1st Conference Call of the ECPN

So, the first conference call happened. Some useful things were discussed, some less than useful. I reprint here a public report from that conference. (Slightly reformatted to fit the blog).

1^st Organizational Conference Call Recap

On Thursday, August 7, we had our first organizational conference call. We had a lot of participation from interested people in the group, and I think we had a very productive meeting. After introductions, one of the first things we discussed was the name of the group, which as you can tell from the title above, has been changed to the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network. We think the new name will more accurately reflect the intention of the group. If you have any questions or concerns, let us know what you think.

 

 

We then discussed the results of the survey and came up with some goals for the next year based on conclusions we drew from the survey responses. After ranking them according to the amount of time it would take to accomplish these goals, we came up with the following list:

 

 

One Month

List Internship/Pre-program Training Opportunities on the New Website

Three Months:

Establish a Mentoring Program – list available mentors on webpage

Send Out a More Detailed Survey Concerning These Goals (focusing on career development)

Six Months:

Organize Networking Happy Hours in Various Cities

Nine Months:

Develop and Execute a Plan to Disseminate the Outreach Lecture

Have a Business Meeting and a separate Reception at the 2009 Annual Meeting

Ongoing:

Do More Virtual Networking – create listserve, develop Facebook-like webpage on AIC website, have regularly scheduled conference calls, create yahoo/discussion group, use Ning social networking tool

One Year:

Update Conservation Training in US brochure/information

During our next conference call, we will discuss leadership roles on these various goals and the next steps we plan to take. Think about the different ways you want to get involved and then call into the next conference call on Thursday, August 21!

Future Conference Calls

The leaders of the network agreed that the group should have regularly scheduled conference calls. It was decided that these would occur every Third Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern time. To be a part of these calls, please call in using the information below. Mark these dates in your calendars!

 

Dial-in Access Numbers:

800-379-4339 / 781-743-1771

Conference ID: 9992396901