[Council Statement of Purpose]

"Purpose of the Council of Chapters - Align Communication and Coordination from chapter to Chapter,
from Chapters to Board, and from Board to Chapters." from FNPS Strategic Plan, p. 16. Read Strategic Plan here: http://www.forum.fnps.org/index.php?topic=828.0

The Council needs to review and adopt a Statement of Purpose "under" the overarching FNPS mission: "The Mission of the Florida Native Plant Society is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida." The Council Statement of Purpose should capsulize its unique reason for existing as a separate or additional body of FNPS. It would be wonderful if that statement was at least a little inspirational, calling us to serve nature's greater good.

PLEASE COMMENT (using the Reply button) and give us phrases or a sentence that you think improves upon the Council's Statement of Purpose.

[Re: Council Statement of Purpose]

Thanks for your quick post-conference call email. 

I'm already seeing plugs for field trips via the FNPS Facebook page.  I think those might bear some fruit and is a good example of what the Council can coordinate.  Thanks for the effort that's going into the Facebook project.

My distant recollection is that the California Native Plant Society has a somewhat fuzzy statement of the purpose of its council of chapters.  I need to take a look.  Ours certainly could use some kind of statement of what kinds of communication and coordination it's expected to do.  Sharing information about field trips is certainly a start.  That function might be expressed more generally as "spreading information on Chapter activities to facilitate sharing between Chapters" (that's not good enough). 

For what it's worth, I do have full access to the forums. 

[Re: Council Statement of Purpose]

Here's a suggestion to start with.  I think it covers it all - communication, projects, meeting FNPS goals but it is too wordy. 

The Purpose of the Council of Chapters is to facilitate communications among all chapters throughout the state and the State Board of Directors in order to complete projects for use by all chapters and complement the goals and work by State Board of Directors in order to make positive progress promoting the preservation, conservation, and restoration of Florida native plants and their plant communities. 

Thanks
Neta

[Re: Council Statement of Purpose]

Wordy OR Simplistic; either way, I hope the term "solidarity" sneaks in there somewhere.

[Re: Council Statement of Purpose]

How about this... It takes Neta's basic idea but condenses it a bit:

The purpose of the Council of Chapters is to share knowledge and resources among FNPS chapters throughout the state, and to facilitate communication between chapters and the State Board of Directors, in order to more efficiently and effectively further the FNPS mission. 

Jan Allyn
Pinellas Chapter

[Re: Council Statement of Purpose]

I've thought about the Council purpose ... a lot. Communication is a central role of the Council, in some ways especially for the Council.

Nevertheless, communication is always a means, more than a purpose. Talking is not the soul or basic reason or purpose of the Council's work.
Operating well is not the soul or basic reason or purpose of the Council.

The purpose is connected to the mission in a more fundamental way. Is it enough to say our purpose is to communicate to effectively further the mission? This statement is good because it is flexible and inclusive and a statement of purpose needs to be flexible and inclusive to provide room for movement.

But I am longing for a statement of purpose that says something a bit more to the point of saving plant, to ACTION, not talk, to FOCUS on the current strategies that the Board and Society have deemed most urgent for the current year and time. I don't want the Council to be so broad, inclusive, and involved in so many things at so many fronts that it can't achieve something tangible that actually does save some plants and wildlife this year, now.

Perhaps just by including the words 'action', 'focus', 'urgency', and 'current' the purpose statement could reflect this sense of importance and mission.