office hours: always on sinceall the time...
TRANSCRIPT
1775 Mackenzie Drive, Cedar Rapids, IA 52411
(515) 963-9582 Office Hours: Always On – All the Time
mycountyparks.com
PLEASE forward or make copies of this communication for your Board Members.
Volume LIII September 21, 2012 Issue VI
Iowa’s County Conservation System
Since
1959
CHANGE IS ON THE HORIZON ……. It will be but a short couple of weeks and we will be completely switched over to the “[email protected]” incoming email address – please make sure that you have this change made in your connection to us. With the closure of our central Iowa networking hub through Julie’s office, everything will be routing in and out of our Cedar Rapids location beginning on October 8th. Thanks for your assistance with this modification. We are currently working with our website developer on Phase One of a new administrative internet portal for our organization, and look forward to sharing more news on this exciting new feature in the weeks to come! At least for the short term, our IACCB Office will be wherever the cell phone and laptop are residing on the road, or in Cedar Rapids. Our preferred means of communication remains email, but feel free to give a jingle at any time. If no one is available or busy – your calls will be returned in a timely manner – many thanks! FYI - We have been phasing out of FAXing for the past year, and no longer support that technology.
THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU MISSED AT “I.A.C.C.B. – HONEY CREEK” Just a plain grrrrreat 53rd annual fall conference on many fronts last week at the Honey Creek State Park Resort! Approximately 200 of your county conservation counterparts & partners gathered for a memorable three days in northern Appanoose County. A few of the highlights you may have missed follows……
UPCOMING EVENTS:
* Sept. 28-29 – Land &
Water Rally/Conservation
Summit
* Oct. 1-3 – CCPOA 27th
Annual Fall Workshop
* Oct. 17th – District III
Meeting – Crawford Co. &
District I Meeting in Carroll
County
* Oct. 17-19 – Iowa Tourism
Conference
* December 13 – District V
Meeting – Des Moines Co.
* Sept. 26-28, 2013 - IACCB
Fall Conference in Okoboji
ABOVE – Neal Moeller,
(Crawford) is honored
for his 50 consecutive
years of service on the
Crawford CCB!
RIGHT – Larry Pisarik (Jones) hams it up
with “John Wayne” after his presentation.
BELOW – Anita O’Gara (INHF) and Richard
Harms (Bremer) network following the
Thursday fish fry amidst a stunning sunset.
More…….
Julie & Tom work
registration at Honey Creek
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FOOD PLOT SEED – CCB’s CAN ORDER NOW for SPRING 2013 Pheasants Forever is offering CCB’s in need of wildlife food plot seed the opportunity to order seed through its cooperative program. PF offers both dated crop seed (slightly below commercial germ RR Corn/Beans/Grain Sorghum) and PF’s Signature Series food plot mixes. Dated seed may only be planted for wildlife, and cannot be harvested in any way. There are minor recordkeeping requirements for dated seed that CCB’s must comply with. PF Signature Series mixes include many grain-based mixes for winter food and cover and several green-browse mixes (see at www.pheasantsforever.org/page/1/foodplotseed.jsp). Seed is picked up at central distribution points in Iowa. Seed is likely to be in short supply in 2013, so PF is requesting that orders be submitted by September 30th to allow the best chance to receive seed. For more information and ordering materials, contact Jim Wooley (641-774-2238 / 641-203-1020 Cell / [email protected])
THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU MISSED AT “IACCB – HONEY CREEK” (continued….) A few more snippets to share with you…..look forward to a full report on our 53rd Annual IACCB Fall Conference in the November edition of our Board Member magazine………
LEFT – Rick Saur (Pottawattamie) holds both halves of his winning
card in Thursday’s “52-card Raffle”. Rick won a $200 VISA gift card,
with $200 Bass Pro and $200 Cabellas gift cards raffled off on the
other two days of the conference. The raffles raised $960 for IACCB!
RIGHT – Employees of the Mitchell and Chickasaw CCBs board a
hayrack to tour a section of the Jefferson County trail system during
a Friday field trip. All ten counties of the “South Central 10” host
county conservation boards were visited during the conference.
LEFT – Conference delegates on the Van Buren
CCB tour relax on a porch bench of the Greef
General Store in Bentonsport along the Des
Moines River. The store is owned by the VBCCB.
RIGHT – Delegates enjoy learning more about
the history of the Rathbun reservoir during one
of seven educational sessions offered on the
Saturday of the conference.
LEFT – Buchanan and Louisa county delegates
find that a patio table, some sunshine, and a
lakeshore vista are perfect ingredients for an
excellent networking opportunity!
RIGHT – The indoor exhibit hall was packed on
several occasions as conference attendees were
able to meet some of our Preferred Vendor and
other exhibitors/vendors at the conference. (NOTE: Thanks to Don Poggensee (Ida) for sharing some of
his photographs with us!)
JOB NOTICE POSTINGS As a reminder – you may have noticed a slight change in our method / location of the job notices which you provide to us? We will no longer include all the details about your position openings in this newsletter - they will, however all be available in the online version. Generally, we should be able to get your notices posted online within 48 hours of receiving them, if not the same day. Please note the reference to any current openings that we have in this edition – this is similar to how they will appear going forward. The internet “portal” through the “EMPLOYMENT” link on MyCountyParks.com has become a well-established resource for natural resource position openings – our main effort will be to educate and direct folks to this online location for employment opportunities. Please assist us with this effort by noting it in your publications and within your online presence….many thanks!
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I.A.C.C.B. NEWSLETTER FREQUENCY / DELIVERY For the past year or so, this newsletter has been coming to you on an every-other-week basis, or sometimes just “as needed”. With better efficiencies now in place for our employment opportunities posting – this communication is not as essential for “getting out the word” on jobs. We plan to continue with this less demanding schedule, and will rather send out a shorter email to you all if there is timely information that needs to be pushed out to you. We also hope that our distribution will be going 100% by email very soon. We know that we are penetrating to all 99 CCBs at this time, and would like to get to individual board members and employees as best we can too. In some cases, we have better access to Board Members than we do Directors…..hmmmmm. Newsletters will also be posted online with only a link coming to you in the “Newsletter Email” – this will assist those of you that have difficulty in opening attachments. Newsletters will also remain posted for some length of time for everyone’s access and reference. If anyone has specific requests pertaining to newsletter delivery – please let me know, and we’ll see how best we can assist you and remain efficient with our delivery. We ARE going to rely on a more grass roots effort – recognizing that it is the responsibility of our Directors to ensure that each of their local Board Members receive the communications from this office – thanks!
2012 GUIDE TO OUTDOOR ADVENTURE DELIVERY We THINK that we are primarily down to only those CCBs in District 1 that may have yet to receive their shipment of our “new” Outdoor Adventure Guides (primarily due to availability of District 1 meetings to distribute at). I will be attending both the District 1 and District 3 meetings in mid-October (17th) and will be bringing with me all those that remain to deliver for these two districts. We have shipped a couple of cases out to some of you – just an FYI – they are a little over $21.50/case to ship…..still an option for you, but a bit pricey. I will also have some room to bring a few cases to the CCPOA workshop on October 1-3, so let me know if you would like to pick yours up at that location. There is still always that option of picking some up in Linn County should you be passing through – just provide us an advanced heads-up to make sure that we have your supply accessible.
“Wandering Through Time” Iowa’s County Conservation System
2013 Fall Conference - September 26th
– 28th
, 2013
Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center – Iowa Great Lakes
On behalf of the 2013 IACCB Annual Fall Conference Planning Committee, Dan Heissel (Clay) extended a warm invitation to all conference attendees at Honey Creek last week - to join them in OKOBOJI for 2013! With a heavy emphasis on the water and natural resources of the region –host CCBs Clay, Dickinson, O’Brien and Palo Alto are excited for everyone to join them at the Iowa Great Lakes next September 26th-28th! Don’t get caught short on lodging – make your reservations now at the Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center by calling 1-800-727-4561. All the features that you have come to appreciate at these conferences will be in place: 9 concurrent educational sessions; silent auction & raffles; great keynote address; a “new twist” for the banquet; PLUS a QUEEN II boat tour on the lake and field trips which focus on special glacial and archaeological features of the region. Get “on board” now, this will be another conference not to miss!
The Queen II Dickinson CCB Nature Center
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LAST CALL FOR YOUR CABINS! - Tourism Conference Silent Auction We need to get our 2012 Iowa Tourism Conference silent auction entries submitted by the end of next week. Kudos to the counties that have already donated cabin rentals to this effort: Scott, Lee, Clay, Buchanan & Pottawattamie. With nearly 50 CCBs that have cabins, we’re still hoping to hear from a few more of you! As a reminder, the successful bidder in this auction will have a selection of three cabins to choose from – which will be orchestrated through our IACCB office. We are still optimistic that we will have enough inventory to offer both an “East” and “West” basket for this auction. This is absolutely THE BEST opportunity for you to get your facilities in front of, and used by Iowa’s tourism professionals – those that will be directing visitors and travelers your way in the future! All we need is an email “nod” that you are “in”, and then at least a flyer that we can put in the binder for each basket we enter. For more information, or to submit your donation, contact Tom at: [email protected] – many THANKS!
THE MONKEY IS ON OUR BACK! Iowa’s County Conservation System is now a card-carrying member of the Survey Monkey industry! In an effort to save several trees through the course of a year – as well as to provide some HUGE efficiencies in the tabulation arena – we have purchased a Survey Monkey membership. Our first effort went out earlier this week as a follow-up with those who attended our recent IACCB fall conference at Honey Creek Resort. As we get those periodic requests from you all across the state for specifics about various policies, procedures and operations – we will combine them into this electronic feedback mechanism, and hopefully you will find it easier to do – and therefore participate more often! We also extend an offer our affiliate groups to utilize this new asset for follow-up on workshops or to ascertain additional information about various subjects of interest to your specialized membership. WELCOME ABOARD District 1 and District 2 elections held earlier this summer have selected two local CCB board members to serve on our statewide IACCB Board of Directors. Re-elected to another 3-year term from District 2 is Richard Harms from Bremer County; and new to the board from District 1 is Mike Brandrup from the Hamilton CCB. We are pleased to have Richard back, and to welcome Mike to his new leadership role with Iowa’s county conservation system! (As a reminder – it’s not too early to consider serving on this statewide board if you are from either District 3 or District 4….representatives from those districts will be elected next July/August) FUNDRAISERS NET $3,890.00 !! Thanks in part to the generous donation of 37 silent auction items with a “street value” of $4,670.00 – the fundraising efforts for our 2012 conference were VERY successful! The raffle-off of the three gift cards netted a $960.00 profit, and the remaining $2,930.00 came from the sale of the numerous auction items. Kudos to Anita Foland and the folks from Clarke County for putting together 13 of the auction packages which brought in $540.00 on their own! Auction items sold for anywhere from $5.00 to $240.00 – ALL winning bidders got great deals on each of their purchases. MANY THANKS to each of you that were able to donate to our 2012 auction – just a bit of funshine each year!
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JOB OPENINGS LISTED AT: http://www.mycountyparks.com/Info/Employment.aspx 1. Hardin CCB – Interpretive Park/Resource Manager, DEADLINE – September 21, 2012 2. Conservation Corps of Iowa – Assistant Program Manager, DEADLINE – October 1, 2012 3. Hardin CCB – Interpretive Ranger, DEADLINE – October 12, 2012
Located at the bottom of each and every page on the MyCountyParks.com website:
BALLOT INITIATIVES RECEIVE APPROVAL AT IACCB ANNUAL MEETING Darrell Frerichs (Clay), Chairman of the Credential Committee reported that all four of the initiatives on the IACCB Ballot received overwhelming approval:
1. Approve of the proposed changes to the IACCB Bylaws as recommended by the IACCB Board of Directors. 2. Approve of the proposed changes to the IACCB Articles of Incorporation as recommended by the IACCB Board of Directors. 3. The Iowa Association of County Conservation Boards (IACCB) supports increasing the Iowa sales tax by 3/8 of one cent to fully fund the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund as established by the 63% favorable vote by the people of Iowa in 2010. 4. The Iowa Association of County Conservation Boards (IACCB) supports efforts and language that: County Conservation Boards shall be involved in the decision process prior to the sale of any/all lands under management by a county conservation board.
LEFT – Shoreview Adirondack chairs
provide solace to Rhett Leonard
(Ida) and Dennis Sohl (Plymouth)
between intense educational
sessions
RIGHT – “Cooking with the Chef” at
Honey Creek was an afternoon
bonus for conference participants
on the Spouse Tour portion of the
program.
LEFT – Where else could you have
“Dinner with the Duke” but at the
BBQ dinner and exhibitor social.
RIGHT –Naturalists and volunteers
provided “the experience” by
serving up a scrumptious lunch of
“Milk Can Stew” with cornbread and
desserts from numerous Dutch
ovens at historic Morris Park in
Van Buren County.
LEFT – “Why I remember back in the summer of ’12 that the Des Moines River was so
low in Bentonsport that you could walk from one side to the other!” Leave it up to someone
from a tour bus full of county conservation folks to live the legend! Who is this mystery person,
and just how wet did he manage to get?