Program

Sea Grant Week 2012

Introduction, session descriptions and program updated 9/7/2012

This is meant to serve as an overall map of the Sea Grant Week program. Please refer to the schedule for detailed information on sessions and locations.

How the Wednesday through Friday meetings will work

These three sessions are intended to encourage maximum participation from all SG job descriptions as we learn from each other. They are set up to take advantage of a venue that will allow us to transition quickly from plenary to breakout sessions and back again at any time.

The program for each day was developed by a subcommittee. Each day includes a mix of panels or presentations and breakout and report-back sessions. The goal of each day will be to come up with a short list of action items that will help to translate learning to action to enhance our ability, as individual programs or as a network, to fulfill our mission.

Descriptions of each of the three themes appear below this program.

Other highlights

Poster session

The Wednesday Poster Session will be held in the spacious Staircase Lobby of the hotel. There will be ample food stations and a bar nearby. Each program is invited to contribute one poster presenting a success story or best management practice that they wish to share. See poster session information for details on preparation, setup and display.

Publication display

Sea Grant program publication tables, showcasing our network's fine products and talent, will be set up in the ballroom foyer Monday morning through Wednesday evening. See publication display information for details on shipping and setup.

Registration/packet pick-up

You may register and/or pick up your meeting packet beginning Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. See the schedule for registration-desk hours.

  Sunday
9/16
Monday
9/17
Tuesday
9/18
7:30a National Sea Grant Advisory Board registration/breakfast

Breakfast/Registration

Breakfast
8:00a

8a–5p
National Sea Grant Advisory Board (NSGAB)

Registration
8:30a

8:30a–12p
National Sea Grant Advisory Board (NSGAB)

8:30a–12p
Network Meetings
   • Communicators
   • Research Coordinators

8:30a–10a
ERC

10a–11:30a
PMC

11:30a–1p (working lunch)
NAC

8:30a–12p
Network Meetings
   • Web Developers
   • Fiscal Officers
   • Educators

8:30a–12p
SGA Delegates Meeting

9:00a
9:30a
10:00a
10:30a
11:00a
11:30a
12:00p Lunch


Lunch
12:30p
1:00p
1:30p

1:30p–5p
Network Meetings
   • Joint Communicators /
      Web Developers
   • Research Coordinators
   • Extension Assembly
   • Fiscal Officers

1:30p–3:30p
SGA Board

3:30p–5:30p
Legal Group

1:30p–3p
e-Sea Grant
SGA Delegates

1:30p–3:15p
Bunny Swan-Gease
Native crafts workshop
(continues till 4p for spouses and guests)

2:00p
2:30p
3:00p
3:30p

3:30p–5p
Sea Grant Week
Opening Plenary

4:00p 4p–6p
Registration opens
   (hours subject to change)
4:30p
5:00p  
5:30p  
6:00p   6p–8:30p
Opening Reception
6:30p
7:00p 7p–9p
Publications display set-up
7p–7:45p
Ancient Voices, Future Vision
Song and narrative performed by Bunny Swan-Gease
7:30p
8:00p 8p–9p
Adventures in the Aleutians
Video presentation by Reid Brewer, ASG Marine Advisory Program
8:30p  
9:00p    

9p-10p
Johnny B's Rhythms of Wild Alaska

Live piano/video performance

9:30p
10:00p
10:30p  
  Wednesday
9/19
Thursday
9/20
Friday
9/21
Saturday
9/22
7:30a Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast

7a–8:30p
Field Trip to Seward

Optional activity, additional cost

See schedule for logistics and details.


8:30a–3:30p
Crow Creek Trail hike led by Terry Johnson

8:00a Registration Registration

8a–3p
Theme: Maximizing Sea Grant's Return on Investment and Overall Impact

Please see schedule for session details.

8:30a

8:30a–5p
Theme: Emerging and Ongoing Issues

Please see schedule for session details.

8:30a–4:30p
Theme: Integrating Social Science

Please see schedule for session details.

9:00a
9:30a
10:00a
10:30a
11:00a
11:30a
12:00p Lunch Lunch Lunch
12:30p
1:00p
1:30p Theme: Emerging and Ongoing Issues
(continued)
Theme: Integrating Social Science
(continued)
Theme: Maximizing Sea Grant's Return on Investment and Overall Impact
(continued)
2:00p
2:30p
3:00p  
3:30p 3:30p–5:30p
Winner Creek Trail hike led by Terry Johnson
4:00p
4:30p  
5:00p

5p–6p
Poster setup

5:30p  
6:00p   6p–7p
Mixer and cash bar
6:30p 6:30p–8:30p
Poster Reception
7:00p

7p–9p
Sea Grant Awards Banquet

7:30p
8:00p
8:30p    
9:00p

9p–9:30p
Boogie Woogie Piano with Johnny B.
Music and dancing

9p–11:30p
Talent Show & Sea Grant Blues Band
Music and dancing
9:30p 9:30p–10:30p
Glenner Anderson
Stand-up comedy
10:00p
10:30p  
11:00p    

Theme: Emerging and Ongoing Issues

Chair: Paul Anderson, Maine Sea Grant, panderson@maine.edu

Sea Grant programming across the country often coalesces around certain "themes," such as Working Waterfronts. This session will highlight 5 existing and emerging themes—issues of concern to Sea Grant stakeholders that may have not yet been fully implemented across the country but that have the potential to become nationally relevant program areas for Sea Grant—to strengthen national networking, discuss engagement strategies, and identify funding opportunities.

Theme: Integrating Social Science

Chair: Caitie McCoy, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, cmccoy2@illinois.edu

The guiding question for anyone attending this session is: How do we better integrate social science into Sea Grant?

Many Sea Grant programs are beginning to invest in social science. Social science is an umbrella term that refers to the collection of sciences that study and advance knowledge about human behavior and society. These sciences include, but are not limited to, anthropology, economics, geography, planning, political science, psychology, and sociology. This session will provide the various programs an opportunity to create a unified vision for integrating social science into Sea Grant. We will develop a shared understanding of social science, learn from examples of successful applications of social science in Sea Grant programs, and discuss how social science can help improve research, education, and outreach. We will assess our capacity and identify opportunities for growth and collaboration across programs, consider the leadership role Sea Grant may play in social science, and use social science theories to define and understand impacts.

Theme: Maximizing Sea Grant's Return on Investment and Overall Impact: What is Sea Grant Worth to the People We Serve?

Chair: LaDon Swann, Mississippi-Alabama SG, swanndl@auburn.edu

The guiding session question: How do we demonstrate our worth to those we serve?

Demonstrating positive economic, environmental, or social impacts and the return on our federal and state investments is the foundation of our existence. The sense of urgency to demonstrate our worth has never been greater. Sea Grant’s long-term growth depends on our network accepting the challenge to consistently monitor our assessment process and proactively modify the process when necessary. Currently, most of us assess our functional areas as individual programs, using hundreds of performance measures to determine our progress toward the learning, action and consequence outcomes of our strategic plans. We collect and report large volumes of data to ensure that we have enough data for any possible need. By using a smaller number of measures, our workload will be reduced and our message will be more effective. The measures that we use must contribute to simple, clear and compelling statements of Sea Grant’s success—holding true to our mission to benefit our coastal and Great Lakes communities, and through them, the nation.

The theme of this session is to improve how we assess ourselves through impacts and return on investment.  The session will share best practices and other examples from individual Sea Grant programs and define ways through which these practices can be shared and improved.  We will also consider new and evolving evaluation methods.