Biodiversity Project and the 30+ member Mississippi River Network: Headwaters to Gulf (MRN), is looking to hire a Mississippi River Policy Manager for a 2-year contract to work on the coalition’s policy agenda. The MRN is a collaborative effort of 35 organizations who have joined together to protect and restore the Mississippi River. The MRN has several initiatives: 1. a public communications campaign, 2. improved and amended policies that restore and protect the river and 3. promoting communication and collaboration among the MRN partner organizations.

Environmental Communication and Policy job at Biodiversity Project

The Chesapeake Bay Trust (a client of Water Words That Work) has two openings for communications folks: A senior, director-level position and a more junior, associate level position.

Development and Communications Director: The DDC will be responsible for keeping the organization focused on accomplishing an ambitious resource development plan, with a goal of doubling revenue by 2015. This person will also work with the Trust’s leadership team to design and implement a comprehensive communication’s plan, elements of which include outreach about grant opportunities, reporting about the accomplishments of the Trust and its grantees, and social marketing aimed at increasing Bay stewardship.

Click the link to download the environmental communications director position description.

Communications Associate. The Communications Associate will play an important role in communicating the Trust’s mission and activities to diverse and growing audiences. Focus areas include: web content creation and management, newsletter production, email outreach to constituents, media outreach, mailing and email list management, desktop publishing, graphic design, and coordination and staffing of outreach events.

Click the link to download the environmental communications associate position description.

Good luck!

Athens, Georgia is a lovely college town and there are some fine folks living and working there. And you can live there, too, if you are fortunate enough to land the job as the Stormwater Program Education Specialist for the city of Athens and Clarke County!

Here are a few of the duties this person will have:

• Prepares and distributes news releases; coordinates photo opportunities/feature stories.
• Supervises/creates logos, images, and signage for the program.
• Creates advertising for print media and PSA spots for radio TV, internet, and other media outlets.
• Coordinates school education programs.

They’re looking for a candidate with a background in public relations, journalism, marketing, telecommunications, or related discipline with one year of journalism, public relations, marketing, or education. The salary is just shy of $40k, which goes a long way in that part of Georgia.

Click the link below to learn more. Good luck!
Environmental Awareness Job Description.

Do you enjoy looking at maps? Most people DO NOT.

Conservationists love geography and we love maps, don’t we?

I know I do. I have a vast collection of paper maps, and I am heavy, heavy, heavy user of Google Maps, Google Earth, GPS systems, etc. I spend a lot of time looking at maps, selecting zip codes and county boundaries to approximate watershed boundaries, and compiling market research data to tell a story about the people who live there and how you can reach them with your message. I really enjoy it!

And, truth be told, the whole point of this Water Words That Work business venture is my business trips take me to interesting corners of the country, where I can see my my clients’ fascinating work, and write it all off as a legitimate business expense. That’s my idea of work/life balance right there: Looking at maps and planning trips.

So — I understand why conservation organizations want their logos to be maps, when you want to name their organizations after geographic features, when you want to fill the space on your home pages and brochures with maps. But I have learned through both experience and research that this is actually not a good idea.

Here’s why. Taken a whole, everyday citizens are astonishingly, resoundingly, stunningly disinterested in geography. In a 2006 study on Americans’ geographic literacy, the National Geographic Society found:

• Six in ten (63%) cannot find Iraq on a map of the Middle East, despite near-constant news coverage since the U.S. invasion of March 2003.
• Two-thirds (67%) can find Louisiana on a U.S. map and half (52%) can find Mississippi – leaving a third or more who cannot find these states, in spite of months of intensive media coverage of the 2005 hurricanes and their aftermath.
• Moreover, half (50%) cannot find New York State, even though it is the third most populous state in the union, after California and Texas.

And here’s the real reason for those shocking numbers: Most people think geography is boring! Most people think maps are boring! When we push maps on people when we want them to take action for conservation, we are actually stepping on our own feet because we are boring them.

What most people are interested in is other people. That’s why faces are high on the list of Foolproof Photos. When I have the Due Diligence Test Panel review communications efforts from conservation organizations, the highest scores for images invariably do to pieces that have big striking pictures of peoples faces, like the one below:

For most, this image is far more eye-catching than a map

Every time you find yourself saying “I could put a map here,” stop and take a deep breath. Then ask yourself “could I put a face here?” instead.