A few weeks ago Y2Y offered me a position to stay on with the organization and continue some of the work that I have been focusing on for my placement. Particularly the efforts to streamline their strategic planning processes, while integrating elements of the Open Standards into their conservation planning and practices. It’s an excellent offer and I am excited to be based out of Bozeman, Montana where I can continue to build upon the connections I have in the SW Montana community.

Next week I am headed to Canmore, Alberta to partake in a week long strategic planning session facilitated by Elizabeth O’Neil from Conservation Measures Partnership. She’s an expert in the Open Standards so I’ll be very curious to see how the process goes via her lead. The staff have had many strategic planning meetings throughout the year, so although I may be coming in at the 3/4 point, I am still very interested to learn about the process they have gone through, and how best my future position can support the work. They may see a need for more conceptual models to be created, so I will hold off on wrapping up that part of my placement work since it may continue into the fall.

For now, I am focusing on completing the partner interviews I have lined up, and figuring out how best to review/distill the information gathered from the interviews. I will be in Canada for another week post the Canmore meetings, traveling around southern British Columbia meeting with Canadian partners. Then I have a Tribal Climate Change Adaptation conference in Spokane, WA to attend. So time will be extremely tight before presentations and project due dates in August. I’m trying my best to outline all the final materials this week so by the end of July I can ‘plug in’ the final text.

So I’m transitioning from saying ‘they/the organization/you’ to ‘we/us’ as I become a part of the team … a good transition to be going through.

I’ll post more photos of amazing mountains after next week …