Nick Dipasquale, EPA (Director)

Participants

Nick DiPasquale, EPA (Director)

Carin Bisland, EPA (Associate Director)

Bill Hayden, VA DEQ (Chair)

Catherine Krikstan, UMCES (Vice Chair)

Stephanie Smith, ACB (Coordinator)

Joan Smedinghoff, CRC (Staff)

Greg Barranco, EPA

Jessica Blackburn, ACB

Shanita Brown, ACB

Cindy Chance, NPS

Kim Couranz, NOAA

Zachary Friedman, UMCES

Mary Gattis, ACB

Jennifer Greiner, USFWS

Hannah Hamilton, USGS

Alana Hartman, WV DEP

Renee Kelly, STAC

Leila Mitchell, NY DEC

Krista Parra, DOD

Will Parson, ACB

Kristen Peterson, MD DNR

Stephen Schatz MD DNR

Al Todd, ACB

Samantha Watterson, CRC

Tom Wenz, EPA

2016 Comm. Office Strategic Planning: Branding session results

We are, we are not, we want to be
Next step: Lead similar exercises with other stakeholders (including coordinators, staffers, leadership) to get other perspectives

Nick’s observations for the New Year:

We’re making progress in terms of 2014 watershed agreement
Workplans hopefully in place by April
Begin implementation
Agreement highlights that we reflect the way the environment is structured
Everything is linked
We have goals and outcomes that overlap between groups
People don’t come to this intuitively—think of issues as being separate (issues of waste, water, etc.) when they’re really interconnected
Bureaucrats and scientists speak in shorthand, acronyms; we must translate and communicate that to public

Annual Analytics Review

Website: 3.2 million individual page views
Field guide: 30%
Discover the Chesapeake: 12%
Learn the Issues: 11%
Blog: 7.2%
What do we look at?
Views: how many people are visiting stories
Engagement: how long are they on the page
Top 10 and Bottom 10 blog posts
Engagement
Many Top 10 have videos, so people spend more time on page watching video
Bottom 10 are all over 1:00—still good, just not as much time as other posts
If a post appears in both Bottom 10 lists, we want to look further into them to change strategy
If a post appears in both Top 10 lists, we should do more stories like that
Some content is designed to drive people to other locations (eg. Bay Barometer posts), so time on page might be less than expected
2014/2015 comparison

Page Views
2014 / 2015
Feature / 339 / 582 (358*)
List / 636 / 441
Photo Essay / 569 / 346
Blog Post / 325 / 300
Currents / 175 / 215
Engagement
2014 / 2015
List / 2:59 / 3:41
Feature / 2:48 / 3:06
Currents / 2:40 / 2:55
Photo Essay / 3:21 / 2:53
Blog Post / 2:36 / 2:36

Engagement: how long do we expect people to stay on a page?
Word count/average reading speed=expected time on a story
High performers: news stories
Readability score: no correlation between readability score and time spent
Denser topics: perhaps people spend more time reading, understanding
Low performers: photo essays
People aren’t spending time reading the captions?
Many also have videos: perhaps they’re only watching video
Partner news Top 10
Stories brought to us about partner organizations or people they know who are interesting
Lessons learned
Successful: visual storytelling, good news storieson health and restoration, personal connections
Less successful: policy, scientific reports
Bring us stories
If you find it interesting, the audience will find it interesting; if you find it important, they might not find it interesting.
If we hyper-focus more on critical audiences, how will that affects our communications?
Website: unlikely to change focus; more of a “come and get it” for people already interested
Social media: more for branching out to new audiences
Make sure we are thinking about the specific audiences we are reaching, and want to reach with each tool
Outreach efforts bring in new people
Think of in terms of Strategic Planning process
Push information out to sites that other people would visit

Six-month Editorial Calendar Brainstorm

Top performing stories:
Citizen stewardship
From the field: scientists going out and doing research
Agriculture: Butler Farm, Oregon Dairy Farm
Are there any programs/events/news stories happening between now and June of 2016?
January
8th: MD Nutrient Trading Symposium
13-14th: STAC workshop on Conowingo
28th: special Olympics Maryland polar plunge, not a usual time for people to be entering water
29th: land Use Webinar for local governments
February
20th: Taking Nature Black, Green Jobs Fair
STAC climate change workshop
March
14-15th, 21-22nd: 25thAnnual Maple Syrup festival, Cunningham Falls State Park
24-25th: LGAC meeting in Tacoma Park/Silver Spring area: green infrastructure, local government, capital, planning for larger government workshop within few months after that
Redeployment of CBIBS buoys
Expected approval of manure treatment technologies BMP, “poop to energy”
Annual National Environmental Justice Conference in DC, focus: building healthy communities, health disparities
NPS: Six video series launching for findyourchesapeake.com
April
Mid-April: Rockfish, from a Bay-enjoyer perspective, opening day, could tie back to indicators
April, October: Who will be at boat shows? Demonstration that might be interesting
BMI symposium Environment Virginia, section on Bay, opportunities for stories from presenters
Last year: Midshore Riverkeeper report in mid-April, area around Harris Creek, Choptank, water clarity was a big story
Approve cover crops, nutrient management, conservation tillage
Citizen Stewardship Workgroup: completed annual survey on CS indicator, month when CS work increases
Project Clean Stream
May
Two-year milestone evaluations
Bay Swim
June
4th: National Trails Day
NPS has events in 3 places
Zimmerman Center for Heritage, York, PA
Waterman’s Museum, Yorktown
Annapolis
Clean the Bay Day
EC meeting
Annapolis to Bermuda Sailboat Race
Public access and Beach Health Water Quality reports
July-November
July: Log canoe competition
July: Phase 6 model, data in by July
August: BMP approve credits for floating wetlands
August 25th: Founders Day NPS 100th birthday; unveil mobile, roving ranger unit
September: BMP panel in July on oysters and aquaculture (story in September, start of oyster season), VA: pushing for credit for more aquaculture
Oct/Nov: James River chlorophyll-a, story: what are they doing with/about results
Land-use webinar at end of January, data made available in fall
November:Bay Bridge Run
Other
NOAA-funded bay watershed training programs
Report on clearer water in Chesapeake
WV restoration spotlight/from the field: what WV has done since the WIP, what needs to be done for next WIP
Anything in the 16/17 milestones
Would be good to from all the states
Riparian buffers and what TU is doing
Focus on stream restoration, with TU partners, great for Habitat GIT team
More photo essays from NY
Climate Change: what federal facilities are doing; Norfolk
Self-help projects that sailor/soldiers/airmen are doing to do a stream restoration; Navy: Clean the Bay, quarterly
MD:
Our Living Shoreline Project
Chesapeake Bay Museum
Working Waterfront Grant Recipients
Increasing public access: Ft. Smallwood
Bay Book Club, Moby Duck
Bay pilots
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, grant to renovate, boat sale in fall
Light Hawk: free flights for nonprofits/conservation organizations/interested stakeholders: get people in the air and show people what they’re doing
NOAA divers: before/after photos of oyster restoration
Urban Agriculture, green infrastructure, connecting with communities
Dreaming Out Loud: work with youth around urban agriculture, life skills/financial responsibility, green careers
Perspectives of people who have come out of a program, have found a green job
LEED Buildings: Nationals Park, Sultana Education Center
College students working on projects related to the bay
Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, Annapolis Community Boating
Organizations that get people/kids/underserved people out on boats
Wounded Warrior Regatta
Interfaith Alliance, St. Luke’s LEED building
Scan grants for projects to cover
NPS
w/ Chesapeake Conservancy: make shape of “100” with kayaks in the bay at the Bay Bridge
Hokulea: Polynesian voyaging canoe visiting the Chesapeake
Geocaching trail

Action: Email Stephanie your story ideas and events

Action: Email Shanita if you’re interested in participating in the Green Jobs Fair

Action: Stephanie will send out the editorial calendar

Round Robin/GIT Updates (many mentioned in calendar brainstorming session)

MD DNR
Mallow’s Bay public comment period ends next week

WV DEP
E-newsletter coming out in about a week, include info about workplans
Management Board comments due Friday, January 15
Public comment period:January22-March 9
Do states have to come up with communications strategies for Phase 3 WIPs by March?
There needs to be a plan on how states will reach out to local governments to talk about need for local land-use data and targets
Intent is that water quality GIT will work with states to develop those strategies

CAC
February 17-18: quarterly meeting to meet with people focusing on Anacostia

STAC
March 15-16: quarterly meeting
Sponsored tech review of microbeads and microplastics, scheduled distribution late January-early February
Three workshop reports distributed before February

Diversity Action Committee
Green Jobs Fair: Taking Nature Black
Looking for organizations that have job openings, career pipeline opportunities, internships, volunteer opportunities
Email if you want to participate

ACB
Closed job announcement for CBP Director of Communications
Narrowed down to 7 applicants
Hoping to have someone by March 1

CBP Communications
Working on video projects, Bay 101: Wetlands coming out
Feature story: deer management inHoward County, MD
Bay Barometer
Finalizing design, reviewing
Drafting media release, workgroup should receive draft next week
Week ofFebruary 1: media call/release
Launch of Chesapeake Progress (1st piece of Chesapeake Stat)
Soft launch this month
Media call week of February 8

Next meeting: February 4th

Status update: CBP Comm. Office Strategic Plan
Status update: Watershed Agreement Workplan feedback
Creating a social media strategy