News & Notes April 2006

Innovative Training Tool Developed for Conservation Districts

If you don't like reading manuals and endless Internet searches looking for information, then you will appreciate an innovative tool from the Building for Tomorrow program. Pennsylvania's Conservation Partnership Leadership Development Committee created an interactive Rich Media compact disk (CD) to help train new conservation district directors and staff. You can see the CD for yourself when Rick Mader, conservation program specialist with the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), demonstrates it at the spring PACD region meetings.

The CD was made possible by funding from the State Conservation Commission. The Commission, in cooperation with the conservation partners, established the leadership development program in the early 1980s and the program continues to grow with staff support from the DEP and financial support from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"Over the years, conservation district directors and staff have told us that we need to provide effective leadership training for directors and new staff at the local level. This new interactive CD will allow directors to access these training and reference materials in the comfort of their own homes," said Karl Brown, Executive Secretary of the Commission. "The disk is also a great training tool and resource that can be used by district managers at monthly board meetings or committee meetings," added Brown.

The CD is a means for self-orientation, training, and research for conservation district directors, associate directors, and new staff. It is divided in to three sections: topics, tool box, and links. The topic session leads the viewer through conservation district form and function, director responsibilities, legal issues, support and assistance, and a director orientation. "This is an excellent training tool for new district directors and staff who are not familiar with conservation districts. They can go through and get a really good idea of how districts started and operate," said Mader. Once you select a topic, a video image of the narrator leads you through the various topics. The user can re-wind, fast-forward, or pause the video at anytime. The program can be viewed all at once or over several sessions.

This is the actual screen you will see when viewing the Rich Media CD.

The toolbox section of the CD has a variety of PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations on topics such as the conservation district law, the district director handbook, and a district director position description. "The Leadership Development Committee has put a lot of materials out over the years. This resource puts it on your desktop. Right now you would have to go to the district office to get information on policy, for example. With the CD, the information is at your fingertips," said Leadership Development Committee Chair Phyllis Hoople.

The third and final section is links. This section has links to PACD, the State Conservation Commission, and other state and federal agencies. Clicking on the link will take you directly to that agency's website.

Who will receive a copy of this cutting edge CD? All district offices will receive one copy of the CD for each district director and associate director, plus a couple to keep in the district office. Final revisions are currently being made to the CD. Conservation districts can expect to receive copies in April when the revisions are complete.

The Leadership Development Committee plans to set aside money each year to keep the CD up-to-date and the possibility of making this information "Internet-based" is being investigated. "This resource is extremely valuable. A lot of other states are looking at this as a model for training. It is on the cutting edge," said Mader. Conservation district partners such as the National Association of Conservation Districts and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have requested copies.

The Leadership Development Committee hopes conservation districts will use these tools more now that they are available on CD. Conservation districts can use this exciting new resource to improve communication, leadership, and program delivery to Pennsylvania's citizens.

Practical, On-Farm Odor Management Field Day

Conservation district staff are invited to attend an odor management field day on May 10, 2006 at the Steve Burkholder Farm in Fleetwood, PA. The event is hosted by the Pennsylvania Agriculture Ombudsman Program in cooperation with the Pennsylvania State University.

Township issues, vegetative barriers, and odor management plans are some of the topics to be covered in the morning. After a pig roast luncheon, demonstrations will be held on agitate storage and load manure and on a field-based odor evaluation tool called a nasal ranger.
There is no cost for the training, but reservations are required by May 3, 2006. Contact Shelly Dehoff for reservations at 717-880-0848 or shelly.dehoff@verizon.net. An event flyer with agenda is available at http://www.pacd.org/events/odor06.pdf.

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