[Council Initiatives (General discussion that applies to all 3 Initiatives)]

During the Inaugural Council meeting at the Conference, the Council voted to adopt 3 Initiative topics for the Council related to the FNPS mission and the current strategic plan under discussion on the Board. They are:
1. Promoting landscaping with native plants,
2. Enhancing educational field trips, and
3. Developing strategies & advocacy for land use planning to address habitat loss

The group acknowledged that these are just general topics. The work of wording them more clearly, defining them as Initiatives, setting the goals and tasks and timelines for each is yet to be done. Representatives present at the Council meeting chose the topic they wanted to work on. The 3 topics and the people who signed up are at this link on the Council Website:
http://council.fnpschapters.org/index.php?id=council-subcommittee

[Re: Council Initiatives (General discussion that applies to all 3 Initiatives)]

See attached

[Re: Council Initiatives (General discussion that applies to all 3 Initiatives)]

Certainly Chapter-to-Chapter and Chapters-to-Board communication is key for the Council. The website, the Forum, the FNPS Contacts (Presidents, Reps, Committees), GoToMeeting, but most of all participating, giving your opinion (as Cocoplum has done above), making decisions, voting, polling, etc.

Initiatives are more like topics or objectives than "projects" to my mind. The point of an organization having a strategic plan is to put a few items on the table saying, "let's deal with these now; move them forward, then focus on a few more items later." The FNPS strategic plan has a focus in 5 areas, the Council chose 3 of those for its focus: Promoting Landscaping, Educational Field Trips, Land Use Planning. These are still too broad and need to be further focused to be objectives that Chapters CARE ABOUT. Organizations are not effective in communication or implementation when they work on everything at once and there is no focus. Council topics (Initiatives) are not separate from Chapters, they are of/from/for Chapters.

There is the question of whether each Region should have a topic. Promoting Landscaping, for example, is a topic most Chapters across the state care about, work on, would like to improve, or show to other Chapters. Also the Board and the Landscape Committee care about it. So it seems to make more sense that each region will have some Reps who are "in on" the Landscape ideas and discussing in their Region what Chapters want from cooperating and pooling resources related to Landscaping. Working on this topic brings us into communication with other Chapters, with the Landscape Committee, and with the Board. Same goes for the other two topics. We are all focusing on just a few things to make some headway and accomplish something practical to help promote Landscaping (and improved Field Trips and improved Land Use) statewide.

What does your Chapter wants to get out of and contribute to each Initiative? That's what we need to know to narrow and mold the topic into something useful and practical for Chapters, landscapers, and gardeners (and for those who benefit from improvements to our Field Trip and Land Use programs).

[Re: Council Initiatives (General discussion that applies to all 3 Initiatives)]

We still need a Council in-person discussion about communication and action, about our purpose and narrowing it down to something we can do. We need to discuss what we can achieve over the course of a year and all participate in choosing what that will be. On our first year anniversary, let's re-set what we can, should, and want to achieve in the upcoming year. I call those initiatives, but I realize that word is confusing to many. An initiative concerning communication improvements makes a lot of sense. Three initiatives is totally arbitrary, but too many makes them impossible to achieve. One might work really well, but I don't know if it is realistic to limit ourselves to one focus. Perhaps it is. We should discus what our focus (1, 2, or 3) will be and agree to achieve it in about a year.