Statewide events and/or Governor involvement?

[Alice Hohl]

We are working on an April event.
We are in the planning stages and want to involve the Governor of our state. Some of our members have relationships which should help this happen.

We have a few questions and ideas we'd like feedback on.

1. We might like to present a Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights. This has been done in other states. Thoughts?

2. We are contemplating teaming up with an Envir. Ed. conference going on at the same time. Do you think this will help or dilute our event, which is not only about EE but also health, urban planning, parks, camps, etc.

3. We might like to present our state's Environmental Literacy Plan at the event. Will this skew it too much toward EE? Or politicize it somehow?

Any other thoughts on a statewide event hosted by a couple of regional grassroots movements? Has this been done elsewhere? Please share!

[John Thielbahr]

Alice,
I spent 11 years in the conference management business for Washington State University. When an idea for a statewide conference on an important topic was presented to me, or I came up with the idea myself, my first question was: where is the money coming from to pay for the conference? The second question was: who is the target audience? The third question was: what is the outcome I want to achieve? The answer to the third one can be as general as raising awareness to specific about action steps for legislation or creating program coalitions. I can better help you with the questions you ask above if you answer my three questions first. John

[Marilyn Wyzga]

John's questions are right on.

We've been through this three times now. Each of our statewide meetings had a different focus, somewhat different audiences, and was funded from different sources, and they produced different results -- all good and all headed towards the ultimate goals of the coalition. However, across the board, we've made a real effort to include folks from across the sectors (health, education, recreation, built environment, arts and culture, etc.) by tailoring parts of the meeting to them and also by directly inviting them. Still, it's a struggle for this not to become another EE initiative, because, frankly, folks in EE have been dedicated to this issue for years -- this IS their work.

If you present the state's ELP, which is significant mostly to your Ed and EE folks, what will you offer to entice and engage your other audiences? Marilyn

[Alice Hohl]

1. We plan to charge for registration and get a state park conference center donated, since several state agencies are involved; We recently put on a leadership retreat at a lovely venue for $0. We have a large membership, and some of them have facilities. Some of them have organic food. Some of them have printing budgets. We are usually able to cobble things together.

2. The target audience is high-level leaders in health, education, early education, nature facilities & programs (parks, camps, etc.) and urban planning.

3. The two outcomes are: 1) elevate the visibility of the movement in Ohio, from a PR perspective, by involving the Governor and others in high levels in the state and 2) have these leaders sign on to commit to certain action steps within their sectors. We plan to work with at least one key person in each sector ahead of time to help formulate these steps, determine the best people to invite, and establish a method for following up.

[John Thielbahr]

OK, this information is helpful. I have done this before with state leaders on issues of Internet safety for children and sustainability. As you point out, one of the key issues with senior officials like the governor is to get their commitment to attend, and their commitment to action, early. They are usually scheduled out six months and you will need to work with their staffs to get the date and place set. Getting the date and the place are the first two things to do. Then you fill in the agenda and other topics to discuss, and work on the marketing and budget.

Your marketing will be driven by the attendance of the governor and other senior officials. That is compelling for others to attend. Once the governor agrees to attend, send out a save the date card as soon as possible to your mailing list so people get the date on their calendars. For high level gatherings like this, I also like to schedule a post-conference meeting to distill the conference and determine next steps, asking specific individuals to be responsible. Have something concrete you want to accomplish to keep the momentum of the conference going. Marilyn's suggestions about facilitation are excellent. Hope this helps. John

Alice Hohl said:

1. We plan to charge for registration and get a state park conference center donated, since several state agencies are involved; We recently put on a leadership retreat at a lovely venue for $0. We have a large membership, and some of them have facilities. Some of them have organic food. Some of them have printing budgets. We are usually able to cobble things together.

2. The target audience is high-level leaders in health, education, early education, nature facilities & programs (parks, camps, etc.) and urban planning.

3. The two outcomes are: 1) elevate the visibility of the movement in Ohio, from a PR perspective, by involving the Governor and others in high levels in the state and 2) have these leaders sign on to commit to certain action steps within their sectors. We plan to work with at least one key person in each sector ahead of time to help formulate these steps, determine the best people to invite, and establish a method for following up.