It’s interesting being home for work. It’s totally different than a normal trip to
visit, where somehow I feel a little more like a tourist or an outsider. I grew up here, went to school here, had a
couple of retail jobs at the mall and nearby, but it’s been about 10-12 years
since then. The town has changed a lot,
new businesses and developments have gone in, and the town somehow feels foreign
to me this time.
The Rivanna Conservation Society has an office on the
downtown mall, a very fun location, it’s an old timey pedestrian mall. They share a one room office space with Wild
Virginia, another non-profit that has received a few grants from Patagonia in
the past. They have an office set up,
but it’s mostly a room to store documents!
The staff is mostly about town at meetings and events every day, doing
most of their computer work from home.
My first week was already really enlightening. We met at the office on my first day and I
met most of the staff, which includes an Executive Director, Robbi Savage, and
three part timers that joined RCS through a class on non-profits at UVA that
Robbi teaches every spring. There is a
Board of Directors and a plethora of volunteers throughout the expanse of the
Rivanna river, which spans about 50 miles in length. They have two volunteer programs, the River
Guardians and River Stewards, which offer heftier time out on the river. Both teams go out on a regular basis
(quarterly and weekly) to check things out and take samples of the water to
test bacteria levels.
Something neat that I witnessed this week was the result of
these bacteria testings. Over the
summer, RCS had been watching the levels increase in a particular area along
the river, getting extremely high in August and reach over 6 times the approved
level in September. RCS reported this
high bacteria count to the city, and the city took action! They located the cause within 24 hours and are
already working with the landowner to resolve the issue (a broken pipe)! Robbi said that this was a perfect example of
how we want these issues to unfold. RCS
spots the problem, reports it, and the city takes action!
On the whole, the river is very healthy and RCS’s mission is “to safeguard the ecological, recreational, historical, cultural and scenic resources of the Rivanna River and its tributaries.”
I have a couple of assignments that I’ll be working on over the month: reviewing the current website for suggestions and ideas for the new website launch later this fall, beginning the implementation of their Education program for local schools, and organizing their Major Donor Appeal letters. Between these projects, I’m going to be attending an assortment of meetings and joining volunteer teams out on the river! My first week has been mostly full of reading, meetings, and absorbing as much information and knowledge about the river and organization as I can!! Since this week was meeting heavy, I felt weird taking pictures... but I will try to be better for future posts! Especially when I (hopefully) get out on the river next week....
On the whole, the river is very healthy and RCS’s mission is “to safeguard the ecological, recreational, historical, cultural and scenic resources of the Rivanna River and its tributaries.”
I have a couple of assignments that I’ll be working on over the month: reviewing the current website for suggestions and ideas for the new website launch later this fall, beginning the implementation of their Education program for local schools, and organizing their Major Donor Appeal letters. Between these projects, I’m going to be attending an assortment of meetings and joining volunteer teams out on the river! My first week has been mostly full of reading, meetings, and absorbing as much information and knowledge about the river and organization as I can!! Since this week was meeting heavy, I felt weird taking pictures... but I will try to be better for future posts! Especially when I (hopefully) get out on the river next week....
No comments:
Post a Comment