With the help of a $5000 grant awarded this spring, the Ontario Bays Initiative, Inc. Board of Directors has spent the last few months working on an assessment that aims to strengthen our local land trust.
The grant from the Land Trust Alliance provided funding for a Guided Organizational Assessment based on Land Trust Standards and Practices. The board has been working closely with Samuel Stokes, a Maryland-based consultant who has administered assessments for several other land trusts.
Mr. Stokes held a preliminary meeting with the11-member OBI Board of Directors in August and then asked OBI board members to complete a detailed questionnaire about OBI’s practices and policies and whether they comply with the Land Trust Alliance’s 12 standards and 88 practices.
According to the Land Trust Alliance, a national conservation organization representing land trusts, these standards and practices "indicate a land trust’s ability to operate in an ethical, legal and technically sound manner and ensure the long-term protection of land in the public interest."
The standards and practices are the criteria for receiving the seal of approval from the Land Trust Alliance and cover all aspects of a land trust’s operations, including outreach, mission statement, record keeping and stewardship. Responses to the questionnaire were reviewed in detail in October at a meeting OBI board members attended with Mr. Stokes. Responses were reviewed and discussed at length.
Another meeting scheduled with Mr. Stokes in November was for review of the draft assessment report and recommendations. Now, OBI must prepare a work plan for implementing the recommendations. The plan will be submitted to the Land Trust Alliance.
In 2012, OBI will go to work meeting those recommendations with a goal of becoming a stronger, more effective local land trust.
OBI was founded in 1993 and this marks the first time a board assessment has been conducted. The board was pleased to have received the grant and the opportunity for the assessment, which brings OBI a step closer to seeking accreditation from the Land Trust Alliance. OBI has been a member of the Land Trust Alliance since 2000.
Of the more than 1,000 land trusts nationally, more than half are all-volunteer land trusts similar to OBI. The accreditation process is a voluntary program that confirms a land trust is meeting the standards and practices.
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission is responsible for operating the accreditation program. To date, 135 land trusts across the country have received accreditation.
