MTN 106:13-14 The International Sea Turtle Society Celebrates its First Annual Planning Retreat in Shepherdstown, West Virginia USA (August 16-19, 2004)

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The International Sea Turtle Society Celebrates its First Annual Planning Retreat in Shepherdstown, West Virginia USA (August 16-19, 2004)

Roderic B. Mast
Past President (2003-2004), International Sea Turtle Society ( ISTS ), c/o CI, 1919 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20037, USA (E-mail: r.mast@conservation.org)

Perhaps you didn’t know it, but if you attended the 24th Sea Turtle Symposium in Costa Rica in February-March, 2004, or if you have already registered for the 25th Symposium in Savannah, Georgia then congratulations! You are a member in good standing of the International Sea Turtle Society (ISTS). The Annual Sea Turtle Symposium has been taking place for the past quarter century, of course, long before an ISTS existed. For many years it was simply organized and run on the personal commitment and elbow grease of a few hard working pioneers to whom we are all grateful for their vision and indefatigability. However, 10 years ago, the Symposium grew to a point where incorporation was necessary in order to manage funds and receive grants, and more recently in 2001, the name and by-laws of that original non-profit corporation were altered to make us the International Sea Turtle Society, with the intent of adding an even greater level of professional stature to our organization, and provide an even stronger commitment to our membership.

Today, we have a 13-member Board of Directors (BOD), and an annually rotating President. The ISTS BOD has typically gathered once/year at the Symposium to conduct our corporate business, but in recent years we have discovered that a single meeting is insufficient for appropriately addressing all the issues that now confront us as an institution that plans, finances and executes what has become an enormous annual gathering of more than 1000 turtle conservationists, biologists and enthusiasts from as many as 80 countries. Thus it was that we chose to undertake the first-ever ISTS Board of Directors Workshop and Retreat this past August at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA. With logistical support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, we acquired an outstanding venue; and with additional financial and logistical support from Conservation International and the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group, we were able to gather some 12 ISTS Board members (a quorum for voting purposes) from Asia, Central America, the Mediterranean, and the USA. The results were excellent, beyond the expectations of all present, and some of the highlights are reported herein.

Retreat Results

It is said that if you don’t know where you are going, then any road will get you there. The ISTS BOD felt that it was important to be able to clearly describe who the ISTS is and what it stands for, before anything else would work properly. For instance, there’s a big difference between an organizaton whose Vision is “to successfully organize a symposium once a year,” and one with a Vision “to advance the cause of global sea turtle research and conservation through an Annual Symposium.” So we set upon a lengthy discussion and careful definition of where we are going - described in a Vision Statement, and how we will get there - described in a Mission Statement. They are as follows:

ISTS VISION (8/17/2004 10:46 AM)

The International Sea Turtle Society envisions a global network of diverse peoples, professions and cultures sharing knowledge, ideas and inspiration to ensure healthy sea turtle populations worldwide.

ISTS MISSION (8/17/2004 12:13 PM)

The International Sea Turtle Society brings people together to promote the exchange of information that advances the global knowledge of sea turtle biology and conservation.

Following this, we dug-in to what is perhaps the most important issue to the ISTS, that of long term continuity. Since we appoint a new ISTS President each year, we run the risk of patchiness in the ways that information is passed-on from symposium to symposium, unless we can create the specific mechanisms, tools and motivation needed to educate and prepare each new President, plus his/her staff and committees. Procedures are necessary to assure that the ISTS avoids perpetuating mistakes in planning our symposia, and moreover to assure that we are not permanently plagued by budget shortfalls due to the absence of long-term financial planning. We broke down the big issue of long-term continuity into its component parts, and addressed what we felt were the most critical issues in turn, first in small groups, then in plenary, until consensus was achieved (or not); in many cases, discussion was followed by motions for BOD approval of new policies of procedures, and the necessary alterations to the ISTS by-laws. The topics discussed fell into these broad categories:

BIG ISSUE - LONG TERM CONTINUITY (elements, strategy, staff, financial issues, by-laws)

Symposium Program planning

Symposium Operations

ISTS Image, PR and Communications

Board of Directors Roles and Responsibilities

Funding and Budget

ISTS Infrastructure / Staffing

Detailed summaries of all these discussions are recorded in the Retreat minutes that are part of the permanent ISTS archives, but there are a handful of results that are worthy of special mention.

ISTS Operations Manual - Substantial effort on the part of the ISTS nominations committee and others has gone into the preparation of an ISTS procedures manual that will serve as an excellent source of information to new staff and especially each new President. This manual has been, and will continue to be a “work in progress”, and the group spent a substantial amount of time making improvements to it during the retreat.

Membership - Many members of the Board felt that it was important to create a new membership category for people who may not be able to participate in each and every symposium, but still want to be considered members in order to receive the proceedings and remain on the website listing, or simply as a means of demonstrating their steadfast support to the ISTS and its goals. The Board approved processes for assuring that these types of members can maintain their member status by paying a small annual fee to the ISTS without having to attend the Symposium. This new change will soon be made to the ISTS website.

Long-term Finance Committee - The numerous past-Symposium Presidents present at the Retreat emphasized the difficulties they faced in fundraising for the symposium during their short periods in office, and the desperate need to develop long-term sources of sustainable funding to cover the escalating costs of the Annual Symposia, and to diminish this pressure for future Presidents. Changes to the registration fees were approved by the Board and will be implemented at the 25th Symposium, and a Committee was established to develop a fundraising action plan for the ISTS in the coming months to address the projected long-term financial needs of the ISTS.

Annual ISTS Board Retreat - All present were so pleased with the results of this retreat, that it was unanimously agreed that the Retreat would become a permanent, annual event, and an integral responsibility for the Board of Directors. Moreover, it was agreed that that we would strive to hold the Retreat at the same site (National Conservation Training Center), at approximately the same time of year (August), and that we would have a quorum present in order to take immediate approval of important changes within the ISTS. The responsibility for setting-up the Annual Retreat will lie with the outgoing President.

Acknowledgements: Any meeting derives its success from the participants and their commitment, and this meeting was characterized by an unusually high level of energy, camaraderie and fun. Thanks to the 13 people, some coming from faraway lands, that took the time to join us and to contribute their time and ideas: Michael Coyne, Ed Drane, Brian Hutchinson, Dimitris Margaritoulis, Roderic Mast, Clara Padilla, Frank Paladino, Nicolas Pilcher, Earl Possardt, Jeff Seminoff, Donna Shaver, Manjula Tiwari, Thane Wibbels.