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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/84984
President's Message John McNeil warming, before too long they'll be planting palm trees in this part of Canada." She may have been exag- gerating—but the point was made: adapt or die. A colleague said to me The trees we care so much about can teach us a lesson about the need to adapt to a changing environment. Organizations are no different—they must not remain complacent in the face of a changing environ- ment. SMA is an example of such a nimble organization. At the 2011 mid-year Board meeting your Board of Directors decided to change the format of our annual Conference to take advantage of opportunities brought about by a chang- ing landscape and shifting dynamics amongst urban forest stakeholders. You can see the results of this decision in the excel- lent program for our 48th International Conference and Trade Show, November 12-13th, which is now joined with the Partners in Community Forestry Conference taking place the following two days. This expanded- depth-and-breadth format will offer more selection, more networking, and more value for your conference dollar. At the same time, we maintained the core pro- grams that draw many of us each year, such as the pre- Conference workshops and the SMA Banquet and Silent Auction. In addition, we will offer a virtual extension of SMA's event through a video conferencing service for those not able to attend. This intent to adapt to change was set early on in the current Board's term. As you will recall, in January 2012 we approved the first SMA Position Paper, on the topic of EAB, as well as an EAB Toolkit. I had the privilege to talk about SMA's leadership on this topic at both the City of Montreal's first EAB Workshop in May and again at the New York ReLeaf Conference in Buffalo in July. The reception at both was quite favourable. We are looking forward to participating in more regional EAB workshops this fall and beyond. These efforts to cre- ate a strong regional presence are further examples of SMA's adaptability. As you reflect on these initiatives at SMA, please take the time to ask yourself if you too need to update and adapt to changes in your environment. Could getting involved with the changes at SMA be part of your strategy? 4 recently, "At this rate of global Executive Director's Message Jerri J. LaHaie Adapting to change can be met with fear and frustration or optimism and eager- ness. We've all been there; in fact, it feels like we live in a constantly changing world where the pace of change is accelerating at a dizzying rate of speed. Seems like we just get comfortable with the way we do things and along comes a newer, bigger, or better way to do it differently. How we react to our changing environment is our own choice. Rarely does sticking one's head in the sand and hoping to get by with the tried-and-true way work out to be the best choice. Many of us like to hold back, let someone else be the innovator (i.e., guinea pig!) and see how it works out for him/her, then just ride in on the leader's coattails. That sure seems like the saf- est way, and while there is no harm in that approach, sometimes we find ourselves with the opportunity to be the leader. So this is my way of introducing to you the very brave, bold, and mission-driven decision that the SMA Board members made to produce the very first ever SMA Virtual Conference. Every year, SMA puts on the annual conference and trade show, and every year, the reviews are topnotch. Why mess with success, then? We know that the majority of our members are unable to attend our conference, but that those who do say they value it as one of the best educational events of the year. But how do we provide the conference experience to those who are unable to attend? Our friends at i-Cohere will be helping us livecast the conference so that you can attend from your desk at work, or maybe you will want to gather several people together and watch from a large screen, or maybe you will have your own little mini-conference where a bunch of you have lunch together and make a day of it. If you can't come to Sacramento, this is your chance to be an innovator by being part of the livecast audience. We hope our members will find this to be a "next best thing to being there" event and that other organizations will begin offering their programs "virtually" next year. See you in Sacramento, or, in cyberspace, at the 48th Annual SMA International Conference and Trade Show. City Trees