Great West Institute Draft Strategic Plan

Contents

This document comprises a strategic plan for Great West Institute (GWI). It reviews its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities; presents a series of fundamental statements relating to GWI's vision, mission, values and objectives; and sets out GWI's proposed strategies, goals and action programs.

Never in its history has the environmental movement had the opportunity that currently exists. At the same time, never have the threats to the environment been so great. Knowledge that global warming is due to the impacts of modern humans has elevated ‘concern for the environment’ from a position of ‘special interest’ to that of ‘core American value.” The pressure to extract western methane, natural gas, coal, and oil is greater than ever and threatens America’s unique wilderness areas and biodiversity. Political and corporate interests seem focused on short term financial gains over our invaluable and irreplaceable wild resources. Recent statistics show that more Americans than ever before (85%) say that they ‘care’ about the environment. Yet the percentage who relate to, or consider themselves ‘environmentalists’ remains low (30%). This suggests that half of the American people are interested in conservation and might be activated if the conservation movement was able to accommodate an expanding diversity of interests and articulate a strong vision for the future. We see this group as America’s ‘open center’.

In his new book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World, Yale School of Forestry Dean, Gustave Speth suggests that the major U.S. environmental groups were formed to react to existing environmental threats with litigations and congressional lobbying and that they can’t be expected to do the grassroots work necessary to educate the voting public. He believes that we need new organizations. The goal—and opportunity—for these new organizations will be to provide the mechanism to engage the open center, that half of America that ‘cares’ about the environment but doesn’t act because they don’t relate to the vision and tactics of the major players in the current environmental movement.

At GWI we believe that engaging the open center involves much more than new public relations or marketing campaigns. It requires a better understanding of what motivates us as humans living in this modern world. GWI is built on three basic tenets: That

1. if there is one thing all people hold in common, it may be the desire to live more meaningful lives;
2. internally we have the deep knowledge necessary for our survival as a species; and
3. by tapping into that deep knowledge individuals will be motivated to become involved in the conservation movement, which will add meaning to their lives while contributing to a more inclusive conservation movement.

At GWI our overarching goal is to encourage a new level of thinking about the implications of nature and its conservation in our modern lives. We approach this in three ways:

• Philosophical/Intellectual: We believe that foundational knowledge of nature as essential to our lives directly translates to an increased level of advocacy and activism.
• Psychological: Carl Jung believed that humans have two minds—the modern mind and the archaic mind. We believe that many of the issues threatening our existence are the result of over-emphasizing the modern mind and that there are simple tools for accessing and activating the archaic mind.
• Experiential: We believe that the most effective method for accessing the deep knowledge required to address global warming, loss of habitat, toxic conditions in the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat, is by providing access to wild places and wildlife and encouraging increased understanding of the way nature works. We believe that this is a key reason to preserve wilderness and biodiversity.

GWI will be sought out by new and existing environmental organizations interested in developing the ideas, methods, and tools required to expand and enhance conservation efforts at various levels. This is the result the creation of new partnerships and networks. Leaders in this expanded movement will have been trained using GWI philosophy.

The corporate values governing GWI's development will include the following:

GWI will operate under the assumption that preserving the environment for future generations is a value shared by all humans and that effective conservation requires breaking down the boundaries between people, generations, communities, governments, races, and species.

GWI will operate in the most effective and efficient manner, with the equivalent of two full time employees. While Institute staff will oversee and manage individual projects, those projects will be directed by one or more contractors, expert in their particular field. This will allow the organization the flexibility to expand and contract in order to best address the opportunities created in this new and continually evolving movement.  In addition to our own programming, GWI will engage in fee-for-service contracts with outside organizations with projects that provide support for our mission.

The GWI intends to accomplish the following critical strategies within the next six months:

The following key targets will be achieved by GWI over the next 3-4 years:

§ Promote the Next Generation Project to three national and or International organizations for use in approaching specific issues of conservation concern;

§ Expand the Academic Bridge Project to include three additional courses at the University of Utah;

§ Expand the Academic Bridge Project to three additional institutions of higher learning;

§ With the University of Utah, develop ‘conservation track’ for career-oriented College of Humanities students;

§ Contribute six white papers in national publications on the need for and plans to expand the conservation movement;

§ Plan and produce one Next Generation cohort per year with the 'best and brightest' young conservationists as participants;

The following strategic action programs are currently in progress.

Next Generation Project: Development program for young environmental leaders who will design new approaches for expanding conservation work at different levels. The process involves the use of narrative as the mechanism to blur the dividing line between sides on specific environmental issues by deepening the level of discourse. (Addenda 1 ); Building on the lessons learned from Year One, develop a template for one cohort per year made up of individuals from the general conservation community. Status: After the first year, Cohort I participants will be moving into Phase II during which they will learn how to train others in specific regions of the country. And we’ve the process we discovered and used during the past year. We’ve made a proposal to Round River Conservation Studies to conduct a similar program for Colorado Plateau constituents. And we’re developing plans to help each Cohort I participant build the capacity to incorporate what they’ve learned into their specific, individual work. Cohort II is being planned and scheduled for 2009. 

Academic Bridge. Create relationships between environmental organizations and institutes of higher learning in an effort to blend scholarship with activism. The goal is a broadening of the conservation movement by focusing academic resources on current environmental issues. Status: Currently completing first of a series of ‘consultant-client’ relationships with University of Utah Communication Students; in early development of a “conservation track” for University of Utah graduate students interested in careers in the environmental movement (see Addenda 2 ); in proposal stage of creating rural development program with rural students attending Utah’s Institutions of higher learning (See Addenda 3 ).

Meetings, conferences, and new networks: Creating and attending multi-sponsored events designed to better incorporate the environmental movement’s philosophical and intellectual roots into current, issues-based thinking. Status: We attend conferences based on non-traditional themes. We network regularly with individuals and groups from various disciplines.  We’re beginning discussions for two conferences. One that will bring together conservationists and Humanities scholars to discuss how Thoreau’s statement: In Wildness is the preservation of the World, is relevant today and why. The other will involve the foremost thinkers from government, non-profit, and academic sectors to revisit the history of Wilderness designation, analyze current wilderness designation approaches, and assess the ability for the existing system to protect remaining wild areas.

Publications:: We produce articles and papers to influence the national conversation relating to the future of the conservation movement. Status: We’ll continue exploring the greater idea of conservation in our modern lives in the Wild Lives column for Planet Jackson Hole, while proposing it to other journals in order to expand its reach. In addition we’ve begun making proposals for articles on innovation in conservation, and for a book using personal narrative to explore a multi-dimensional approach to conservation based on an expanded idea of wildness.

Open Source Materials. An online toolbox, including curriculum, reading lists, video, and an interactive website will be made available to any organizations or individuals interested in creating similar programs. Status: Early planning stages.

Born and raised in Utah, Chris Peterson currently lives in Salt Lake City. He received an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Brigham Young University and has since received two Master’s degrees from the University of Utah: one in Public Administration and the second in Environmental Humanities. In between his studies, Chris also worked as Executive Director for Glen Canyon Institute (www.glencanyon.org).

For the past thirty years, Brooke Williams has actively pursued adventure in wild landscapes and he believes in using lessons learned from nature’s ability to adapt to constantly changing conditions in organizational transformation. Brooke has an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and a Biology degree from the University of Utah. He has been the keynote speaker and panelist at numerous meetings, conferences, and workshops. He has written many books and articles.

Terry Tempest Williams has been called "a citizen writer," a writer who speaks and speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. "So here is my question," she asks, "what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?"

Remarkable performances of traditional stories interwoven with personal narrative have earned Laura Simms worldwide recognition and honors since 1968.  Laura has created an irresistible cutting-edge performance style that bridges ancient oral tradition and performance art.  Her warmth, depth of understanding, profound effect on listeners, diverse material, humor, gorgeous voice and range of characterizations have achieved legendary status. She brings her expertise to collaborative projects worldwide, exploring social issues, peacemaking, creativity and community dialogue.   Her work has varied from serving as artist-in-residence at universities to creating original theater-dance works; co-designing a playground based on a fairytale to working in conflict resolution and peace-making with refugees.

In the fifty years Jack Turner has spent exploring the world’s wilderness, he has come to the realization that wildness is not an idea or a metaphor, but a very real and basic element that equates to freedom. He believes that there are many levels to conservation, the deepest of which is wildness, is freedom. He spends his time thinking and writing and teaching wildness and how our lives depend on it.

Margi Hoffmann currently lives in Portland Oregon and works as a lobbyist for a government relations firm. She grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and graduated from Lewis and Clark College with a degree in English Literature. She was worked for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (www.suwa.org) and managed a congressional campaign in Oregon as well. She is a participant in Cohort I of the Next Generation Project. As is

Lauren Oakes, who currently lives in Juneau Alaska and is the Alaska Conservation Programs Officer for Trout Unlimited (www.tu.org), working on the campaign for permanent protection of Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska (www.savebristolbay.org). She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Environmental Studies and has also worked for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (www.seacc.org).

Lisa Peterson of Salt Lake City, Utah, specializes in executive leadership training and event coordination. She is the project lead for Franklin Covey’s Global Sales Effectiveness program.