Raincloud Publishing/Dan Allison
3100 Imperial Way, Apt 10
Carson City NV 89706-0809
allisondan52 @ gmail.com
775-997-4937
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Note: ROEE is an informal organization without a single point of contact, but Dan is providing an initial contact point.
Residential Outdoor Environmental Education by Dan Allison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Discussions and workshops were held at three conferences in 2000-2001 to address the question of "where do we want to go?" This discussion was originated on the ROEE email list, continued by a group of ROEE people, and expanded in these discussions.
Questions | Synthesis | ROEE Conference Feb2001 | ANCA Conference Jan2001 | YMCA Conference Dec2000
Though the discussion questions were not the same at every location, these were common:
1. The strength of ROEE is the socialization, networking, and tidbit exchange that occurs at conferences. Most people do not want ROEE to become a more formal organization, but there is strong support for more frequent communication and exchange of ideas during the year via the email list and other methods. Since we are the only national organization focused on residential environmental education, we should continue this focus as our strength, while working with ANCA, YMCAs, ACA, and other organizations to further our goals.
2. Staffing is a key issue for all programs. All programs are interested in finding and retaining highly qualified employees. Related issues are salaries, benefits, housing, internships, training, and career paths.
3. Sustainablility of programs is a key issue. Programs are concerned about the effects of political and tax/funding changes on the viability of their programs. Related issues are self-supporting vs. subsidized; use of non-residential, family and higher education programming to support K-12 programs and extend seasons; and the diversity of models in providing ROEE.
4. Standards and testing movements in school are a key issue. Programs are moving to meet the appropriate standards being established for science and other subject areas, but are concerned that an emphasis on testing and test preparation in the classroom may reduce attendance at ROEE programs and ignore the affective domain that our programs so effectively address. Programs support accountability but feel that alternative assessments may be needed for ROEE programs.
5. Research was a key issue. We need to know what research has already been done and what needs to be done so that we have the research avalilable to support and market participation in our ROEE programs.
6. There is interest in continuing to talk about standards for ROEE programs, including adoption of a set of naming terms for programs that everyone understands and are supported by clear criteria, but no consensus at this time about what direction we want to go.
7. There is support for ad-hoc committees to address some of these issues during the year, then present information back to the next ROEE conference, perhaps with workshops or discussions on specific issues.
(ANCA = Association of Nature Center Administrators, a national organization of the directors of nature centers, museums, and residential programs.)
Where do we go?
Who are we?
Residential Learning Centers
Residential outdoor schools
Residential outdoor environmental centers
Science Schools
Is there a way we could agree on some standard naming of what types of organizations we are? If we have standardized names, do we then have standard designations of what gives us these names?
Thoughts from the group:
Should be some sort of distinction from camps that are doing some environmental programs, but aren’t really hiring trained staff or focusing environmental education, from centers that have a mission to do environmental education.
Need something to be an identifier, because there is so many different names out there, that we can get lost within all the different organizations, and all the different programs.
What would the benefit be of everyone finding a standard terminology and name system?
One of the values of professional organizations is it does legitimize a field to some extent
With out standards why couldn’t any one just chose to use the name.
Once inside the field everyone starts using the same terminology, then the rest of the world will start using the same terminology.
There are so many standards and certifications that we already try to identify with, that more could get us even more bogged down.
Perhaps we need to try to define who we are with a definition rather than a title to determine who we are rather than what our title should be.
Defining terms of who we are:
Residential, short term (groups not staying for a semester or year),
Not for profit, or Government agency
Education oriented
Target school audience
outdoor classroom oriented
with orientations towards, science education, outdoor education, environmental education.
Possible names
Residential outdoor learning centers
Residential environmental learning centers
Residential outdoor science centers Rosco
Do we want an organization?
It was expressed that we should consider ourselves as a network, lets not try to start up another organization that we need to join, pay dues for, keep up with etc.
Could we be a sub group of ANCA, Possibilities exist here.
We as a group of centers, need to start demanding from the organizations that we currently belong to, to meet our needs. As these other organizations are starting to acknowledge, lets get what we want from them.
Every other year for this conference was decided in the past, and still seems to be the feeling of the group.
Who wants to offer the conference next time. Keystone Science School has suggested they would like to offer it.
January is a good month, for the participants.
Kris Henker, Ken Garrahan, and Brinkley have all volunteered to help with the conference.
We need more help from ANCA to promote the conference, and we want to try to increase the number of participants by about 10.
The two list serves mentioned through the conference are ROEE Link, and ANCA List serve.
Ed Gateway.com is subscription place to join virtual communities where ANCA and PEOPL listserve can be subscribed to..
(YMCA = Young Mens Christian Association, a national organization which has a large number of local facilities and camps, some of which offer their own residential environmental education programming and others of which serve as leased host sites for programs.)
The following is a report regarding the discussion that occurred at the conference at Sherman Lakes YMCA Outdoor Center, December 1, 2000.
Discussion occurred at a session called "Current issues in OEE."
Present were about 25 ROEE Program Directors from across the country, all in YMCA programs. In addition were some YMCA program leaders who do not lead YMCA resident OEe programs, but were interested in the topic.
Several topics came up, some less germaine to this report:
- staffing (recruiting, professionalism, pay and benefits)
- the purpose of OEE
- OEE within the greater YMCA
- YMCA OEE within the greater EE community
Discussion was active - some needing more "education" about what was going on. Clearly, all of us are not senoir directors. With the regular turnover in staffing, many directors are simply learning their jobs, and not ready to find their place within their professional community yet. I assume this will always be the case.
YMCA programs are locally based, and in the interest of serving their communities, they are proud of being able to create and change programs as their service area may need. There is great diversity in the nature of programs within the YMCA community. For example, some programs emphasize ropes and challenge programs, others science and nature, others have added a "character development" dimension. Some contract with school districts, others with individual schools. Some do both day and resident programs, though most centers are primarily residential.
There is a fair network established between YMCA centers, through e-mail, the YMCA of the USA, and their own conferences and trainings. The YMCA of the USA has adopted the term OEE (outdoor environmental education) as the term for these programs, although clearly - many YMCA centers do not use the term. Other names include: outdoor education, environmental education, outdoor programs, integrated education, outdoor school, challenge education, and others.
My sense of the consensus of the group that they are reticient about any sort of a national group for ROEE. If it meant more dues to pay, or work to do, or conferences to attend, they are not sure of its value. YMCA centers have pretty good training provided by themselves, within the greater YMCA, and through other organizations such as ACA, AEE, state ee orgs, and others. There was no opposition to forming an organization, with the caveats that it not involve giving up more time or money.
Regarding the eelink listserve, most people were glad it existed, though some people found the listserve messages were not always relevent and "filled their mailbox." Someone suggested a listserve for only YMCA centers, but this was not well received.
That is most of it!
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