Advocacy Committee

Since August of 2006 this committee has been preparing for the legislative session, advocating for increased funding for EE. The committee is working collaboratively with many EE advocacy partners to create a new grant program at state parks that would provide competitive grants for EE programs—particularly to serve at-risk youth and to fund after-school, weekend, and family (nonformal EE) programs.  This program would complement the existing formal education EE Partnership Fund Grants Program created at OSPI several years ago by EEAW and others.  The committee is also advocating for funding for the OSPI account.

Beginning in August 2007, EEAW will convene regular strategy sessions of the EE Advocacy Committee and the broader statewide EE Advocacy Coalition to develop strategies to advance public policy and funding recommendations expected to emerge from E3 Washington.  The Advocacy Committee will assist the E3 Steering Committee and other stakeholders in analyzing the “gaps” and “needs” identified in local E3 Summits and statewide E3 sector roundtables.  Also in 2007, the Advocacy Committee will continue to grow support in the legislature by building toward a culminating bill in 2009.

If you have questions about this committee or are interested in helping, contact the  Advocacy Committee Chair Heath Packard at 360-786-8020 x205 or at hpackard@audubon.org

Diversity Committee

The committee will be compiling a diversity statement to be presented to the Board for discussion and adoption at the Spring 2007 meeting. Further plans for 2007 include drafting a Diversity Action Plan and raising funds for implementation in 2007-2008.  As part of this plan, the committee also would like to provide professional development training in cultural competency and anti-racism for the Board as well as offer a workshop at the EEAW Conference at the Marriott Seattle Airport Hotel in November 2007.

If you have questions about this committee or are interested in helping, contact the Diversity Committee Chair Karen Matsumoto at 206-386-4303 or at karen.matsumoto@seattle.gov

Conference Committee

The EEAW Conference Committee has made significant progress since August 2006. After Board approval, the committee put out an RFP (thanks to staff) for professional conference coordinators and ultimately selected TOLO Events LLC. Event Coordinators Shelly J. Tolo and Melissa Kay Bryan are a great fit for our organization and the Conference Committee is now moving forward on conference planning. The EEAW conference will be held at the Marriott Seattle Airport Hotel November 8-10, 2007.

The committee is working on the following: defining conference strands and selecting keynote candidates, setting up invitations to presenters, identifying and securing key sponsors, creating the conference “look and feel,” and enabling and encouraging the entire board to promote the conference and ensure that it is the best attended EEAW event ever.

If you have questions about this committee or are interested in helping, contact the Conference Committee Chair Frank Hein at 206-233-7276 or at Frank.Hein@Zoo.org