Hi all At Cheyenne Audubon's recent 40th "Birdday" party John Fitzpatrick/Cornell Lab Director gave an impassioned presentation on eBird--it got me "all jazzed up" as to the "value" of eBird in terms of science and conservation. So much so, I noticed there are state/group eBird portals--for example--there could be a portal specific to Colorado eBirds ... us! Costs I hear are about $1,000-1,500 per subscription annum ... "chump change", right? So, as I proposed to Audubon Rockies I'll propose here.
Your thoughts from the Colorado birding world? *Colorado eBird Portal Strategy Development Proposal* · *“If We Build It” will Colorado citizens come?* o Should we build it? Develop criteria similar to (next) § Link to Strategic Imperatives § Consistency with (what?) Statewide, Global initiatives § Social Impacts § Environmental Impacts and Status § Project Revenue Potential § Sustainability § Project Costs § Financial Feasibility § Stakeholder and Citizenry Acceptability § Attractiveness to the Public and Private Sector § Other Factors? o Active Sponsor Engagement o Team Actively Engaged o Broad Organizational Awareness of the Project o Project Delivered the Anticipated Results o Project Completed on Time o Successful Transition of Ownership to Process Owner o Improvement Sustained Over Time o Replication of Results o Stakeholder support · *How do we facilitate change?* *Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Management Model* * STEP* *HIGH LEVEL ACTIVITY* 1 *Assess Need for Change* – Clearly define the need and urgency for change. 2 *Obtain Executive Buy-in and Create a Guiding Coalition* – Executive level support should be highly and regularly visible to employees; change leaders require Empowerment to achieve wide-scale impacts; a change team is required. *3* *Define Implementation Strategy* – There needs to be a collaborative approach between the change team, employees and leadership/management to develop a strategy that will support the workforce through the change. 4 *Communicate Change Vision* – Use all vehicles to communicate the new vision and strategy, make sure employees understand the reasons for and consequences of change through feedback sessions and senior leadership communications. 5 *Empower Broad-based Action* – Acknowledge and address emotional intelligence of affected employees; solicit contributions and support. 6 *Generate Short-term Wins* – Establish short-term transition wins. Role model and set behaviors expected of employees, and visibly recognize and reward employees who make the wins possible. 7 *Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change / Evaluate the Process* – Continually improve the process as necessary. 8 *Anchor New Approaches in the Culture* – Emphasize the importance of generating long-term change by articulating how the new behaviors and the transition created organizational successes. · *Apply Project Management principles to efforts* <https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5ilRFzprvVM/VDQbS5HQeeI/AAAAAAAAADM/Qp3O6g7Cl3s/s1600/projectlifecycle.png> · *Stakeholders, or “champions”* o Management of § Stakeholders interests and the projects interests need to be aligned over a period of time § The stakeholders have to be engaged pro-actively. Nothing should be left in the hope of someone else doing it § We need to find solutions to stakeholders issues and problems § We need to find a way to satisfy all the stakeholders and should not try to pit them against one another or trade somebody’s interests for others. As for example: robbing Peter to pay Paul! § We need to demonstrate our commitment to fulfilling their needs § We need to engage and communicate with ALL stakeholders – not just those who are friendly or positively disposed towards the project § Stakeholders are real people and are complex – we need to establish a rapport with them § We need to constantly revisit our processes so that we can better serve the stakeholders o Citizens o Birding organizations § Colorado Field Ornithologists § Denver Field Ornithologists § Colorado Birding Society § Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory § Audubon Rockies § Colorado Audubon Chapters o Conservation organizations § Nature Conservancy § Rocky Mountain Conservancy § Boulder County Nature Association § Aspen Center for Environmental Studies § Roaring Fork Conservancy § Plains Conservation Center § Greater Arkansas Valley Nature Association § Bluff Lake Nature Center § Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo § Denver Museum of Nature and Science § Colorado Cranes Conservation Coalition § High Plains Environmental Center o State and Local Governments § Local Open Space Programs § Local Natural Area Programs § Colorado Division of Wildlife o Education at all levels · *Develop Communication, outreach and education plan* o Social media presence o Print media coverage o Television media coverage o Develop roadshow o Determine potential Colorado citizen audience § DOW recreation studies § DOW economic impact studies § SWOT from studies, current partnership environment § Diversity plan § Messaging · *How do we “sell” Colorado eBird to citizens?* o What is our value proposition to Colorado citizens, government activities, etc? § Use or develop Cornell’s John Fitzpatrick “Discover How Birds Can Save The World” · Develop similar only for Colorado (makes it more personal to Colorado citizens) § Personalize page content and easily reach all of our state's eBirders at once § Being able to customize content to match whatever is happening at the moment, whether it is an invasion of a particular bird, an initiative the local DNR wants outreach on, or something we want to nag local birders on related to how they are using eBird § It is not overly hard for an average person to figure out how to put up a story on eBird portals § Other minor advantages are it defaulting to CO on screens where you need to select a state, and some sidebar content customized to CO counties, CO links, CO flickr pool § Ability to put up the email address where you reached us - sometimes people are looking to reach out to someone and don't know how § I'm not sure how related the WI eBird page is to the general success of the program in WI, but for years we have had very high user participation, so it can't hurt § The portal is a bit more official looking, is a global brand in itself throughout birding world, and carries some additional weight as such · *How do we sustain Colorado eBird strategy (content, data, messaging, funding)* o Strategy development cost-neutral o Develop Colorado eBird funding model o Colorado eBird portal content management (data, stories, articles, announcements, etc) o Link to stakeholders o Lifecycle management o Metrics development -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. 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