2011 SGCN Activities

[Jessica Whitehead]

This is the place to add your comments on specific stuff we want to do in 2011.  Should we do a 2011 workshop?  How would we go about doing it?  What should our role be in synthesizing or analyzing some of the CCCAI projects?  What other specific activities should we plan?

[Esperanza Stancioff]

 

Yes on a 2011 workshop; strategy for pursuing this: survey of SG Programs for most needed topics for learning, problem solving and networking; funding?; set up a committee to plan; use NING site to further develop ideas and discuss

CCAI analysis--this depends on who is willing to participate; develop a process + so what approach--results and progress; ways to share results and lessons learned; look at categories to set subgroups based on expertise and interest from Network to review and synthesize working w/ Joshua (?)

Other activities: Create an easy to use structure/format for better sharing our work via the NING site; rotate note-taking for meetings

 

What do others think?

[Mike Spranger]

Agree with Esperanza that some face-face meeting useful to strategize on future activities, possible cross-region activities. Also use CCAI analysis to see what is being done in this area. Also, would be interesting to see how individuals/states are addressing this topic in the new political regimes at county, state and national levels.

 

It would be interesting to catalogue various new products/activities that are being developed (perhaps part of CCAI analysis) so we know what tools/products are available...and how effective they may be.

[Thomas Ruppert]

My comments on the page for "Formalizing SGCN Strategies" are probably more apropos here:

1) The SGCN serves to bring together examples of successful projects that result in real changes at the local government level. The need for examples of successful climate adaptation emerged very strongly from
local government stakeholders in the Gulf of Mexico's Community of
Practice meeting.

2) the SGCN could host annual meetings that showcase not only examples of projects but that also offer a forum for trainings that teach outreach specialists about the tools available on the Digital
Coasts website. I am (lamentably) not very knowledgeable on the majority
of the tools available there, but when I have shown the website to
those that work in planning and GIS, I have seen them get very excited.
It is my belief that we could really benefit as a group from greater
understanding of GIS and technical tools so that we can effectively
present them as resources to the communities with which we work.

[Jessica Whitehead]

OK, so to synthesize some proposed activities:

1.) 2011 SGCN workshop (Thomas, we've ended up thinking of doing these every other year - we don't have any funding from the national office).  Needs a subcommittee/recruitment for planning from within the network.  Can start with a follow-up survey of 2009 workshop attendees...? 

2.) Synthesis/analysis of successful adaptation projects.  This sounds like it needs a subcommittee too, perhaps to talk to some folks from the RISAs, ICLEI, and CSC who I think have been doing similar research.

3.) CCCAI analysis.  Needs coordination with Josh at the national office but can maybe be handled by a couple volunteers rather than a full subcommittee...?

4.) Improving communications subcommittee - look at improving NING use/structure to make it more useful, moving to Facebook, other ideas.

More?

[Juliette Finzi Hart]

I realize my bullets for the SGCN objectives link fall more in this section. Jess, you've nicely summarized what everyone else has already said.  I'll add my second bullet here, though perhaps it falls under your #4 above.

 

At the informal SGCN discussion at Sea Grant Week, we had discussed the possibility of having a section on the Ning site that links to tools that folks have developed. Perhaps this could go in the Climate Resources section?  It could be as "simple" as providing links to the various tools we and others are developing.

[Christopher L Conger]

Aloha everyone,

Jess - thanks for the summary. My comments on our list:

1) We should probably talk funding as one of the first topics. Like Jess said, we don't have any dedicated funding and the last workshop had a $25k grant from national plus a lot of contributions from various programs. I think the 2 year cycle is good for all of us, with the rigors of planning the workshop. I really like the idea of incorporating training into the workshop, especially if we do another web-inar and can archive the training on Jim's site.

2) Sounds great

3) Sounds great, maybe we could break it into sectors or topics to spread the load

4) We can also try the SCDN approach and rotate control of the ning through the regions, with each region getting control for a month or so and being required to update the site for their activities during that time (and as needed/desired, also).

5) Funding for more climate positions, for our network, for meetings, for collaborative work such as compiling tools lists, etc.

 

[David B MacNeill]

Happy New Year to all:

 

I'm just trying to catch up on the discussions. I agree wholeheartedly that a 2011 workshop is  a "gotta-do". In terms of planning, we may have to consider either conference calls or the ning site discussions in lieu of face -to-face meetings. While I think the latter is best, current travel budgets are pretty tight.

Just some food for thought for future workshop topics: fisheries/ecosystem impacts of cc, cc impacts on human health, communication and decision-making tools for cc, tipping point models...

 

As far as the CCAI analysis, I'd be happy to help out as much as my other commitments allow.

 

Cheers,

 

Mac