Environmental Educators Learn New Dance Steps:  1998 NEEAP/NAAEE Leadership Clinic Models New Organizational and Professional Development Approaches by Kim Wade, Leadership Clinic Planning Committee Member and Missouri EE 2000 team participant  

 The Environmental Education Advocate - Spring 1998

The following information is provided to you as a service of the National Environmental Education Advancement Project (NEEAP). We encourage you to use it and please credit the National Environmental Education
Advancement Project where appropriate.

"Just about the time I get discouraged with what seems to be the hopelessness of the task, it is time for the [annual Spring Leadership] Clinic." --1998 Clinic Participant                

Hold on to your top hat, the dance card has made a comeback!  Known in some regions of the country for signing up with several dance partners during formal dances or promenades, the dance card found a new use among environmental education (EE) leaders from 23 U.S. States, Canada, and Puerto Rico recently.  The dance card was one of many tools used by the 130 participants to schedule times to meet with one another and share vast resources throughout the three-day Clinic.

  Gone are the days of "sage on stage" sessions.  This third annual Leadership Clinic, modeling a unique process, provided a flexible, yet dynamic schedule for EE professionals and supporters to exchange and plan.  This year's clinic was held March 25-29, 1998 at San Diego’s classic Lafayette Hotel.  The teams, made up of 3-8 members, were sponsored by the National Environmental Education Advancement Project (NEEAP) and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), with support from the Environmental and Education Training Partnership (EETAP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA).  In addition, 35 state and national EE leaders served as Resource People, sharing their expertise and helping as "floating-facilitators".

Big Picture:  The Clinic's Purpose
  The purpose of the Leadership Clinic is threefold, to provide a growing network of local, state, and regional EE leaders with: (1) the opportunity to exchange information and ideas; (2) professional development sessions implementing specific EE initiatives, fundraising, EE promotion, etc.; and (3) time and assistance to further develop their state's EE strategic action plans.

  This year’s Clinic opened with a new approach:  “Everyone has something to give; everyone has something to gain.”  The Clinic was designed not only to help teams plan, but also to help them gain first-hand experience in group process strategies that they could replicate back home.  The participant-driven team planning process enabled individual teams to progress at their own pace, yet provided guidelines if a team needed them.

Team Planning Sessions: The “Heart” of the Clinic
  Armed with flipcharts and their own private meeting space, teams worked independently during several 2-3 hour Team Planning Sessions.  The purpose of these sessions was to provide teams with planning and processing time to strengthen both their action plans and working relationships.  During these sessions, teams often invited national level Resource People or other state representatives to work with them as-needed.  Teams posted the results of their daily Team Planning Sessions on a colorful "Team Progress Mural".  The wall-size mural was a "work in progress" giving participants a chance to see what teams were working on and respond to other teams' needs and questions.

Resource People: Providing Skills and Perspective
  According to participants, the Resource People were vital to teams’ progress during their Team Planning Sessions.  Says NM participant Sue McGuire,  “We had been struggling with a few issues for over a year.  The resource people who worked with us helped us solve those problems quickly.  There was nothing magical about this; it was partly just having someone who could pull the solution out of us by making us rethink the issue in a new way.”
  Resource People were available to consult with teams in a host of areas, including: organizational development; diversity and multiculturalism; information technology; education reform; curriculum and initiatives evaluation; and fundraising.  In addition to being on-call, some Resource People also facilitated professional development sessions.  Topics included:  Pre-service EE Teacher Training; Promoting EE through the Media; Diversity and Multicultural EE; Community Based EE; Education Reform; and Fundraising for the ‘Seasoned’ EE Organizer.  In addition, the Illinois EE2000 team provided their workshop, “Tools for Non-Formal In-Service Providers”.

Share Fair:  Dance Card Fever
  Signing up with Resource People and other teams was half the fun.  Resource People and each of the participating teams hosted tables at the Share Fair to highlight their EE initiatives and issues or "conundrums".  The Share Fair gave participants an early opportunity to learn about EE initiatives, as well as discover who was working on related efforts or facing similar challenges.  Participants used their dance cards at the Share Fair to schedule one-on-one meetings with Resource People and other teams.

Open Space:  Controlled Chaos
  “I will never run a workshop the same way again,” says Cindy Bakkom (IL) after participating in Open Space.  “I found the Open Space session to be one of the best methods for sharing and gaining knowledge.  I can see many applications not only for my EE organization, but also in my professional capacity.”
  Open Space is a purely participant-driven group process strategy developed by Harrison Owen.  Its purpose at the end of the Clinic was to provide participants with an opportunity to pursue topics or issues of interest that had arisen prior to or at the Clinic.  Each participant who volunteered to facilitate a small group session announced and then posted his or her topic on a wall-sized schedule.  Examples at sessions included:  Building Active Membership; Impact of Block Grants for Federal Education Funding; Bridging Gaps between EE and Sustainability; Professional EE Certification; and Board Development.  The small group discussions that ensued were lively and in-depth, and many resulted in new initiatives being pursued following the Clinic.

  As part of the closing activities, Clinic participants wrote "I Commits" showing how they plan to actively move EE forward in their home states.  Participants with similar commitments met in affinity groups to exchange ideas and contact information.  Examples of commitments were: "Set up a joint list serve with NH"; "Present board development ideas to my board"; "Follow-up on links with education community as part of our EE standards project"; "Develop an EE 2000 Communications plan"; "Continue to improve my facilitation skills"; "Utilize funding resources gained at clinic with my organization".  The list of participant commitments was an impressive result of the clinic in and of itself.

  This year’s Clinic launched an innovative approach to EE networking and planning.  By combining Professional Development sessions with group process innovations, the Clinic resulted in a winning model for learning and training in EE.  Use of the above strategies – Team Planning Sessions, Team Progress Mural, Resource People, Share Fair, Dance Cards, and Open Space – grew out of the feedback from participants at past Clinics.  “Our state’s situation seemed impossible when I arrived.  I felt quite hopeless... but after a whole series of “ah ha’s,” everything seems possible again,” says Chris Gertschen (ID).  In addition to hope, the Clinic gave participants firsthand experience in a well-planned, but flexible program of small and large group learning and planning processes.  By developing a participant-driven process and enabling teams to experience, and later replicate, that process, the Clinic has made a singular contribution to ongoing efforts to build local, state, and regional capacity for EE.  So dust off that top hat, ’cause this is by no means the last dance.

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