1

2

Welcome to our first webinar for Natural Families Network club leaders! My name is Janice, and I’ll introduce myself a little more in just a few minutes… On the phone with us are Avery Cleary, Amy Pertschuk and Suz Lipman. Avery is the Director of Grassroots Outreach and Engagement. Amy is the Director of Network Communications, and Suz is I want to welcome you and just run over the agenda quickly. I always like to know what’s happening… so we’ll start by just touching on the vision and mission of C&NN, as a way to set the stage for the work that we’re doing, as they give the framework for all of our efforts. We’ll then set the purpose of the Natural Families Network webinar for FNC Leaders today, and future webinars in which we’ll be sharing both “News from the Network” and things that we’re working on to “Grow the Movement”. We’ll close with a couple of short but important action items we’d like you to do as a result of today’s meeting.

3

4

5

This is a quote from Richard Louv that also helps keep me grounded and reflect on why I do what I do. What we are all doing is important in the Movement to connect children and nature, it’s important for the communities we work in, and it’s important in the lives of the people we reach.

Just to give a little context, we are one of the four MAJOR initiatives of C&NN. The Natural Families Network is of course open to anyone with an interest in what we’re doing, but we as family nature club leaders have a great opportunity to motivate and inspire others in addition to each other.

6  

7

With conference calls, the C&NN Connect site, potentially a Google group and now with this WEBINAR, the Children & Nature Network is taking steps to enhance communication in the Natural Families Network, and bring us all together on a regular basis for mutual support and learning. As family nature club leaders, we are on the forefront of helping to grow the movement. I’d like to say that this particular webinar is somewhat of a test also… we are testing the technology and will continue to do so in our search for personal connections and relationships.

8

Name =) Teacher by training, focused mainly on literacy and parent education and involvement in underserved areas of San Diego. After 15 years of teaching and the birth of my second son I decided to stay at home to raise our two boys, Owen and Luke. My husband Ron and I had always enjoyed traveling and exploring in the great outdoors and continue to do so with our children, who are very adventurous and LOVE exploring, most of all in nature. When our boys were still quite young we started inviting other friends with kids to hike and explore with us. Soon, we came across the infamous “Last Child in the Woods” and were inspired to formalize our efforts, if you will, to start a family nature club. Simultaneously, San Diego invited Rich to come speak and the San Diego Children and Nature Collaborative was born. My husband and I both became involved with the Collaborative from early on and I currently coordinate family programs for SDCaN.

While I’ve been involved with C&NN in a variety of way over the past year and a half or so, when I was asked to become part of the team and be the National Coordinator for Nature Clubs for Families, I accepted with both anticipation and trepidation because I was nervous to take on such a role. Really though, I am excited to both help grow and move the movement, and ultimately I am motivated by my desire to learn from and grow with others.

You can see the initial responsibilities and goals for this position on your screen. Given that I just started this work formally in January, I’m really only about elbow-deep thus far!

9  

From a C&NN perspective, we hope that these webinars and potentially a google group will enhance communication between all of us and with the network itself. We know that information coming in through email can be overwhelming at times. Having a group communication vehicle for things like announcements from the network – new website, new research, new tools and resources might make that flow of information easier to keep track of As well as action items pertaining to network wide initiatives.

10  

C&NN Connect (the NING site) has proven to be a wonderful connector and support in many ways. However, we are always looking for new (and better) ways to connect family nature club leaders. We are thinking about starting a Google Group for family nature club leaders and I wanted to get some feedback from you on that. The purpose of the Google Group would be to facilitate communication amongst us, perhaps more personal and specific than on the NING site. Please “raise your hand” if you would like to explore the google group idea. Results of hand raising…

11

Building on the success of last year, C&NN’s goal this year is to have events in all 50 states. Last year there were events in 44.

Please support the Natural Leaders and register any events you have planned outside in April. There was an email blast designed to be easily forwarded to everyone we know. There was also a little blurb in last week’s Natural Families Network quarterly newsletter that can also be found on the Natural Families Network Connect site. In the article and on the site you can find the link to find events and register your own. We are really trying to capture the voices of “Let’s G.O.!” this year and hope to capture all of the good things you are doing, especially this April.

One other thing to emphasize is that we are trying to increase the use of C&NN Connect and Facebook to capture the voices of Let’s G.O.! this year as well, so even if you don’t register an official event, be sure to use those tools as well. You never know who you may inspire!

12

Some more “News from the Network” – hopefully you have all already seen and had a chance to read through the newest toolkit: Together in Nature. If you haven’t, I’d encourage you to do so and share it with families as a valuable resource in Attachment Theory and how it relates to bonding in nature. It also provides a treasure trove of ideas for nature-based activities for a variety of age group clusters. It can of course be downloaded from childrenandnature.org.

13

Some more “News from the Network” – maybe you’ve seen this contest … maybe you even participated in it last year?

CLIFKid Backyard Game of the Year contest is open to kids ages 6 – 12 to create a “backyard” game for other kids their age. Wouldn’t it be great if this year’s winner really used the outdoors as part of their game, used natural elements? All the details and contest rules can be found at http://www.clifkidbackyardgame.com/

The deadline is June 17th and the top 6 games will be notified on or before June 30th, and then flown to San Francisco to present their game to the judges. Richard Louv is the game spokesperson.

14

One of the first things I did in my efforts to get to know all of you, and understand where clubs are located and such, was to delve into the FNCs on the Movement Map. When I did this I realized just how much progress we’ve already made in the movement and it was nice to start to learn more about what you all are doing. I also saw a variety of “types” of clubs which was also inspiring to me. In talking with Avery and Amy and Suz, we realized that our efforts can likely be grouped into three broad categories: blogs, clubs for families run by organizations, and clubs for families run by families. We are toying with the idea now of developing a modified registration form for FNCs on the Movement Map that will help families that visit the site understand more easily who is offering what. What we are thinking about is developing some sort of an icon or symbol for each of the categories so that as people register on the Movement Map, the icon or symbol will show up next to their name that indicates the type(s) of organization they are. As you think about what a family nature club is to you, where you might plug in and such, does this feel like it would work for you and your group? Does this feel like a good direction to move in? (take comments, questions)

15

One club model I’d like to share with you today is the concept of “clubs within a club”. In San Diego, we have adopted this model and call it “Nearby Nature Clubs”… which is essentially just smaller family nature clubs that organically grow out of the main family nature club. There are a lot of benefits to this model that I’ll get more into in just a minute, and as we talk about this concept, I’d like to invite you to think about your club and if this might be a fit for you and your group. I know that a lot of you already have similar efforts in place, and I’m eager to hear more about those efforts and learn and grow together. This is just an invitation… food for thought.

16

This is how it works for us in San Diego. We have a club called “Family Adventures in Nature San Diego”, which serves some 550 – 600 families. While that number can seem too big for some, those of you who have that many in your club may have similar experiences to us. At one our “whole club” outings we typically have between 30 and 50 total people show up, kids and adults together. For us, that is manageable, especially once we get going. We usually meet everyone at the beginning, give a welcome and any directions or rules for the location, plus remind participants about any necessary safety precautions (like rattlesnakes). We also encourage families to follow their child(ren)’s pace and really look for opportunities to foster that sense of wonder, curiosity, awe… We don’t walk along shoulder to shoulder by any means and usually end up spreading out quite a bit naturally. We also typically have at least one meeting point where we stop and play – on good climbing rocks and boulders, a creek, secret hiding and climbing place under the umbrella of a big oak tree… we want kids to have a chance to really connect with nature and each other. The same can be said of our “Nearby Nature Clubs” – they usually follow a similar pattern but don’t end up as spread out because the kids tend to be closer in age and interested in similar things. Those groups also tend to be much smaller – from 10 – 20 on an outing – because they meet during the week in our case. For many of our participants, these mid-week outings have become a great addition or alternative to traditional “indoor” playgroups.

17

I asked our Nearby Nature Club leaders each WHY they wanted to start a group, and have listed just a few of them here… I’m not going to bore you and read all of these quotes, but I wanted to give you a visual and an idea of why a few of our leaders started their groups.

18

Wilderness Wednesdays was the first of our Nearby Nature Clubs to get started, followed by Encinitas Explorers. Yasmin actually moved to Salt Lake City and recently started “Family Adventures in Nature Salt Lake City”. One of the regulars in Encinitas Explorers stepped up and took over leadership, so it continues to run smoothly every Friday thanks to Kacy Lafferty.

19

Amanda is a great model of a self-starter… when we were initially in contact, she was pretty unsure of whether or not she was the right person to lead a nature group because she didn’t have much experience or “knowledge” as she put it. With some minor encouragement and mentoring, she was well on her way and continues to meet with her group every week.

20

Knowing I couldn’t include every Nearby Nature Club’s slide, it was hard to decide which TO include. I put this last one in because I love the reason she gave when I asked her why she started her group. Each leader gave different and very compelling reasons why they started their groups. I love that. It gives me hope that there are more people out there with their own good reasons and all we have to do is find them and encourage them. We have three new groups starting this spring, the most we’ve had start at one time, but it’s exciting to see the club grow organically and spread out over more of our huge county.

21

So now I’ve shared a little bit about how OUR group works, let me emphasize that this is what is working in our community. Things would likely look and feel different in different communities with different people involved. But again, I would encourage you to think about potential leaders in your family nature club. Many of you already have multiple organizers, so this might not be new news to you, but we have found that offering these smaller, neighborhood-based groups also ends up reaching more people as the club grows physically out in our county. It then becomes somewhat cyclical as club members have more opportunities to get out, things just spread by word of mouth. I think that Nearby Nature Clubs also help build community as neighbors get to know neighbors and build friendships on common ground (pun intended!). Finally, it’s nice to be able to participate sometimes when you don’t do the “leading”!

22

As you think about Nearby Nature Clubs, and there are maybe people running around your head that you can already picture as leading a small group like this, here are some of the advantages for THEM to think about…

23

In closing, I want to really thank you for your participation today first of all. Thanks for bearing with me as I muddled through this new technology and any glitches that may have come up.

So, action items. Please register your April hikes, service projects, adventures and such with Let’s G.O.! You can either go to childrenandnature.org and click on the banner, or go to the Let’s G.O.! Group on C&NN Connect, or check out the Natural Families Network Newsletter for the link.

You will be receiving an invitation to update your registration on the Movement Map as soon as possible. Once you receive that, please respond as soon as you are able.

Three, we’ve had several “new” people sign up for the Natural Families Network recently and there have been questions floating around about how to start a FNC and such. We of course direct people to the toolkit for FNCs, but there’s nothing like feedback from people with their boots on the ground, so to speak. It makes me think of when I first became a mom – there was great value in reading a book (lots of them) on parenting, but I always got so much more out of talking with friends that also had babies. There’s much more of a personal connection. So your “ACTION” here is to peruse the site, check out questions and comments and see where you might plug in some of your OWN story.

Fourth, it looks like we will continue the conversation about a Google Group. You’ll have a chance to give your input on that in a post-webinar