City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/232632
President's Message Executive Director's Message Rachel Barker Jerri J. LaHaie SMA's mission statement is "Leading the world in building the confidence, competence, and camaraderie of the family of professionals who create and sustain community forests." Wow, what a statement! Indeed, the programs and services that you receive as an SMA member provide all of this to you! Accreditation, Conference Livecast, and Municipal Arborist Exchange are just three of SMA's many dynamic programs. To have an SMA-accredited program shows your professional competence and the competence of your program. It is the gold standard for urban forestry program recognition. SMA members are here to help you reach that gold standard. If you have a question about how to do something or are looking for recommendations from other professionals, all you as a member have to do is pose that question to the SMA Listserve and in minutes—sometimes in seconds—you will have answers and suggestions from around the country, even the world! I would like to challenge our members to get your program accredited today! The SMA Conference Livecast is available to assist our members in building their confidence and competence by providing quality education that is relevant to our profession and comes at a reasonable price. Some of our members have limited travel dollars; the Livecast allows us to provide 12 CEUs for only $199. You can watch this at your leisure. You can watch any session or portions of them for up to a year. Great value! And if you missed the camaraderie at our annual international conference and trade show, you have another chance to experience the awesome camaraderie of your organization. The Municipal Arborist Exchange (MAE) is it! The MAE is one of our most popular programs. Apply for an opportunity to experience an exchange with an urban forester in another city or even another country. Exchanging with urban foresters in sister cities is an excellent choice, and the MAE committee encourages such submittals. In any case, participants bring home ideas, innovations, and collaboration techniques to implement in their own programs. Your organization strives to lead the world in building the confidence, competence, and camaraderie of the family of professionals who create and sustain community forests. Confidence, Competence, and Camaraderie ... I love these three words. They are the essence of what SMA provides its members. Participate in one of your organization's programs. We welcome you! 4 Happy New Year! 2014 promises to be a very exciting year. First of all, it's a big birthday for me this month, which is beside the point, but I thought I'd mention it just in case you want to send me cards and gifts. I'll be spending it with my family in Las Vegas, a place none of us have been before, but I chose it because I hear what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and this is one birthday milestone I'd like to leave somewhere. More importantly, it's a milestone 50th Anniversary year for SMA. Plans are already underway to make it a fun-filled year, culminating in a celebration at the 50th Annual Conference and Trade Show in November. I hope you will plan to attend and join in the festivities. As President Barker points out, the camaraderie at the conference is always memorable. Since we will be holding our conference at the Partners in Community Forestry (PCF) Conference again, we will be inviting our allied partners to join us in celebrating our rich history, as well as recognizing the valuable roles they, too, play in successful urban forestry programs. If you missed the 2013 Conference in Pittsburgh or if you just want to relive it, you have until November 2014 to view the archived Livecast. For just $199, from the comfort of your home or office, you can see all of Tuesday's SMA Conference as well as the first day of the PCF, which included an EAB workshop. Not only will you see some great presentations, you can earn CEUs. Consider getting a group together and watching a segment or two at a time. If EAB is knocking on your door, the three-hour workshop would be a great instructional aid for community groups. Many thanks to Asplundh for sponsoring the EAB Workshop and to Davey for sponsoring the Livecast. It's now easier and cheaper than ever to get your forestry department SMA Accredited. It would be great if we could add 50 accredited cities this year in honor of our 50th Anniversary. Why not be the first in 2014 and be recognized at the conference? Make this 50th year of SMA your year to advance your professional and programmatic growth. You can do it! And SMA is right here to help you. City Trees