| Building Effective Organizations |
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| Developing an Effective Organization - Part 1 |
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Thursday Part 1: Mission Impossible 1:15-2:15 p.m.
To be truly effective, small organizations such as councils and districts must bring together business acumen, strategic thinking, technical know-how, relationship building and other critical components. While each individual organization must ultimately develop its own
unique path to success, there are a few fundamental elements common to most thriving organizations. In this highly interactive session, you'll build upon what you already know, analyze a case-study, and be inspired to make changes and choices in your current routines that will lead to greater levels of effectiveness.
Participants will:
- Be able to describe the internal characteristics of effective organizations.
- Apply information learned from a case study and specific operational models to their own organization.
- Be aware of the variety of resources available to help them become more effective.
- Be inspired and motivated to make positive changes to improve effectiveness of achieving their mission.
- Be able to describe the three ways in which effectiveness can be measured: capacity, activities, and outcomes.
- List several reasons why clarity of mission and a vision of success are important for an organization to be effective.
Presenters:
Ryan Houston has been executive director of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council since 2001. To date, he has overseen a seven-fold expansion in the work of the organization, including many large-scale restoration projects, a diversity of educational offerings and a long-term monitoring program. Before joining the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, he worked as a senior associate with Sycamore Associates, focusing on restoration and management of wetlands and endangered species. Houston has previous experience working in riparian restoration for The Nature Conservancy, and as a research assistant at the Smithsonian Institution of Natural History. He holds a master’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley.
Paul Lipscomb is a consultant, facilitator, and trainer in board development, organizational planning, and executive leader development. For the past nine years, he has focused his work on providing interim executive leadership and executive transition services. Lipscomb is particularly interested in helping organizations work through the challenging issues of leadership transition and organizational change, bringing clarity to roles and structures while building cooperative relationships. He has experience with a variety of cultures and organizations. He enjoys, and has been very successful in, assisting organizations develop learning teams and shared leadership. Lipscomb has extensive experience building working teams and collaborations.
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| Developing an Effective Organization - Part 2 |
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Thursday Part 2: The Collaboration Continuum 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Building on Part 1, this session moves from effective internal functioning to how your organization can be more effective collaborating with others in the community. You can do more together than independently; but you also have to know when to not join the party.
Explore the collaboration continuum, from networking to true collaboration, and everything in between. Knowing when and how to work with others to reach your desired outcome is critical to achieving your mission and to gaining the confidence of your supporters in the community.
Participants will:
- Be able to describe the continuum of cooperation, from networking to true collaboration.
- Be able to assess future opportunities of collaboration in an analytical manner to best find the level of collaboration that fits their organization's needs.
- Learn how effective organizations interact externally with partners and collaborators.
- Discover what makes a good partnership.
- Be aware of the variety of resources available regarding the topic of effective collaboration.
Presenters
See Part 1 above
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| Funding Your Mission Creatively |
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Thursday Part 1: 1:15-2:15 p.m.
Thursday Part 2: 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Are you in alignment? When you're juggling lots of balls—operating an agency, raising money, running programs, reaching out to the community, one way to stay on track is to make sure everything is in alignment. Successfully funding your mission takes a plan and doing your homework. Otherwise, it ends up as a dropped ball.
Objectives: Participants will:
- Be able to describe the tangible steps of creating a business plan.
- Adopt a "can do" attitude from hearing how others have made a successful plan.
- Begin identifying those in the community who support their vision and are willing to give time and resources to help.
- Be able to describe the common pitfalls of attempts to take an entrepreneurial approach and how to prevent them.
Presenters:
Lori Servi is senior director of development at Evergreen Aviation Museum. Previous experience includes nonprofit consultant, program manager for Milwaukee Urban League, financial advisor for Merrill Lynch, instructor for Cascadia Community College, and other business positions. Volunteering involvement includes Peace Corps, King County Search and Rescue, JumpStart, and Natural Connections. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in nonprofit management from the University of Wisconsin.
Tim Stieber has served as Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District manager since 1999. To fund district programs, Steiber employs many fund-raising strategies such as merchandise sales, membership drives, and contracting for services. Outright donation is also used when it supports the district mission. Since 2003, Stieber has negotiated easement donations worth over $16 million that protect more than 1,200 acres. Current projects include development of Miller Woods Nature Center and serving as a board member for Natural Connections, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting community and nature. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin and has previous work experience in private industry, extension education, and university research.
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| Fund-raising Fundamentals |
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Thursday Part 1: 1:15-2:15 p.m.
Thursday Part 2: 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Every nonprofit must raise money to accomplish its goals and to survive. While there are numerous strategies to consider, every organization needs to formulate a formal fund-raising plan that includes board involvement and effective case statements.
Participants will:
- Learn methods and techniques for developing a formal fund-raising plan, including board involvement.
- Learn to write effective case statements.
- Assess which fund-raising strategies are best suited for their organization.
- Discuss with peers issues and challenges they face in fundraising.
Presenter:
Susan Schwartz is the chief administrative officer for River Network. She has had more than 25 years of nonprofit experience in managing finance, human resources, development and special events. She also has been a board member of several nonprofit organizations, serving as president and development chair for Komen for the Cure, Oregon Affiliate, coordinator of the annual conference of the Jane Austen Society of North America and treasurer of the Reading for Success Foundation and of The Jane Austen Society of North America. Schwartz is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, received her master’s in business administration in finance at Rutgers University Graduate School of Business, and did additional graduate work in nonprofit administration at the New School. She did extensive consulting in New York before finding happiness as an Oregonian.
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| Jumping Over Project Pitfalls |
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Friday 8-9:30 a.m.
Despite best-laid plans, your projects, programs and initiatives can be derailed by unexpected events. Successful managers and organizations overcome these obstacles with no significant harm to their missions and goals.
Objectives: Participants will:
- Learn how organizations have responded to unexpected events.
- Identify the resources that allow organizations to respond effectively to unexpected situations.
- Obtain tools and learn approaches that they can use in their own organizations to respond effectively to unexpected situations.
Presenters:
Lori Lilly has worked for the past two years in Astoria as a watershed council coordinator for four councils and director of the North Coast Watershed Association. She holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management from Rutgers University and a master’s in marine, estuarine and environmental science from the University of Maryland.
Cheryl McGinnis has served as executive director of the Clackamas River Basin Council since July 2006. She received a master’s in business administration from Oregon State University and has used this education in non-profit management for more than 15 years. The University of Oregon is her first alma mater where she earned a bachelor’s degree in education.
Daniel Newberry is an environmental consultant in southwest Oregon, providing both technical project management and design, and also fundraising and strategic planning for non-profits. He was executive director for the Applegate River Watershed Council for four years. Prior to that, he worked as a hydrologist for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the U.S. Forest Service, and for many years was a software engineer in private industry. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Middlebury College and a master's from theYale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is also a freelance writer for a variety of publications.
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| Make Strategic & Succession Planning Fun, Focused & Collaborative |
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Thursday Part 1: 8-9:30 a.m.
This strategic planning overview will focus on participatory strategic planning, which is a process to build community and a creative vision for long-term impact, plus figuring out what you want to accomplish in the next year and the next 90 days. You will learn who to
involve, the best timing, how to prepare for strategic planning and how to integrate it with current operations. Get some hands-on experience in how the process incorporates individual reflection, small group discussion and large group discussion.
Participants will:
- Have an overview of how strategic planning can benefit their organization.
- Know when to do strategic planning—the best timing.
- Know who to involve in strategic planning.
- Know how to prepare for strategic planning.
- Learn how to integrate strategic planning into current operations.
- Discover how to get started.
Presenters:
Ann Witsil serves as executive director of Kinship House, a Portland non-profit supporting families and children. Witsil has more than 20 years of experience leading for-profits, non-profits and government agencies in providing focused, profitable, and learning operations. She has been an executive in Fortune 500 corporations, including U.S. Bancorp, where she served as vice president of strategic planning and market research, and later at Nike, Inc., where she was interim director of strategic planning for Nike, Equipment. In 1990, Witsil founded Catalyst Strategies, a management consulting firm providing organizational development, team leadership and strategic facilitation services to organizations throughout the Northwest. For the last several years, she has been a member of TACS Executive Transition Services team, assisting regional non-profits as interim executive director, helping with executive searches, and facilitating strategic planning processes, and board/leadership development. Witsil has a master’s in business administration in finance and marketing from Cornell University and a bachelor’s in government from Smith College.
Lynn Youngbar provides organization development consulting services to non-profits in Oregon. Her career has focused on starting and leading innovative, community change-oriented non-profits. She founded Rural Development Initiatives, Inc. in 1991 and served as its executive director until 1998. She now does organizational development consulting in community development, non-profit interim management, succession planning and environmental/resource issues. Under the auspices of TACS Executive Transition Services, she has served as transitional executive director of six Portland area non-profits, including the Oregon Water Trust and Columbia Slough Watershed Council. Youngbar currently serves on the board of the Portland Farmers Market and was appointed to the Oregon State Board of Agriculture in September of 2005. Youngbar has a master’s degree in city planning from MIT and a bachelor’s in sociology from Portland State University.
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| Make Strategic & Succession Planning Fun, Focused & Collaborative |
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Thursday Part 2: 10-11:30 a.m.
All organizations have turnover in their leadership. Succession planning is thoughtful
planning, education and leadership development to assure organizational sustainability through executive transitions. Here is a practical and quick framework to make sure your organization is prepared for changes in leadership. You will learn the difference between an emergency succession and a strategic succession and how to ensure that your group is sustainable over the long term.
Participants will:
- Know the definition of succession planning.
- Learn the difference between emergency and strategic succession planning.
- Obtain a framework for succession planning.
- Learn a simple, straight-forward process for using in their organization.
- Know their next steps.
Presenters:
See Part 1 above
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| Why Can't We All Just Get Along? - Part 1 |
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Thursday Part 1: 1:15-2:15 p.m.
Large group decision-making really isn't an oxymoron, and it's essential for watershed decisions that affect the entire community. This two-part workshop introduces the foundations of effective public participation, from identifying stakeholders to ensuring their engagement in the process for solid decisions made by the community.
Participants will:
- Be able to identify when public participation is appropriate for a decision their organization is making.
- Know ways to establish clear and achievable objectives for public participation and the public’s role in decision-making.
- Be able to describe the steps in developing an effective public participation process.
- Know how to create a plan for the timing, techniques, and resources needed for success.
Presenters:
Sheri Wantland has 25 years of experience in public affairs and is a public involvement coordinator for Clean Water Services. She edited the Water Environment Federation book Survival Guide: Public Communications for Water Professionals, is a leader in the International Association for Public Participation and has presented workshops on customer relations, meeting facilitation and public involvement. She holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and journalism from Arizona State University.
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| Why Can't We All Just Get Along? - Part 2 |
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Thursday Part 2: 2:30-3:30 p.m.
This session builds upon the skills from Part I for effective watershed-wide public participation, from identifying stakeholders to ensuring their engagement in the process for solid decisions made by the community.
Participants will:
- Have the skills to use at least two different group process techniques to help their stakeholders explore and understand a topic.
- Be able to describe the elements of effective forums for public dialogue and discussion.
- Be able to describe techniques to move beyond traditional public meetings to effectively engage the public in decision-making. Be more aware of resources for continued training, information and networking to support effective stakeholder engagement.
Presenters:
See Part 1 above.
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| Wrap-up Session |
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Friday 10-11:30 a.m.
Join with presenters and moderators from prior workshops in this track to hear a short summary of each session and identify issues that require additional discussion, attention or action. Each group will record and prioritize these issues. An OWEB board member will moderate the wrap-up exercise.
Participants will:
- Hear a short summary of each workshop in this track.
- Help identify issues that require additional discussion, attention or action.
- Prioritize issues identified.
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