BY TERRY THOMAS

In preparation for a recent Shasta Land Trust Board retreat in mid‑February, two‑person teams of Board members met with a representative number of active Land Trust supporters to get some feedback on how the Board had been doing this last year, 2015. The findings from these supporter interviews were both revealing and helpful. One comment from many of those interviewed was that there had been lack of communication from the Board during the recent Land Trust staff transition and that many of the supporters didn’t know what was going on or why changes were being made as to “how things had been done before.”

The Board is resolved to improving communications with Land Trust supporters and staff as we move forward. In that regard, we have committed to drafting a new message to all Land Trust donors from the individual Board members as part of each new Shasta Land Trust eNews edition. These Bulletins from the Board are intended to acquaint the Land Trust community with the some of the ongoing Board activities and to answer more general questions about recent Land Trust happenings that may not be well understood or appreciated.

For example, late last year the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps organization decided it would not renew our contract with them for an AmeriCorps worker. Their rationale was that Redding was too isolated from the locations of their other volunteers. This caught us by surprise and we sadly lost our AmeriCorps position when Jake Dickmann’s first‑year term ended. This loss of full‑time staffing led to a Board decision to add a part‑time staff person to fill this position of need. We could have, and should have, better communicated these changes with everyone. This is just one example of the many changes that occurred over the last 12‑15 months that should have been better shared with you all.

We apologize for our lack of communications in the past, but we look forward to the opportunity to improve communications among the Board, staff and supporters in the future. We hope to get to know each of you personally and invite you to communicate with us either collectively or individually with your suggestions and your concerns. Look to future Board Bulletins for more information in the coming months.

Thank you for your shared vision of the Shasta Land Trust mission.