I promised myself I would step away from these discussions as I am finding them difficult to follow and unsure whether anone reads the mental wanderings of the older gneration, but I think Betsy’s comment makes a great point and it is reinforced by Deborah’s. We have come long way, but there are many real tangible things (like making sure the Service communicates consistently on twitter and othe rsocial networks) that need to happen and should happen and these need to be our priorities. Setting priorities is ingrained in the refuge culture, we set priorities for budgets, work, we accomplish, where we go , and what we do every day. Not setting priorities is like setting one dog bowl on the floor when you are feeding 3 hungry hounds: the one who needs it most may get left out. I think doing the hard work is hard, but if we set concrete priorities and provide compelling rationale they will be accomplished, I think Promises is proof of that.

That’s it from me.

Thanks Brian I will try to post comments again. I would like to expand on one idea that is refuges being relevant to communities. In my more than 30 years experience, I have seen refuges become relevant through the people who work there. this person may be a deacon, Scout leader, or volunter EMT, who happens to work at the refuge. We should not lose sight of this point. Because the community knows you through a different avenue as a person who can be relied on, then what you have to say about conservation matters. If you commute long distances to work, you don’t have time to invest locally, you have a difficult time being relevant.

When there was abundant refuge housing, there wasn’t much choice where people lived. You lived on station and your kids (if you had them) went to local schools. If you cared about schools you joined the PTA or were on the school board.

Economic reports on the value of refuges are lost on most folks, but I have experience doing some effective outreach over the dinner table on a Saturday night standing for ambulance calls. Let’s not lose sight of the integral role people play in making refuges relevant to communities.

As I reviewed the document today, i had my copy of ”fulfilling the Promise” open so I could compare the two similar sections. i hoped to see that we had improved on the 25 GS 5-7 manager positons in the system n order to create greater intake opportunities, my guess is we haven’t. i also think that the recommendations need to be focused, this section of the document alone makes 48 recommendations,there were 42 total in the other document. Please be bold and set the bar high. I was hoping this would be more of a critique of how we are doing, yes we have formalized pathways for careers….but do we use them?
I think you need to take a hard look at the recommendations and focus in one the most important ones. Too many recommendations will create confusion as people may head in many different directions at once.

Hope this is helpful. Best of luck and keep grinding.

I briefly reviewed the document over Thanksgiving and would offer a comment on ”Broadening Workforce Inclusiveness” Under your fourth bullet, I think its important to mention trainee positions as an important bridge for STEP and SCEP into the workforce. We really need to focus on developing these people once they are in the work force and getting them the skills and abilities and experiences they will need to be successful in accomplishing the Service mission.

Thanks for your time.

I read the vision document over the weekend for admittedly the first time. Two general comments: On ”Maintaining our commitment to existing leadership development programs,” I think we need to MAKE a commitment to these programs and encourage current leaders to be involved. We need more people coaching in SUTL and ALDP. Second comment is on ”Developing the best possible leaders at Every level of the organization” I think we really need to dust of the Refuge Manager career ladder document and refine it and devlop training plans and strategies that support those skills and abilities managers need. We also need to make a commitment to manager trainee positoins and make them real trainees. The region seven deputies made an attempt to define those skills and abilities unique to working in AK. This documentlives on the deputiy managers Wiki site in R7.