AN UPDATE ON THE EARTH CENTER 
IN THE DELAWARE WATERSHED   
October, 2002

From:           Ralph Copleman, Director                  

Introduction

It was a busy summer, and things are moving along very nicely.  We’ve made particularly important strides in two key areas: board development and strategic planning.  Details of these and other activities are below.  Please note as well the suggested “Next Steps” at the conclusion of this report.

Fiscal Agent for The Earth Center

        In the spring of this year we concluded a formal agreement with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council making them our fiscal agent.  This means they will provide an umbrella tax exemption as well as manage our financial record-keeping.  You can now donate money to The Earth Center, and your contribution is fully tax-deductible.   In the meantime, we will have professional bookkeeping and reporting assistance in keeping our financial house in order and assuring donors of a high level of fiscal responsibility.

The arrangement with PEC will make life simpler and easier as we begin to flesh out programs and seek sources of funding.  It allows us to proceed with our work and buys us time to develop.  Later we will acquire our own tax-exempt status and forego the fee, but for right now, the fiscal agent relationship is extremely convenient and reasonable.

Committee on Trustees

          We expect to have a full board numbering at least 10 by about the turn of the new year.  This group will supplant the original, incorporating board.  Jennifer Morgan has led the Committee on Trustees as it developed a list of prospective trustees and formulated plans to recruit them and enable them to operate effectively as ECDW’s governing body.  The committee, after several months of research, has generated a list of about 15 top candidates.  During the fall various committee members will approach these individuals to provide information they may need to make the decision to join us and help chart the future.  

          Committee members (Jennifer, Susan Curry, Bob Wallis, with me and Andy Smith, ex officio) seek a balance of many factors on the board.  We have taken into consideration geography, age, gender, race, organizational affiliation, personal experience and skill, ability to work as part of a team, and familiarity with the universe story.

          Not too late…  If you have suggestions for the Committee on Trustees about people you think might make excellent ECDW trustees, please send an e-mail note with particulars to Jennifer Morgan (jmmorgan@bellatlantic.net).

Strategic Planning Committee

          Working in tandem with the Committee on Trustees, a strategic planning group has been meeting since the spring to develop a recommended organizational program profile for the emerging board to consider.  The group considered ECDW’s fundamental purposes and devised a three-point stance that constitutes its sense of how the organization should be seeking to achieve them.  Advocacy, celebration, and learning are the three headings under which a majority of the dozens of specific program suggestions that people have supplied over the past 18 months.  The committee believes that ECDW should begin its active life with at least some attention to all three.  (Please see next section for further discussion.)

          Regular members of the Strategic Planning Committee: Susan Curry, Amy Steffen, Jennifer Morgan, Pete Kingsberry, plus me and Andy ex officio.  We’ve also had interest and support from Corky Potter, Josh Potter, Nick Everhart, and Loretta Raider

Funding Priorities

          Most recently, the strategic planning committee composed a list of seven items for which it will now begin researching funding possibilities.  We felt it would be wise to give the emerging board a head start on the Earth Center’s probable activities.  The seven are…

State of the Region Report

          At the Philadelphia Earth Charter Summit on September 28, Andy and I gave a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation on the  “State of the Region” to 250 attendees.  We highlighted the challenge the area faces as people throughout the region examine the future and consider the nature of life here.  The presentation was built around Andy’s idea to select a single (non-human) species and demonstrate how it depends on a variety of factors and connections that give the region its particular character.  He chose the amazing red knot, a bird that completes an annual 20,000-mile migration (Tierra del Fuego to Nunavut and return) and makes only one North American stop on its north-bound leg.  That stop is on the Delaware Bay, where the red knot feeds on eggs of the horseshoe crab.  To learn more about the ecological links among red knots, the crabs, and humans, ask us for a hard copy of the PowerPoint slides or find it here on Earth Ethics at State of Region.

         Our presentation, at Irvine Auditorium on the Penn campus, was very well received.  It was our first important opportunity to “go public” and highlight the ECDW’s universe story/bioregional perspective as a framework for the future of our home region.  This is in congruence with our mission.  We were very pleased to have been asked to make this presentation.

First “Client”

          The Earth Center’s intention is to help people and institutions live in harmony with the natural order.  This includes, of course, families and individuals.  ECDW’s first client in this regard is Morgan Martindell and his mother Jennifer Morgan.  We’ll be consulting with them to create a universe story-based ritual to mark his passage into young adulthood.  We’ll be working with Morgan, his mother, and other family members to design and help officiate at a ceremony befitting Morgan’s life and challenges as he becomes an adult citizen of his bioregion.  Morgan turns 13 in the fall of 2003.

Facilities Investigation

          This is a brief tale.  It may reflect long-range, visionary thinking or it may be an unfolding wild goose chase. 

          As many of you know, it’s been our vision to create an ECDW headquarters complete with exhibit space, theater, program offices, organic gardens and more, located as close to the Delaware River as possible in the City of Trenton (the geographic mean point of the Lenape culture that preceded ours in the area).  A suggestion from a well-known city planner in the Trenton area led Andy Smith and me into several conversations with folks about possible sites for our eventual Center.  We also drove along the river from one end of the city to the other and through several neighborhoods scouting possibilities.  We didn’t find much we considered practical.  It’s obviously early in this game.  We have neither the resources nor the clear plans required to make decisions of any kind in this regard.  But we’ve got our eyes peeled.

Partnerships (DRGP, DVS)

          ECDW has become a member of the Delaware River Greenway Partnership.  This alliance of dozens of nonprofits and government agencies along both sides of the river has long term plans to enhance the river’s overall health as well as its accessibility for recreation and learning.  DRGP is one of the prime sponsors of the annual Delaware River Sojourn.  I participated in the Sojourn this past June and learned a great deal about the river and the watershed during my seven days of canoeing and kayaking from above the water gap to Philadelphia.  Along the way I also got to know various members of the Greenway Partnership and was impressed with their energy and commitment.  (And for a good time, I heartily recommend the Sojourn!)

          Andy and I (as well as a number of you) continue to play active leadership roles in the informal group known as Delaware Valley Sustainability and in particular in the creation of DVS’s upcoming Regional Sustainability Summit (February14-16, 2003).  Over the next several months, we will remain active in making sure this major future search event is a solid success.  We expect this will further enhance our acceptance throughout the region and strengthen our relationships with many useful people and organizations.  The best reason to support this event, of course, is that it will go a long way toward unifying the efforts of sustainability organizations throughout the Delaware Valley.

Next Steps

          We are actively moving on a number of fronts, as you can see from all of the above.  And we’re well-received and beginning to have an impact.  We’re working hard to maintain momentum.  Here are some things you can do now to actively involve yourself with the mission.

(Stay tuned.)