I love reading the comments posted in the forums on this Website. Many of them are very eloquent. They’re all insightful. You can’t help but notice that some issues – like how to develop future leaders – generate a lot of comments. The debate is healthy.
While we won’t all agree in this forum – or on this subject — the conversation highlights something interesting: This online discussion crosses an experience continuum of Service employees, from those new to public service to those you might call “old hands”.
This Website has brought together people who are different ages, from far flung parts of the country — people who might not otherwise have met or talked about the single issue that always brings us together: conservation. That’s great.
Right now, you can see the revised Core Team papers on this site. Then, in late January, we will be seeing a single document that merges the Core Teams’ documents with introductions, transitions and conclusions. We’ll have until at least late April to discuss that document before it goes to the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Even after that, we will continue to discuss the ideas into the spring before the mid-July conference.
For now, I encourage you to discuss the Core Teams’ recommendations with your colleagues in your own offices. After all, we have undertaken an important effort on behalf of the Refuge System – one that will guide us for the next decade or so.
And don’t forget to continue the dialogue you initiated with colleagues in our online forum. Because those you met online during the last few weeks are waiting to hear what you have to say once you have digested the revised papers and again when you see the full document. We hope you will bring with you lots of people who are interested in the discussion and haven’t been here before.
And then there’s the single comment from Jimmy Fox of Alaska that I saw online, which I think well summarizes what we all feel: patiently agitate for conservation victories.
Keep the eloquence coming.
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Very well put Greg, though I didn’t make one of the core teams, I’m happy that we opened this site so that I can share my views and try to help. I almost feel like I can put my “two cents” worth in and reach people whome I think would benefit from my exerience.
I do want us to patiently agitate for conservation victories. But to be clear, I feel I better publicly state I don’t accept credit for the phrase, “patiently agitate for conservation victories,” which I posted as an example of actions employees in pursuit of excellence might pursue. I read that phrase recently in an outstanding book, Intelligent Courage, written by Michael Fraidenburg. The book is a series of interviews with conservation heroes and it has influenced me greatly. I do not know if Mr. Fraidenburg heard that term from another and used it or claims it as his own. Either way, it’s good advice and I encourage anyone interested in leadership and organizational change to pick up a copy of his book or his free 57 Tips and 57 Conservation Tips by visiting his site at http://www.intelligentcourage.com/. Thank you.