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Management Assistance Team (MAT) and the National Conservation Institute (NCLI) - Leadership Development for AFWA Members and the conservation

Strategic Priority

Capacity Building, Conservation Education, and Coordination of Conservation Policies - Leadership Development

Project Documents

No project documents available.

Project Description

AFWA’s Management Assistance Team (MAT) develops the leadership capacity of state fish and wildlife agencies through leadership series workshops, leadership and strategic consulting services, assessments, online and on-demand training, webinars, and other tools, including building rich networks and greater partnerships among state, federal, tribal, provincial, NGO, and for-profit organizations in the conservation arena. These partnerships advance the awareness level among each constituent regarding the loyalties, values, and losses experienced when dealing with conservation challenges. Agency access to leadership development services tailored to the unique needs of state fish and wildlife agencies is critical to help them develop their own internal leadership development programs.

Project Facts

  • Organization Name: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
  • Organization Status: NGO classified as 501(c)(3)
  • State: Washington, DC
  • Obligation: $555,277
  • Start Date: 01-01-2021
  • End Date: 12-31-2021

Results

  • Objective 1: National Conservation Leadership Institute (NCLI)
    • Planned Accomplishments: Manage and staff the National Conservation Leadership Institute (NCLI) to deliver world-class leadership development through (a) one annual 9-month NCLI programs to 36 Fellows from the conservation community, and (b) support the ongoing function and collaboration of the NCLI Alumni Community through continuing education and collaboration opportunities (events, webinars, workshops, Alumni portal, meetings, etc.)
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • (a) Conducted the first of three residencies for Cohort 15. Cohort 15 serves 19 state agencies, 6 federal agencies, 5 NGOs, and 1 industry representative, for a total of 31 Fellows. 
      • (b) The NCLI Alumni Conference took place virtually in May 2021, with 148 alumni in attendance (including 13 out of 14 cohorts represented). Sessions included keynotes, breakout sessions, reflection groups, and social opportunities.
      • (c) The NCLI Diversity Scholarship Fund was created by the Cohort 14 Diversity Working Group, whose goal is to provide two full-tuition scholarships for tribal agencies per cohort along with $500 travel support for those two tribal fellows.
  • Objective 2: Management Consultation
    • Planned Accomplishments: (CONSULTING) Provide state fish and wildlife agencies with a minimum of 50 management consultation hours focused primarily on helping individual and/or groups of state agencies diagnose their agency challenges, assist with solutions and change management on issues such as relevancy, funding, federal and state relations. Additional management and organizational development consulting will also be provided to states with implementation of their own leadership development programs and meet their workforce planning needs.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • (a) A total of 56 hours of consulting was offered:
        • Maine, Create a LD Program –10 hours
        • NFHAP, facilitate Board session—5 hours
        • WSFR, DEI discussion, scheduled POI webinar series -10 hours
        • NJ, DEI discussion, scheduled POI webinar series -10 hours
        • NC, DEI discussion, scheduled POI webinar series -10 hours
        • OR, Adaptive Leadership discussion, scheduled Adaptive Leadership Practicum – 5 hours
        • AR, Discussed Leadership development options – 3 hours—delayed due to change in directors
        • AK, Assisted with Adaptive leadership program development – 3 hours
      • (b) In the summer of 2021, AFWA’s Management Assistance Team launched another needs assessment for our AFWA partners to ascertain any requested changes since the pandemic. The data received was most helpful in providing us with agency-specific contacts to whom we can market our courses, states interested in developing their internal leadership development program, states interested in developing an Adaptive Leadership program for their state agencies, and states expressing interest in developing a Regional Adaptive Leadership Program.
  • Objective 3: Training Development
    • Planned Accomplishments: (TRAINING DEVELOPMENT) Create, revise editions, and implement at least four new leadership development courses/workshops/webinars/tools/curricula. Provide ongoing training to National Faculty in the adaptive leadership realm; create a succession plan for our NCLI Lead Faculty.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • (a) Courses and live webinars are revised throughout the year based on student and faculty feedback.
      • (b) 13 new webinars were developed and offered this year. No new courses were developed.
  • Objective 4: Training Delivery
    • Planned Accomplishments: Provide a minimum of 24 leadership development deliverables, an increase of 58% over 2020, to include: 2 state agency-specific leadership development programs; 2 national or regional workshops, 8 online courses; 10 webinars; and 2 on-demand products.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • The following webinars were offered in 2021:
        • 1. Adaptive Leadership - Peer Consulting (new)
        • 2. Conflict Resolution (offered multiple times)
        • 3. Communicating Effectively During Difficult Times(offered multiple times)
        • 4. Boundary Setting for Work-Life Balance (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 5. Leading with Empathy (offered multiple times)
        • 6. Internal Dialogue
        • 7. Cooperative Language (offered multiple times)
        • 8. Team Wellness
        • 9. Navigating Change and Embracing the New Normal (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 10. The Power of Inclusion (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 11. Adaptive Challenge: Satisfying Stakeholders and Managing Wildlife During the "War on Science" Era
        • 12. Revising Start with Why
        • 13. Human-Nature Connection: Building Ecowellness, Stewardship and Inclusion (new)
        • 14. Relevancy Roadmap: Insights to Implementation (new)
        • 15. Ecowellness, #ResponsibleRecreation and Agency Relevancy (new)
        • 16. Intro to Conservation Leadership (new)
        • 17. Becoming More Effective: Practical Tools for Individuals and Agencies (new)
        • 18. Creating a Culture that Truly Engages Employees and Supports Learning (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 19. The Importance of Being a Learning Organization in a VUCA World (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 20. Regenerative Leadership Primer (new) (offered multiple times)
        • 21. Eco-grief and Resilience (new)
      • The following online courses were offered in 2021: (no new online courses this year)
        • 1. Adaptive Leadership Principles (offered multiple times)
        • 2. Conservation Communication Strategies
        • 3. Emotional Intelligence (offered multiple times)
        • 4. Leader as Communicator (offered multiple times)
        • 5. Practicing Adaptive Leadership
        • 6. Reflections on Agency Management
        • 7. Visionary Leadership 12 online courses for 196 students. 55 webinars for 966 students. 5 on-demand webinars for 106 views (only reflects half-year views as we moved on-demand videos to YouTube in July 2021, and Adobe Connect views for 1st half of 2021 were unavailable). States served (webinars, courses, workshops, consulting) 39 total: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI
  • Objective 5: Professional Development
    • Planned Accomplishments: (PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT) MAT personnel will participate in a minimum of three professional development opportunities and stay current with literature relevant to its services to ensure that MAT remains on the cutting edge of leadership and organizational development theory and practice and other topics relevant to the delivery of high-quality services to state agency clients.
    • Actual Accomplishments: Total Training Taken:
      • (a) All MAT staff participated in a course series on working with Tribal Nations.
      • (b) One MAT staff member received her certification in Instructional Design.
      • (c) One MAT staff member participated in a Harvard Adaptive Leadership course.
  • Objective 6: Outreach Services
    • Planned Accomplishments: Provide outreach services on leadership and organizational development through the maintenance and continuous updating of the NCLI website and NCLI social media outlets, and updating MAT-related portions of AFWA’s website, producing numerous outreach products such as e-newsletters, professional papers, presentations, videos, training products, or some combination, and engagement with stakeholders through national and regional conferences and social media on leadership and organizational effectiveness. Additionally, MAT works closely with NCLI board members to engage and recruit new members to its board and to the NCLI cadre of fellows.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • (a) MAT staff attended national, regional, and societal conferences to engage, support our AFWA members and increase awareness of MAT products and services (NA, AFWA, NEAFWA, SEAFWA, WAFWA, and ExCom).
      • (b) MAT staff also engaged and supported national and regional networking and workshop events and provided formal presentations at national and regional conferences. MAT staff continued to serve on the Women and Wildlife Conservation Network Steering Committee. MAT contributed to AFWA’s monthly newsletter (Director’s Line) and produced and distributed semi-annual From the Balcony NCLI E-newsletters.
      • Increased Awareness of Online Courses and Webinars: MAT continued using the existing tools (HTML communications, e-newsletters, social media, our two websites, Director’s Line, and Constant Contact for contact management) to communicate about new course offerings for state agency employees. Throughout the pandemic, courses were offered free of charge.
  • Objective 7: Program Administration
    • Planned Accomplishments: (ADMINISTRATION) Actively recruit two (2) FTEs to complement the MAT with its full staff. Assist AFWA’s account manager by tracking finances for program activities monthly, managing personnel using annual performance appraisals, strategically assessing program direction annually, including needs assessments and programmatic evaluation, creating annual reports, and managing programmatic priorities and other program administration functions as needed.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      • One PTE was brought on to oversee the management of MAT and NCLI. Financials were closely tracked with a checks and balances approach by the AFWA accountant for accuracy and following budgetary guidelines. Conducted course evaluations to assess the effectiveness and continued relevancy of course content.
      • Performance reviews were conducted annually.
      • MAT produced a year-end review document for MAT and an annual report for NCLI; provided MAT content for AFWA’s Annual Report. In addition, one final grant report was produced.
  • Objective 8: Partnership/Collaboration
    • Planned Accomplishments: (PARTNERSHIP/COLLABORATION) Partner with USFWS, Societal Organizations (TWS, AFS, SAF), Federal Partners (NOAA, USGS, BLM, etc.), NGOs (NWTF, PF, DU, etc.), Regional Associations, and/or industry partners to develop resources for national state, federal, and natural resource issues such as leadership and professional development, state-federal authority, relevancy, etc.
    • Actual Accomplishments:
      As listed above, we provided consulting services for the National Fish Habitat Partnership, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration. Additionally, we reached the following 15 organizations through our online courses, live webinars, and recorded webinars:
      • 1. American Bird Conservancy
      • 2. Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program
      • 3. Audobon
      • 4. Boone and Crockett
      • 5. Global Regen CoLab
      • 6. Intermountain West Joint Venture
      • 7. International Hunter Education Association
      • 8. Island Conservation
      • 9. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
      • 10. National Wild Turkey Federation
      • 11. Northern Great Plains Joint Venture
      • 12. Pheasants Forever/ Quail Forever
      • 13. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
      • 14. U.S. Geological Survey 15. USDA Forest Service

This Site is supported by Multistate Conservation Grant program, a program funded from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, and jointly managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies