Personal case study: Sarah Miles, voluntary coordinator, Save Our Lake Yango
Purpose of position:
Sarah Miles is the voluntary coordinator of Save Our Lake Yango (SOLY). This community group successfully lobbied government to institute a very good water management plan. Sarah has recently joined the organisation. As coordinator she will help create a strategic plan for safeguarding the future of Lake Yango.
The next phase of work for SOLY will involve monitoring the implementation of the new management plan and continually engaging the community. SOLY aims to educate the whole town on the issues surrounding the future of the Lake and encourage people to get involved through helping run a water quality monitoring program and behavioural changes, such as conservation farming and gardening.
Responsibilities
Sarah’s role with SOLY will be to work closely with the team to plan and coordinate the future actions, allocating tasks and evaluating the success of activities.
Her responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- supporting the organisation and running of events, and meetings,
- participating in the development of future campaign strategies,
- coordinating the development of campaign resources,
- managing the human resources of the group; and
- participating in the evaluation and review of strategies.
Goals in this position:
Sarah’s goal is to help coordinate the team to educate and empower the people of Lake Yango to care for their water resources.
Skills and knowledge:
Sarah is a retired social worker who has extensive experience in managing people and projects. Other skills and knowledge that have helped her in this volunteer role include:
- strategic planning, to map out future plans, incorporating all of SOLY’s goals,
- negotiation and conflict management skills,
- motivational skills,
- written and spoken communications skills; and
- knowledge of the science and technology surrounding water management plans and the environmental issues facing Lake Yango, and comparable ecological sites.
Identified priority learning areas to achieve goals:
Sarah has many useful skills but she plans to educate herself to gain some of the more specific knowledge required. By taking the Hub's Self assessment Sarah has discovered that she will need to work on the following learning areas to achieve her goals:
- Facilitation
- Understanding of sustainability issues and
- Program development.
Priority learning areas for this position:
Priority learning areas for this position are:
- Understanding of sustainability issues
- Monitoring and evaluation and
- Project management.