Invitation & General Information
Subject: INVITATION -- Gatlinburg, 14-17 December
Folks,
Greetings. This email gives you information about Discover Life in America's up-coming general planning meeting in Gatlinburg,14-17 December. While we hope that you have already been invited by our committee chairs and team coordinators, this is our way of formally inviting you to participate and including those of you whom may not have been contacted. For those of you who haven't already put this meeting on your schedule, please forgive the short notice. While we have developed a "brain" since last December's meeting, we're still very much a new volunteer organization that is learning to work with our growing "body."
GOALS:
The goals of our meeting are to (1) develop and write a long-term
strategic plan for Discover Life in America, including a mission statement
and timeline, (2) develop detailed written 1-year plans for Discover Life
in America's Science, Education, Development, Information Management,
Communications, and Finance committees and the ATBI's Design, Taxonomy,
Collecting, Sorting, Curation, Web, Database, Business, Education and
Outreach teams, (3) assign responsibilities for accomplishing and
evaluating the success of these plans, (4) develop outlines for several
funding proposals, and (5) get to know each other and share ideas.
Here is some information to help you plan for this meeting. Updates and details will be posted as they become available under "Events" at <www.discoverlife.org>.
AGENDA:
Monday, 14 December -- Assemble, Field Trips, Open House, Get-to-Know Reception
8:00 - 17:00 -- Twin Creeks "Research Park" will host an open house all
day. This will include visits to our demonstration plot. This open house
is being organized by Chuck Parker <chuck_parker@usgs.gov>. Although
appointments are not necessary, you may wish to drop him a line if you have
special interests.
Starting 12:00 -- Field trip to spruce-fir habitat
Starting 13:00 -- Field trip to old-growth cove hardwood habitat
Starting 14:00 -- Mystery tour -- by popular demand, suggestions being accepted.
If you wish to go on a field trip, please contact Dana Soehn
<dana_soehn@nps.gov>.
Starting 19:00 -- Get-to-know reception at Glennstone Lodge.
Tuesday, 15 December -- Overview, charges, working groups
8:30 -- 12:00 -- Overview of Discover Life in America & ATBI; charge to
working groups
13:00 -- 17:00 -- Working Groups -- Outlining issues and problems
Starting 19:00 -- Informal Dinner
Wednesday, 16 December -- Working Groups
8:30 -- 17:00 -- Real work -- Formulating solutions and plans
Starting 19:00 -- Informal Dinner and Social
Thursday, 17 December -- Pulling it all together. Press invited
8:30 -- 12:00 Working Group Reports and Discussion
13:00 -- 5:00 Plenary Session, Distinguished Speakers
Starting 19:00 -- Banquet
Friday -- Our planning meeting will be followed on Friday by Discover Life in America's Board of Directors' meeting in Knoxville. Details of Friday's agenda and venue will be posted on the Web for Board members and others of you who wish to attend.
VENUE:
The meeting held the Glennstone Lodge/Days Inn in Gatlinburg.
Details on travel and lodging will be placed on the Web under "Events." We
ask that you MAKE YOUR OWN reservations by calling the Glennstone
800-362-9522 or 423-436-9361. Charles Maynard has arranged for us to have
a block of rooms. Please tell them that you are with Discover Life in
America. Although the exact price is still under negotiation, for those of
you who will be contributing your own funds, we expect that double rooms
will be between $45 and $55 per night. Please contact Nancy Keohane
<nancy_keohane@nps.gov> (phone: 423-430-4740) if you need help making
travel arrangements.
REGISTRATION:
Please R.S.V.P. to Heather Alley letting her know if you plan to attend.
Let her know when you will arrive and leave so that we can better plan our
logistic needs. She can be reached via email at <alley@discoverlife.org>,
phone: 706-542-6676, or FAX: 706-542-3344. For those of you who can
afford it, we intend to charge a registration fee of between $50 and $75 to
cover the cost of food and beverages.
LODGING & FOOD SUBSIDIES:
We have limited funds to cover the costs of this meeting and are asking
those of you who have grants, travel budgets, and who can otherwise afford
it to cover your own costs. For those on limited budgets, we have some
funds to cover your lodging and food, thanks to the generosity of the
Natural History Association and the Friends of Great Smokies. They have
raised this money through their grass-roots efforts -- the Park's gift
shop, chocolate sales, benefit concerts, etc. If enough people contribute
to the cost of the meeting by covering their own expenses, we should be
able to cover the expenses of all those in need of help. Our goal is to
enable everyone who wishes to attend to do so. What we save on this
meeting we will use to support science and educational projects this spring
and summer. If you need free lodging, we can provide you a room, so long
as you are willing to share it with a roommate. Please let Heather know if
you need free lodging. She can help you select a roommate from our large
selection of heavy-smoking, noisy, eccentrics.
TRAVEL SUBSIDIES:
Discover Life in America has set aside $3,000 to help invitees with
airfares. We intend to divide this amount equally among those invited who
request travel assistance. If 60 people ask for support, it's only $50
each. If only a few folks ask, then we can cover their full fares. We
hope that this is fair. We wish to avoid value judgements of whether one
taxonomist, for example, is or isn't more important than another, or an
teacher, or a databaser. In an ALL taxa study, we hope to support the
study of all taxa. Clearly, we need to work together to raise funds, sell
our vision, and expand the resources that we can thus share. Again, we ask
that you please try to contribute to your own travel expenses and request
support from us only if you have no other means of support. Again, please
let Heather know if you need help with travel costs.
DEADLINE -- DEADLINE --DEADLINE
The deadline for making hotel arrangement at our block rate is THURSDAY, 3
DECEMBER. Please call the Glennstone Inn and email Heather with your plans
by then.
"GET INVOLVED:"
Our Web site <www.discoverlife.org> has a "Get Involved" link that allows
you to enter your name, address, phone numbers, etc. Please go to this
site and fill in our less-than-5-minute form. Doing so will make our
logistics much easier. You can retrieve such information on others through
our site's "Who's Involved" link.
For those of you on a tight schedule and who wish to contribute the most to our planning efforts, we urge that you to participate on Tuesday and Wednesday. For those of you who wish to get the best overview of our vision and activities, we urge you to attend on Thursday.
We ask that our committee chairs and team coordinators please forward this invitation to their members in the likely event that we will miss some key individuals in our mailings.
We look forward to seeing you all.
Cheers,
Don, Keith, Mary & Pick
Don Barger <dbarger@npca.org>
Keith Langdon <Keith_Langdon@nps.gov>
John Pickering <pick@discoverlife.org>
Mary Williams <mjwillia@tricon.net>