New Opportunities for Cave Conservancies - September 2003 Cave Conservancy Home

Cave conservancies have evolved into a significant part of the karst environmental movement in recent years, and with these changes have come more privileges, responsibilities, opportunities, and problems.

Over the years the Cave Conservancies Committee, has provided several services to NSS conservancies. These have been primarily educational and technical in nature usually related to cave and association management. As the number of NSS cave conservancies continues to grow, we have begun to develop new ways to facilitate mutual help in additional to continuing the traditional functions, such as sponsoring the annual cave conservancies round table. A committee work session has been added to the 2004 NSS Convention to discuss on going cooperation among cave conservancies and expanding areas of mutual assistance and mutual problem solving. Conservancies may send agenda items to the chairman prior to the meeting.

The following is a list of jobs that each conservancy may appoint to help improve cooperation among cave conservancies. The same person or different people may hold these positions.

1. A presenter at the 2004 Roundtable in Marquette, Michigan - The date of the roundtable will be sometime between 12 July and 16 July 2004. This person will present a success story or a failure that became a learning experience for the conservancy. Each conservancy speaker may also make a short presentation on cave management or cave conservancy administration. Total presentation time for each presenter is 10 minutes. A general discussion of cave conservancies will conclude the session. This meeting is primarily an educational and networking session for people interested in cave management and cave conservancies.

2. A representative to the Cave Conservancies Committee - This person is the main representative to the committee from his or her conservancy, and represents the conservancy’s interests. This person should be able to see the big picture and work with others to help all cave conservancies. Most communication will be by email; however, there will be a meeting at least once a year at the NSS Convention.

3. A representative to the 2004 work session in Marquette Michigan - This should be the same person as the conservancy’s representative mentioned above, unless that person is not planning to attend the convention, in which case, an alternate should be appointed.

4. A records person - This person should keep the NSS Conservancies Committee informed of appropriate conservancy information. These are primarily website records that need updating as new information becomes available. This usually involves sending the committee chairman an email of conservancy news and information changes. Examples of web pages that may need updating are:

http://www.caves.org/committee/ccc/nsscaveconservancies.htm

http://www.caves.org/committee/ccc/nsscaveconsummary.htm

5. Area specialist and experts - Specialists are effective communicators and available to assist other conservancies on one or more important area of expertise of cave conservancy and association management. This person is listed on the conservancy website. It is unlikely that these experts will be called very often; however, with the increasing size and number of cave conservancies, the need to identify people with relevant skill so that advice is conveniently available is evident.

John