Homecoming Weekend

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I’m writing these words on Sunday, the day after our 2017 Homecoming football game. What an incredible way to end my first three months! Allow me to restate some of the reflections I shared from the lectern at four venues, beginning Friday noon.

At the Emeritus Club Induction Luncheon, I expressed my view of the essential role that FSU plays in shaping lives, leaving an indelible mark that extends through life. A few years ago, I was driving east to an early fall morning meeting in New Hampshire, passing first through dense valley fog, and then climbing into the mountains, slowly ascending through improving visibility. As I entered a sweeping curve to the left, the sun’s orb burning through, back-lighting a fifty-foot dead birch, its skeleton nicely silhouetted. Every branch held scores of geometric orb-weaver spider webs, each fiber bejeweled by countless dew drops, festooning the barren tree. I embraced the sight, aching to snap a photo. Yet the road had no shoulder, and the fog still too thick for me to stop mid-lane.

I thought about the special alignment of conditions that enabled me to see the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe that were otherwise hidden within, invisible as I drove back down later that day. That image reminded me that what we do here at FSU is to make sure we provide the special conditions necessary to illuminate and reveal the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe that lie hidden within each of our students. Our inductees bear witness to our success five decades ago!

I will observe that the Hall of Fame Banquet Friday evening surpassed even my sky-high expectations! The gentlemen representing the 1967 National Champion Football Falcons carry the torch beautifully. I told them that they exemplify the informal, unofficial, reality-inspired FSU mission statement that I have adopted: To inspire, educate, and develop… values based workers, citizens, and leaders… committed to personal integrity, professional ethics, and selfless service. Again, it’s Steve’s interpretation of what FSU does oh so well!

Saturday morning, I helped welcome and greet the nearly 100 Falcon Family Association participants. Because only a staff member or two had heard my orb weaver tale, I related it again, telling parents and family members that they, too, are part of the equation for assuring the right conditions for discovering what lies hidden within! As an old forester, I do indeed believe that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in, or is powerfully inspired by Nature. I say to you, my readers, never forget my love of Nature and my appreciation for the rich and fulfilling environment of North-Central West Virginia, and everywhere I have resided (and visited)!

I focused my few opening remarks for the FSU Alumni Award Winners Saturday brunch on my already deep sense of attachment to this special institution. I mentioned seeing why folks are rooted here. What brings them back. How this college/university on the hill nurtures; guides; inspires; serves as a rock. A rock that anchors them, their vocation, their service, their spirit, and their life. I reminded them that the Fighting Falcon Spirit is soaring high; reaching deep; and linking the past to the present… and on to the future.

I urged all to take time today and every day… to pause; breathe deeply; feast with their eyes; feel with their heart; sharpen and refresh their  memories; and heed the call of Fairmont State University beckoning… again, and again, and again!

I’m reminded of Robert Service’s The Spell of the Yukon:

“It’s the great big broad land way up yonder.

It’s the forests where silence has lease,

It’s the beauty that fills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.”

May all of us carry The Spell of the Fighting Falcons with us forevermore! Service includes a line, “Oh God! How I’m stuck on it all.”

And I am!

Homecoming Parade

West Virginia Folklife Center

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Here at Fairmont, I write a weekly column for the Times West Virginian newspaper. I offer perspective from my Interim Presidency, and frequently weave a Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading thread. This essay/column appeared earlier in September.

When given the chance to submit my letter of interest and resume for the FSU Interim Presidency, I did what all of us do these days when we want to know a little (or a lot) more about anything. I visited the web site, which immediately piqued my interest. The web site certainly proved helpful, yet I am exceedingly spatial. I must see first-hand to truly appreciate a place.

My June 7, 2017 campus interview visit allowed time only to drive around FSU’s hilly campus, circle through the Shaw House (President’s residence) parking lot, swing by the athletic fields, and duly note the One Room Schoolhouse and the West Virginia Folklife Center. Parking behind Hardway, securing an escort to my interview with the Board of Governors at the Falcon Center, and then returning to Hardway to meet with the administrative team – all that served as merely a teaser. I wanted to know more – a lot more! About FSU and the Fairmont community, which I had seen as I drove into town and then back to I-79. But time ran out – I departed for Pittsburgh’s airport, hoping that I might be asked to return. The call came a week later.

I’ve dived deeply into FSU, Fairmont, and Marion and Harrison counties since July 1. Although I still have not examined the One Room Schoolhouse, four weeks ago I made it to the Folklife Center. Let me tell you – well worth the wait! What a tremendous regional resource. As Judy and I approached the front door, last year’s student Board member, Rachel Ball, exited with her friend Courtney. They had just left a class that meets at the Center. Rachel’s enthusiasm is richly contagious. She was among those who interviewed me at the Falcon Center. Her cheer, dedication, and love of FSU were among the factors convincing me that coming here would be a good result. Rachel encouraged Judy and me to see the new exhibit she is helping to create on the second floor.

Interim Director Pat Musick met us inside. Talk about enthusiasm – hers likewise knows no bounds. Pat’s linkage to the Center is both familial and professional, drawing her back to Fairmont after a long absence across the country. That’s another story… worth hearing and telling – another time! Judy and I fell in love with the Center. From the hemlock flooring and yellow poplar paneling (yes, I am a sucker for WV forest products!) to the local/regional historical settlement sequence from Native Americans to various waves of Europeans. The Center also incorporates FSU history.

The Center’s mission is compelling: The Frank and Jane Gabor WV Folklife Center is dedicated to the identification, preservation, and perpetuation of our region’s rich cultural heritage, through academic studies; educational programs, festivals, performances; and exhibits, publications. Everyone reading these words shares the heritage to some extent. [Note: I remind you Blog Post readers that I originally drafted these words for my Fairmont newspaper column.] Have you visited the Center? If so, come again – the exhibits cycle every few months. If not, make haste – it’s yet another element that makes FSU and Fairmont special.

I wanted to stay longer, reminding me of one of Robert Service’s poems that I read frequently during my Alaska days. From The Spell of the Yukon: There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back—and I will. I feel the same way about the Folklife Center… and about this Wild Wonderful West Virginia. Service ended his epic ballad with words that apply well to the Nature of West Virginia, It’s the beauty that fills me with wonder, it’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

A web site cannot adequately express the magic, beauty, awe, and wonder of our SPECIAL place along the Monongahela River! Experiencing is believing.

The column ends there. Restricted to 600 words, I keep the message succinct and compelling. And I focus on the paper’s readers here in the Monongahela Valley. For the purpose of this Post on Great Blue Heron, I add a little additional context. Every place has its SPECIAL Nature — it’s beauty, awe, and wonder. The magic is there awaiting discovery for those willing and able to look, see, and feel. Admittedly, I am particularly smitten by this university, its setting, and its special Nature. Perhaps because I am residing here for six months, a not insignificant period of time during my early sunset years. Perhaps because it is my own Nature to seek and grasp the positive.

Yet, isn’t that what life and enterprise management entail? Fulfillment and satisfaction do not suddenly appear. We must look, discover, and embrace them. It’s the old glass-is-half-full attitude. I could instead reduce any place or enterprise to its distasteful elements, identifying multiple reasons to wallow in despair. Life is too short to accept the shadows. Seek the light; rejoice in the possibilities; accept the challenge to soar. Nature lifts my spirits… here in Fairmont, and wherever life’s journey has rooted me.

Featured Image: The West Virginia Folklife Center on the campus of Fairmont State University.

Heart of the Team

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As I write these words I am more than two-and-one-half months into my six-month interim presidency at Fairmont State University — 44 percent of my term! I wrote the core of this post for my weekly local newspaper column. This one will appear early October. I often weave a thread of Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading into the column. The column itself this time addresses only Human Nature. I’ll expand a bit at the end of this post to delve more into the Nature realm.

My Column for the Times West Virginian

Jim Valvano coached NC State University men’s basketball to a national title in 1983. Ten years later, diagnosed with untreatable, terminal cancer, Coach Valvano toured the country inspiring, motivating, and moving audiences. He spoke of three essential ingredients to living each day to the fullest. First, think deeply about something important to someone near to you. Laugh whole-heartedly – find lightness and joy every day. And third, feel something daily to the point of tears.

I recall seeing Coach V on TV nearly a quarter-century ago. I visited the display honoring him at NC State’s Reynolds Coliseum when I served at NCSU, tears of mixed emotion on my cheeks. Every couple of years I will find YouTube recordings of Coach V celebrating after the championship game and of his speeches as he faced death, spreading the gospel of thinking, laughing, and crying.

Tuesday September 12, I checked all three boxes at the Feaster Center… in the span of ten minutes. Two days later, the Times West Virginian ran a Sports section front page article and two-column photo about FSU signing ten-year-old Cheyenne Filler to our women’s soccer team. Cheyenne, a Special Olympian and bundle of smiles, energy, and enthusiasm, excitedly signed the letter that commits her to attending games (all of these as her schedule permits), being at practices, wearing FSU jerseys when appropriate, having fun, and cheering the Fighting Falcons.

I stood on the gym floor, watching both the action on the platform and viewing the north-side bleachers filled with some 300 student athletes. No digital distractions… only rapt attention and lots of smiles. Everyone recognized Cheyenne’s signing as a special moment, a selfless act to celebrate and remember. The stands erupted in cheers and standing ovation when Cheyenne signed and looked up… beaming. Misty-eyed, I observed the celebration, thinking about the core of intercollegiate athletics. As we opened the ceremony, I spoke briefly, offering my own unofficial FSU Athletics Mission Statement: “To inspire, educate, and develop… values-based citizens and leaders… committed to personal integrity, professional ethics, and selfless service.”

I saw the Mission being lived at Feaster, as 300 future leaders and citizens stood in unison, to lift a very special young lady. A ten-year-old who will change lives… who already has. Our soccer team will win some games, and will taste losses on the field of play. Most importantly, they will remain undefeated on the field of life with Cheyenne among them. Cheyenne is, quite simply, The Heart of the Team. Both virtual and real, The Heart will alter their lives… from this day forward. I will venture to say that Cheyenne symbolizes the Heart of FSU Athletics.

I’ve said many times that success requires four levels of fitness: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. I commend coach Heembrock for integrating all four – Cheyenne adds magic and substance to the team’s reach for excellence and four-level-fitness. This special four-level sauce is not limited to athletics. Although not catalyzed and symbolized so beautifully as in Cheyenne, other programs have similar recipes and results. I think of our O-SIX Center (National Security and Intelligence), FSU Honors, our Robotics program, and many others.

A confession: I watched the Cheyenne-signing ceremony on video at home the next day. Oh, how my tears flowed freely! We are succeeding at Fairmont State University in so many ways. And I experience frequent misty-eyed-moments as I witness first-hand how we are changing lives. I am thinking deeply… this university deserves all the deep thought I can employ, prompt, and inspire in others too many to name. And I am having fun… laughing just as Coach V prescribed. I tell folks often that I am working too hard not to have fun.

The heart of FSU and Fairmont now beats within me, and its echoes will go with me after this rewarding interim term. I will carry The Heart of Cheyenne within me for the rest of my years. She symbolizes in many ways the FSU I will remember.

The Nature Realm

I remind you that we humans are one with Nature, not separate from it. It follows then that Human Nature and Nature are inseparable. Tomorrow (September 17) I will hike at Dolly Sods, a National Wilderness at ~4,000′ elevation just a couple hours from here. I will certainly develop a Blog post or two around that venture. Dolly Sods will infect me with another variant of the humility and inspiration that the Cheyenne Signing spurred. Special people, special places, and special acts of love and kindness stir us. The Cheyenne Signing evokes the same exquisite elements of beauty, magic, wonder, and awe that Nature inspires.

Interestingly, because I now approach Human events and interactions by employing those same four powerful verb forces of Looking, Seeing, Feeling, and Acting, I experience them through my entire body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Life is too short to rush through only skin deep. Full immersion is a requisite for deep experience… with meaning, merit, and fulfillment absorbed and enjoyed. My Board Chair last evening via email, commenting on a Board protocol issue we are jointly addressing, encouraged me while at Dolly Sods to “clear your head of administrative cobwebs!” Such sage advice. Dealing with day to day issues and annoyances pales in significance to the Heart of a Team, and to the Spirit of Dolly Sods.

Great Blue Heron urges you to distinguish true problems from annoyances and to notice and appreciate the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of both Human Nature and Nature!

 

Three Essential Steps Toward Nature Center DREAM Fulfillment

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August 24, 2017 Dr. Cheryl Charles, Executive Director Nature Based Leadership Institute, and I presented a half-day workshop at the Magnolia Summit, the 23rd annual meeting of the Association of Nature Center Administrators. Our workshop: Three Essential Steps Toward Your Center’s DREAM Fulfillment. Twenty-six nature center directors from 18 states and Mexico participated. We posted this description in advance to Summit registrants, who self-selected to our session:

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Our careers in forestry, leadership, and nature and environmental education have led us to proselytize that education matters most (and perhaps only) when it is purpose-driven, passion-fueled, and results-oriented. The wisdom applies richly to environmental education centers. This workshop will inspire, educate, and enable participants to identify, leverage, and enhance their capacity to inject passion and purpose into managing centers and spreading the gospel of Earth Stewardship and applying nature’s wisdom to life, living, and serving.

Cheryl and I split the duties and jointly facilitated discussions among the participants. We explained the workshop purpose: To help the choir sing a little more clearly; to deepen the faith of the already converted. And to explore applying the Wisdom and Power of Nature to:

  1. Leading your center
  2. Focusing your approach through a Nature-polished lens
  3. Recasting your vision
  4. Fulfilling your center’s DREAM

I oriented the group to Nature-Inspired Living and Learning via six examples of lessons indelibly written in or powerfully inspired by Nature. Six lessons for living, learning, serving, and leading that we drew from our own experiences in Nature:

  1. Nature is a force lever for humility and inspiration, complementary elements of effective leadership – try leading without deep humility and absolute inspiration. I offered my tale of climbing Mount Quigley and seeing Denali up close for the first time.
  2. Making the most of living and learning necessitates knowing, understanding, appreciating, anticipating, and acting in response to the seasons of life, enterprise, and every single thing! I reflected on the high latitude seasonal fluxes in Fairbanks, AK.
  3. We can effectively live, learn, serve, and lead only if we know our place in the world, and cling tenaciously to impermeable principles, value, and tenets, including personal integrity and professional ethics. I excerpted Robert Service’s “Security,” a limpet-themed parable for “Clinging Like Hell to Your Rock.”
  4. Longfellow once said, “The purpose of that tree is to add a little new wood each year.” Nature instructs that every organism, and for that matter every enterprise, must have purpose. What is yours?
  5. The eagle evokes different viewpoints in man (noble, regal, inspiration) and rabbit (peril, death, fear). Nature teaches the imperative of perspective among all enterprise participants.
  6. Our role as leaders involves revealing the magic, awe, beauty, and wonder that lies hidden within. I employed my orb weaver tale of hundreds of webs be-jeweled with dewdrops backlit by morning sun, as illustration of how the right conditions can reveal what lies within.

Again, these are six examples – not The Six Lessons, but merely six of many.

We then presented our three essential steps toward nature center fulfillment:

  1. Viewing your center as an organism within an ecosystem. I have written about this approach extensively in other GBH Blog posts. This is how I see any enterprise, individual, organization, or even educational institution. The same holds as the basis for my Forestland Legacy Stories. Any enterprise can be examined in such an ecosystem context.
  2. Learning to Look, See, Feel, and Act. Those four basic verbs are central to all that we at Great Blue Heron, LLC do. Again, so many of us suffer sensory deprivation, glued to our digital devices, unable, unwilling, and unfeeling to the glorious world around us. We are deprived by the tyranny of the digitally urgent.
  3. Defining and realizing your center’s DREAM. Some of my fundamental guidelines include:
    • Be aspirational
    • Reach beyond your immediate grasp
    • Understand your limitations
    • Know your strengths and weaknesses
    • Catalog your competition; identify your symbionts; carve your niche and exploit it
    • Distinguish DREAM from fantasy
    • Be specific in defining your center’s future desired condition
    • Dedicate your team to the DREAM
    • Develop Strategic, Business, and Operational Plans; remember that nature’s plans are embedded in DNA, complete with a full set of time-tested contingencies

We enjoyed discussing these topics and many more with our workshop participants. We are eager to see whether our precepts take root. We learned a great deal – we hope the nature center administrators did as well. We remain convinced that the emerging field of Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading will infect, enable, and motivate others.

I closed by offering how a mission statement for a nature center of my creation might read: To inspire, educate, and enable values-based Nature enthusiasts, committed to practicing Earth stewardship, applying Nature’s wisdom and power, and seeking a brighter tomorrow. After all, that is my mission as Great Blue Heron, CEO and author.

 

Featured Image: Great Blue Heron, LLC co-sponsored the ANCA Magnolia Summit

August 2, 2018 One-Month Reflections

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I spoke last Wednesday evening to the 300 folks gathered at the University’s Falcon Center. I include it as a GBH Blog to provide a sense of what GBH can do with a deep dive into any entity… perhaps yours.

My Condensed Remarks

Such a pleasure for me to speak at the 64th Annual Dinner of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce! I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce myself and spell out my dream for this six-month interim presidency.

I’m a forester who just happens to be a university president. Since my 12 years in the paper and allied products manufacturing industry, this is my ninth university; my fourth as president. Coming here is my 13th interstate move. Those moves and the experiences along the way have shaped and sculpted who I am. Four words encapsulate deep lessons from my life’s journey — lessons that guide me today. Humility; Inspiration; Adversity; Adventure.

I vividly recall seeing Alaska’s Mount Denali, North America’s highest at 20,322 feet, for the first time. From my vantage point atop nearby Mount Quigley, Denali struck me like a thunderbolt. There before me stood the most magnificent sight of my life. Craning my head back, I strained to visually capture the overwhelming image of snow fields, glaciers, and vertical rock faces towering above me. In that single instant, I felt absolute humility (I was nothing; I had accomplished nothing). Simultaneously, a powerful sense of inspiration washed over me. I feel that same sense of humility leading FSU and an equal measure of inspiration.

Eight years later, as Judy and I enjoyed a daylight walk after dinner, the driver of a two-ton SUV ran a stop sign, plowed into us, ejecting us many feet. Ambulances transported us to the hospital, banged up, hurting, but nothing life threatening. The incident awakened us, brutally reminding us that life is fragile and fleeting. That each tomorrow is a gift… not a guarantee. The lead character in Bernard Malamud’s The Natural observed, “We have two lives to live; the one we learn with, and the life we live after that one.” This FSU interim presidency is an element of my second life. Adversity led me into deeper purpose.

Helen Keller noted during her sunset years, “Life is either a daring Adventure, or nothing.” Serving FSU is the next chapter of my own daring adventure. I am grateful for the sculpting life forces: Humility; Inspiration; Adversity; and Adventure.

A month into my six-month appointment, I have precious little time to effectively bridge the gap to my permanent successor. I am determined to pass the torch with my conscience clear… that I have done all I can to smooth the transition. Here are the highlights.

I will dissuade our FSU community of the fatalistic notion of our perceived total dependence on the fortunes (or mis-fortunes) emanating from Charleston (WV’s Capital). I will insist that we avoid being a victim of a woe-is-us attitude. Jettison our absolute despair because West Virginia high school demographics are declining. Forget the pitiful wailing that the state doesn’t give us enough money and that we are doomed forever to do more with less. No, I do not suggest that we abandon our West Virginia regional university status

Instead, we must rise above that self-fulfilling, doomsday prophesy! Clearly establish and express our brand, identity and image. Capitalize on the magic, beauty, awe and wonder of this special place. We are a collection of compelling stories – seek them; capture them; tell them! Attract increasing enrollment from out of state and internationally. Forge intimate, reciprocal partnerships with business, industry, organizations and communities. Strengthen and expand our online programs and degrees.

Enable the new president to rapidly accelerate, embed in this wonderful community, and rely upon the interdependence that will lift FSU into a bright future

I am blessed and privileged to serve FSU, Fairmont, Marion County, and our collective future.

Application to Great Blue Heron

As I have observed in previous Blogs, I view every enterprise through an ecosystems lens. I have concluded that this university is not exploiting the fertile ground it occupies. It has self-imposed attitudinal and aspirational constraints. The gap between potential and realization is one of Human Nature… not the bounds of Nature (i.e. virtual ecosystem attributes). This first month, a period of discovery, must now shift to five months of action. The team is behind me. The action is underway. Together, we are passion-fueled; purpose-driven; and results-oriented. I am having the time of my life!

Football Season Already!

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It’s August! Still summer, yet I’m preparing remarks to welcome new and returning football players and coaches to campus for the August 5, first official day of fall practice. My remarks, while crafted specifically to this purpose, fit any enterprise. Although I will not preach my full-throated Nature-Inspired sermon to the team, I could easily do so. My approach, instead, will be more Human Nature than Nature.

I will explain the fundamentals of leading a university… in terms familiar to them:

  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Assessing performance; improving performance
  • Learning from my teammates; from my mistakes
  • Understanding my own weaknesses
  • Trusting and depending upon others
  • Knowing the playbook
  • Calling the right plays; executing them
  • Reaching beyond our grasp; then mastering the grasp, and reaching again
  • Inspiring and motivating
  • Rewarding
  • Celebrating success; learning from failure
  • Setting goals
  • Keeping the mission clear… and foremost
  • Working hard and having fun
  • Maintaining fitness; staying sharp and focused

Sounds a lot like football — and, too, like life and business.

I will review the four essential and inter-connected dimensions of fitness:

  • Physical — preparing the body for optimum performance.
  • Mental — Yogi Berra said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”
  • Emotional — relationships provide support, stability, and anchorage. Mind and body cannot function fully in the absence of a strong emotional core. Nobody stands alone.
  • Spiritual — nothing is more important than believing and trusting in something larger and greater than we.

I will tell them about Jim Valvano, coach of the 1983 NC State University men’s basketball National Champions. Coach Valvano hit the motivational speaking circuit ten years later, facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. He implored audiences to employ three things that everyone should do each day:

  • Think deeply about something important to someone in your life — spend time in thought
  • Laugh hard and often
  • Feel something to the point of tears
  • “If you think, laugh, and cry — that’s a heck of a day!”

Failure — we seldom learn by doing things well. Michael Jordan famously observed this about failing:

  • “I missed more than 9,000 shots in my career
  • I’ve lost almost 300 games
  • 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot… and missed
  • I’ve failed over, and over, and over again in my life
  • And that is why I succeed”

Raw talent alone amounts to little. General Colin Powell observed:

  • “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic
  • It takes sweat
  • Determination
  • And hard work!”

I will close my remarks to the team with some personal reflections:

  • I am 66 years old
  • I think, laugh, and shed tears every day
  • I begin each morning with vigorous exercise
  • I can still bench press well over my body weight
  • I am a former marathon runner — I still do cardio training pre-dawn every day
  • I am addicted to living
  • I am committed to serving

Now I will close this Blog — Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure… or nothing.” My interim presidency at Fairmont State University is a daring adventure. Same for my work with Great Blue Heron, LLC… and for my writing. What about your life and the enterprise you lead — a daring adventure? Are you daily incorporating Nature’s elixir into living, learning, serving, and leading? Glance at the photo of FSU’s football stadium — wooded hillsides; lifting morning fog; the promise of a new day in north central West Virginia. The beauty and setting alone mists my eyes, lifts me for the day, and stirs deep contemplation.

Great Blue Heron can open your eyes to harnessing Nature’s Power and Wisdom. Please keep reading these Blogs. Drop me a line if you want to explore how we might together lift your enterprise… and boost your life.

Featured Image: Fairmont State University’s stadium emerging from dawn fog.

 

Looking Ahead to 2018

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Don’t get me wrong — I am fully and positively engaged in my Fairmont State University journey, flourishing and reveling in the experience. Great people, a wonderful place, and an unrivaled cause. I count my blessings each and every day. Yet I must be ever-unconscious that this pleasant northern West Virginia passage is finite. July 25 — 14 percent of the way into my six-month Interim Presidency.

What is among those things that are falling into place beyond January 1, 2018?

  • I have just confirmed that I will be a keynote speaker February 8, 2018 at the Kansas Natural Resources Conference in Manhattan. KS. Anticipated audience of 300-350 natural resources professionals. Topic: Harnessing Nature’s Wisdom and Power. I’m planning to add a day or two to visit the Konza Prairie and other special natural features in the area, hosted by long-time friend Kansas State Forester Larry Biles.
  • I committed just this past week to doing a six-session workshop series in Huntsville, AL for Learning Quest (http://lquest.org/) spring 2018 at a date not yet confirmed. Topic: Nature’s Inspiration: Harnessing Nature’s Wisdom for Living, Learning, Serving, and Leading.
  • Likewise, I have accepted an invitation to speak to the Huntsville Chapter of the National Active & Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) in March or April, date yet to be determined. Topic: Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading.
  • Consulting Forestry colleague John Pirtle (https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-pirtle-86796920/) is lining up potential Forestland Legacy Story clients for us to visit after the first of the year. What a joy it will be to get back on the ground to explore and probe landowner tales of forest stewardship passion and commitment!
  • I am working with Tuscaloosa-based Westervelt Company to explore the possibility of a deep-dive Forestland Legacy Book-length Story for the venerable firm that for three generations has exemplified forest stewardship in action.

Having accepted this six-month FSU opportunity, I have made clear that Great Blue Heron, LLC is running at idle speed. That said, I will take a brief spin the latter part of August, revving the engine, blowing off the cobwebs, and making sure the thing still performs, to present with my colleague Dr. Cheryl Charles (Executive Director of the Nature Based Leadership Institute) a half-day workshop at the Magnolia Summit, the annual meeting of the Association of Nature Center Administrators. The venue is just two-hours from my Madison, AL home — at Camp McDowell. The workshop topic: Three Essential Steps Toward Realizing Your Center’s DREAM Fulfillment. Then a return to idle.

I will be prepared come January to get back behind the wheel. I intend for the next legs of my Great Blue Heron journey to be already mapped. As the back cover of Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading makes clear, “Stephen B. Jones, a university president, lifetime champion of Nature, and founder of Great Blue Heron, LCC,” will continue to draw “upon his varied background as a natural resources scientist, educator, and philosopher to convert Nature’s time-tested wisdom into actionable insights… that will help you live, learn, serve, and lead while engaging in responsible Earth stewardship.”

Featured Image: Just last week, while I am in temporary residence at WV’s Fairmont State University, Big Blue visited Judy back home in Alabama, landing atop the next-door neighbor’s porch roof, perhaps searching for me, curious concerning my extended absence!

An Ecosystems Approach to My Interim Presidency

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My approach to learning and evaluating, and then developing recommendations for any enterprise varies little from how I would have assessed (and then managed) a wooded property when I practiced forestry. I have been retained as Interim President to learn, evaluate, and make recommendations here at Fairmont State University (FSU).

A Broad Overview and Context

A physical and biological overview: 120 acres (our FSU campus) in north-central West Virginia’s Allegheny Plateau region. The Allegheny Mountain section (highlands that include some of my favorite places in the eastern US) lies one county to our east. Beyond that, the Ridge and Valley province where I spent my first 18 years. This FSU location places me in a natural ecosystem much like the home country that shaped and inspired me. The social, cultural, and economic elements are also not much different. In many ways, I am home… which reduces the slope of my learning curve. Not the steeper climb I would have faced had this been a regional public university in Arizona (or some such location distinctly different from my region of familiarity).

I’ll begin with the critters who frequent my mid-campus Shaw House (President’s residence) environs: a doe and two fawns (see Featured Image), ground hog, two rabbits, chipmunks, raccoons, crows, a red-shouldered hawk, cardinals, sparrows, and many other feathered friends. We are surrounded by campus, yet Nature abounds. Likewise, within our Shaw House acre or so: white pine, Scots pine, hemlock, red oak, red and sugar maple, walnut, locust, various familiar ornamental trees and shrubs. A rich and satisfying natural environment. Yet that tells me little about FSU. Sure, I’m not the first person associated with the university to observe its special natural character. Here’s a catalog excerpt from 150 years ago, emphasizing the wonderful natural setting: “in the midst of a landscape of surprising healthfulness, beauty, and loveliness.”

We absolutely do occupy a hillside, climbing from the Locust Avenue entrance (elevation at ~950 feet above sea level) on the south side to beyond the athletic fields and physical plant to the north (at ~1,150 feet). My GPS confirmed the modest 200-foot relief; walking from Locust to the top demands more work than I would expect from 200 feet. I visited the Education building last week, entering the first floor at ground level (south entrance), taking the open atrium stairs to the third, and noticing that I emerged at ground level on the north-side. I am told we remove winter’s snow from several thousand external stairs!

Parents, students, alumni, faculty, and staff view the campus, its presentation, and the surroundings quite favorably. Happy campers by and large. Yeah, I know, some lament the hills and stairs. I can just imagine the way-too-steep ice rink with freezing rain, sleet, and snow. I’m assured physical plant manages those conditions well. Overall, I view the institution’s location (topography, climate, natural amenities, landscaping, buildings, and facilities) very favorably. We are blessed as well to be, in some ways, centrally isolated — within four hours’ drive of Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Charleston. Yet we have immediate access to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia… Almost Heaven!

A Special Institution with Promise and Potential

Our university organism is solid, competitive, and sustainable, yet evidences potential beyond realization. We have some very good programs that could be excellent. Some areas where we could (and must) build enrollment. Some partnerships we could forge, strengthen, and exploit. Some resources and bounty we could more aggressively pursue and gather. Some strong elements we can elevate. Some process/practice and organizational adjustments and personnel shifts are in order. We also have quite a few wonderful stories we are not telling well. In fact, I’m not sure we know the depth and breadth of those stories. After all, I have said repeatedly, an institution like ours is more than its buildings, classrooms, labs, programs, staff, faculty, and students… much more. We are a collection of stories, stretching across time and extending through the university’s ages, and beyond to no future date certain. Of greatest interest, impact, and potency are the tales of tradition, of the living, and those to come. The mighty oak is, too, a collection of stories. Height, diameter, crown spread, condition of its wood, dominance within the forest, old wounds, breakage, and the record of its annual rings. I can examine a tree, its location, its competitors, and its annual rings, and re-construct its story. The timeline at FSU matches the mighty oak (or the mighty walnut framing Hardway Hall).

Who are the oak’s competitors… its symbionts, like mycorrhizae? Its exposure to agents of change and potential destruction. Consumers (insects and fungi). Factors of productivity where it resides and is rooted. Exposure to risks — wind, ice, heavy snow loads. What can we alter through forestry to benefit the oak? The same kinds of considerations apply to assessing FSU. I examine the forest with eyes wide open, head clear, and a full checklist of elements I must examine, assess, and affect. I am applying that same kind of wisdom and practice here at Fairmont State. I’m bringing fresh (and informed) eyes. Too often, those members of a university community (or any enterprise) who are deeply (in place and time) embedded at an institution are not able to look — truly look — the way that I do through eyes not dimmed by familiarity and comfort.

No Time to Dally!

I am taking that same ecosystem approach here at FSU. We must look, see, feel, and act. Those who do not know (or refuse to discover), or are unable to discern the stories, may be doomed to accepting or ensuring mediocrity. Comfort dampens aspiration. Satisfaction and contentment do not lift the bar. FSU is not mediocre, yet it does fall short of its potential. The institution did not hire me to coast through six months, leaving critical evaluation, necessary adjustments, and tough decisions to the permanent president who will follow my term. I intend to report my findings and present my action-recommendations to the Board. They will direct me to act… or not. I am publishing this Blog on my 18th day in service to FSU. Normally, were this the beginning of a 4-7-year presidency, 18 days would be enough time to dip my toes into the water, before wading into the shallow end of the pool, and then eventually swimming. Eighteen days is 0.7 percent of seven years… yet it is 10 percent of six months!

After just 18 days of total immersion, I believe that my recommendations are 85 percent complete. Eighteen days is an ample immersion period for the kind of consulting I would undertake for a business/organization and its extant CEO and leadership team. This time, however, I will be leading the enterprise while implementing the recommendations the Board adopts. Because I am now ten percent of the way into my tenure as interim, I/we do not have the luxury of time. Not if we are to collectively set the stage for the next president to hit the ground surging ahead.

I will present recommendations to the Board at its July 20 full-day retreat (11 percent in!). I appreciate and relish the ecosystem within which FSU operates. In forestry parlance, we can increase forest productivity here at FSU. The future can be one of rising to our potential. I am excited by what I see and envision. Much that is good (and great!) lies ahead. I am eager to help lead the way.

 

Featured Image: Two fawns photographed through the beveled glass on the Shaw House front door. Hence the double image of each twin.

Four New Killdeer Residents — Deep Lessons from our Partnership with Nature

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May 20, 2017, we noticed a six-inch diameter dimple in the round elevated bed (where we had planted one of our backyard specimen trees — a Japanese maple — earlier in the spring) 15 feet from the patio. We wondered what bird had taken the time to make its mark… and why? The next day as I walked past to retrieve the shovel leaning nearby against the house, a killdeer sounded alarm, lurching away in full broken-wing anguish. Ah, I knew that trick of distraction. There in the dimple sat a single, spotted tawny egg. Mystery solved. Over the next few days, the female deposited three more. We watched the nest, mom and dad, and the eggs, soothing the frantic parents (well, we said words intended to soothe; the birds simply chirped, screamed, and did the broken-wing thing) whenever landscape duties took us close.

We left for Pittsburgh to visit our son and his family June 15, knowing that the incubation period was nearing an end. Sure enough, our neighbor texted June 19, to announce that four killdeer hatchlings emerged that day, and almost immediately, as killdeer young do, wandered off with their parents before Deborah could grab her camera. We returned home June 21, and have seen hide nor hair (feathers, I suppose) of the brood. Still, we celebrated the successful hatch.

June 22, I exited the patio door early morning, and witnessed a sparrow hustle away from the large flower pot at the bed-edge adjacent to the stoop, moving in a manner clearly intended to draw my attention. No flying for this bird. After a couple repeat retreats by our friend, I ventured a look into the petunias and coleus, where I found a tiny nest and three bluish eggs. [Note that I referred to the bird as a sparrow. Sorry, that’s the best i.d. I can offer. If I attempted to narrow to species, I would do so with very little confidence.] Once again, the recent landscaping around our new home, built in a rather sterile former agriculture field, planted to houses within the past three years, is providing essential habitat to avian wildlife.

The willows (native, naturally seeded, and now growing profusely) at our shore are home to two red-wing blackbird nests. The males are such territorial aggressors. Pity any bird wondering near. The duck family (the ten ducklings) no longer swims, forages, and comports as a tight regiment. The youngsters, as large as momma, have begun to venture forth on their own or in groups of two and three. They are flying! We seldom see our family of four goslings, or perhaps the young are big enough that we don’t spot them as such.

My point in all this — we humans are one with nature. We clear the woods, plant crops for a few decades, scrape out a four-acre pond, and then parcel the land to one-third acre lots, grow a few houses, put in a bit of grass, flowers, and shrubs, and look out — birds, turtles, frogs, toads, snakes, and other critters move in with us. Such a joyous explosion of life. I wonder, though, how many of our human neighbors notice… and rejoice? Do others appreciate the richness and bounty the way we do? How many actually LOOK, and of them, what subset can really SEE? Even fewer, I suppose, can FEEL and sense the power of this natural world we share. And how many feel deeply enough to ACT on behalf of assuring that nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe extend through our generation and beyond. How many can articulate and practice an Earth ethic… the basic tenets of Earth stewardship?

Great Blue Heron, LLC helps people look, see, feel, and act in a manner reflective of our place in the world. Our little paradise on Big Blue Lake reminds me that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is compellingly inspired by nature. My advice: occasionally (even frequently) forget the hand-held device; escape the absolute tyranny of the urgent; open your eyes; breathe the magic of the world around you. Whether a nearby natural area, a formal wilderness, or a landscaped suburban lot, the magic is within reach. Choose to embrace it!

 

Featured Photo: Look closely behind the terribly disturbed/annoyed killdeer doing the broken-wing act — see her four eggs!

A Special Assignment: Interim President Fairmont State University

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Across the forty-four years since earning my forestry bachelors degree, I have been blessed by unbelievable opportunity and good fortune. These past 12 months have led me to publish two books (the second scheduled for release mid-summer) and create and launch Great Blue Heron, LLC. Now another alignment of serendipity and fortuity! Effective late July 1, 2017, I will serve through December, 2017, as Interim President, Fairmont State University (http://www.fairmontstate.edu/) in Fairmont, WV. Fairmont State is a regional public university a little less than 100 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA.

MISSION STATEMENT: The Mission of Fairmont State University is to provide opportunities for individuals to achieve their professional and personal goals and discover roles for responsible citizenship that promote the common good.

VISION STATEMENT: Fairmont State University aspires to be nationally recognized as a model for accessible learner-centered institutions that promote student success by providing comprehensive education and excellent teaching, flexible learning environments, and superior services. Graduates will have the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary for intellectual growth, full and participatory citizenship, employability, and entrepreneurship in a changing environment.

The FSU campus lies about 1,000 feet above sea level where the Tygart and West Fork Rivers join to form the Monongahela, which meets 128-miles downstream (and north) with the Allegheny to form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. The area is rich in human and natural history. Located in the Western Allegheny Plateau geographic province, Fairmont lies fifty or so miles west of Maryland’s Allegheny Highlands and the eastern continental divide, one of my favorite places on the planet! My first two collegiate summers, I worked in that region on the Savage River State Forest, 30 miles west of my home in Cumberland, MD.

Even as I engage fully in leading FSU, I will relish the gift of re-immersion in the cultural and natural environments that return me (body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit) back home! I pledge my all to stewarding FSU, and to viewing my natural and cultural home through the lens of 66 life-years. I likewise promise myself to LOOK, SEE, FEEL, and ACT with the wisdom and inspiration I derive from Nature! I will draw strength, intention, and emotion through fresh eyes (really, all my senses). My approach to leading FSU as an interim president: purpose-driven; passion-fueled; results-oriented.

I am eager for this journey to begin. Bernard Malamud (The Natural) said through his lead character: “We have two lives to live… the life we learn with and the life we live after that.” Granted, I will continue to learn, yet I also view this interim presidency as a critically meaningful facet of my second life! I am grateful to the Board and University for selecting me. I promise to return dividends to FSU, my GBH clients, readers of my books and blogs, and to me and my family. I am already a better person — buoyed by the inspiration of the challenge; humbled by the responsibility to lead yet another team.