groundhog has been wrong before and we may be planting soon after March Madness. Also, RoxAnna has a training class lined up and ready to start and it will soon be time for Chip’s Wildflower Tournament. The year is getting exciting.
The next Board Meeting will be held in Verona at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Office on February 19 at 11:30. You are welcome to attend.
Thanks for all each of you do to help our natural world.
– Jerry Hopkins President, Headwaters Chapter Board of Directors February 2015
So what could these figures mean?
If anyone would care to verify these numbers you are more than welcome to do so – just give me a call and I will send you the spreadsheet and a “how to” document.
