The Nature Conservancy is looking for some help. This sounds like such a fun job andso appropriate for all of us nature lovers - it almost makes me wish I were unemployed! I got it through Seminole Natural Lands Committee with which I just recently started volunteering to do cleanups on trails and rivers. They asked for widest distribution so here it is... The Nature Conservancy POSITION DESCRIPTION POSITION TITLE: Community Outreach Coordinator JOB FAMILY: Operations JOB NUMBER: 520008 SALARY GRADE: 2 FLSA STATUS: Non-Exempt LOCATION: Melbourne, FL SUPERVISOR: Indian River Lagoon Program Director DATE PREPARED: September 18, 2007 ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Provides administrative support for TNCs volunteer programs. This includes preparing correspondence and informational packets for distribution to volunteers and other interested individuals, maintaining the volunteer database, working with staff and volunteer leaders to prepare projects and producing standard reports from the volunteer database to communicate activities and results of the program. Actively participates in recruiting and scheduling volunteers, leading volunteer workdays and coordinating other activities within the volunteer program. POSITION DUTIES & REQUIREMENTS: The Nature ConservancyÂs Indian River Lagoon program was awarded a TNC-NOAA Community-based Restoration grant to restore oyster reefs within the Mosquito Lagoon portion of the Canaveral National Seashore. The grant is in partnership with University of Central Florida. The Community Outreach Coordinator will be responsible for implementing the community outreach tasks associated with this grant project. This position has currently identified financial support for one year from hire date and no guarantees can be made that the position will extend beyond that date. However, The Nature Conservancy is an employer at will and the employment relationship may end at any time. Â Increase public awareness about the importance of the Indian River Lagoon estuary and shellfish restoration. Â Excellent logistical organizational skills and extensive travel. Â Produce educational program workshop and event materials to promote active participation in making and deploying oyster restoration mats. Â Research sources of, and collect oyster shells from, various sources, such as shucking houses and restaurants. Â Transport oyster mat material to community events along length of the Indian River Lagoon, from Martin to Volusia County. Reliable, personal transportation required, trailer will be provided. Â Coordinate project logistics with grant partners, according to their responsibilities detailed in the grant (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines at Port Canaveral, Brevard Zoo, New Smyrna Beach Marine Discovery Center and others). Â Transport oyster mats and equipment to New Smyrna Beach Canaveral National Seashore for deployment. Â Establish & develop cooperative relationships with local schools, universities, state & local agencies and corporations involved in environmental education to promote, expand and implement the grantÂs community-base involvement objectives. Â Effectively communicate the projectÂs conservation messages and promote conservation and community-involvement. Â Other duties, as assigned. KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS: Â AssociateÂs degree, technical education or 2 to 3 years of related experience or equivalent combination. Â Experience leading and working with volunteers preferred. Â Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. Â Demonstrated experience in MS Office, Word and Excel. Â CPR and First Aid certifications preferred. Â May require fluency in foreign language(s) to support global operations. Specific language(s) may be preferred depending on operating unit. COMPLEXITY/PROBLEM SOLVING: Â Prioritize tasks in the absence of specific instructions. Â Resolve day-to-day problems within specific guidelines and parameters of position. Â Tracks progress on tasks and does follow-up as needed. Identify routine problems and utilize existing resources for resolution. DISCRETION/LATITUDE/DECISION-MAKING: Â Make day to day decisions within the scope of work assignments. Â Consult with supervisor to address any issues that affect the work of others or the program as a whole. RESPONSIBILITY/OVERSIGHT ÂFINANCIAL & SUPERVISORY: Â May help plan and direct the work of volunteers or interns. Â Limited responsibility which may include processing check requests, travel expense reports and petty cash. COMMUNICATIONS/INTERPERSONAL CONTACTS: Â Work with and communicate effectively with a wide range of people, including employees, the public, vendors and others. Â Function productively as a member or leader of a work team. Â Familiarity with standard business communications; ability to draft and edit correspondence and other written materials. Â Formulate and clearly communicate ideas to others. WORKING CONDITIONS/PHYSICAL EFFORT: Â Willingness to travel extensively and must own automobile. Willingness to undertake evening and weekend work. Â Work requires only minor physical exertion and/or physical strain. Work environment involves only infrequent exposure to disagreeable elements. CLOSING DATE: Open until filled. TO APPLY, SEND COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO: Anne Birch, Indian River Lagoon Program Director The Nature Conservancy 1333 Gateway Drive, Suite 1016 Melbourne, FL 32901 Fax: 321-956-7722 Email: abirch@tnc.org No phone calls, please. The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

OK......been there and done that. I was in engineering for the first part of my career. There was an economic crises in the first half of the 70s and the booming techical fields went through a lot of downsizing when the war ended and I took that opportunity to make some career choices. The company I work for shut down and after several interviews for a new position decided I'd be better off taking that hiatus to go back to school. Being older and in a better position to know where I wanted my work life to take me, I decided to switch over and study ornamental landscaping with an emphasis on plant protection. In my senior year, a divorce happened, and a relocation and that option was not available at any university within commuting distance, so I ended up with a degree in nursing instead. At 40 (your age) and my kids out of school, I took the same leap and did just what you are wanting to do. The only jobs here were at two larger independent grower/landscaping/retail garden center combos. If I hadn't dumbed down my resume I'd have never been hired because your first jobs at places like that are always entry level unless you have that degree in hort. I was close, and with six years of university, and coursework in plant path, taxonomy, design and ag engineering and economics.........but unlike horseshoes, close to the stake doesn't count. Most jobs in the green industry without that hort degree are entry level. I wanted to be on the growing end of the operation and frankly, a mature woman with a powerful resume is at a disadvantage in the hiring process for such jobs. I had sized up the situation accurately because after the fact, I found the owner got resumes from women like that routinely and just figured that most of them didn't have a clue how much hard grunt work was involved and also knew growing flowers in a home garden bears little resemblance to growing thousands of them commercially. I took a 75% pay cut just to get my toe in the door and dumbed down my application and interview to get that. I knew that once I got in, I could use my skills and did. Kept my mouth shut and took every opportunity to learn the ropes of the business and after a couple years, left and broke out on my own. You need to know what branch of this trade you want to be in. I knew retail garden center wasn't my goal. You need to scope out the job opportunities in your immediate area. It's amazing how many different types of skills are needed in the green industry. Working with the public selling posies is a small segment. Know your strengths and know that home gardening at a large growing operation is like comparing a candy striper to a surgeon. Many employers would not be impressed with your credentials in the hort field and actually might be discriminatory of your credentials in other fields. It's their loss but it happens because of their mindsets. Get 'out there' and see what you want to do and with whom and what they have to offer and have some discourse with owners and employees before you write that resume. You'll answer your own question better than we can answer it for you. I just retired this year and closed my business down after nearly a quarter century in the trade. I am so glad I did it, but this is not an easy question to answer.

I heard a really interesting interview on NPR. I wish I could find it now. It was a man who had started a consulting companies for non-profits. His advice was helping NPs to be much more successful, but of course they had to pay for his services. Then there came a great deal of scrutiny into how NPs managed their budgets. Overnight his company failed as NPs looked for ways to cut costs. His point is that every for-profit company is expected to invest in their future and look for ways to improve and to put money back into the company. It is a business model that works, yet NPs are somehow expected to cut back wherever possible. It makes no sense. I did fund raising and we were constantly bludgeoned with the "cost per dollar raised". The minute the cost per dollar raised got too high, positions were cut. Therefore, there were fewer people raising money. So maybe the cost per dollar raised went down but the total number of dollars raised also went down. It made no sense whatsoever. Don't expect a NP to behave the way the rest of the business world behaves. They also have some of the nuttiest job titles I have ever seen.

>>Not so silly when apparently the supposed finance savvy banking/investment/Wall St. crowd did not understand the consequences of these mortgages either...and these are supposed professionals...hedge fund managers, major commercial banks, investment banks, etcYou are comparing apples and oranges. The mortgage loans were chopped up into CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and moved from the mortgage loan market into the equity markets as a result. This is why there is so much heat on the ratings agencies, who stamped them as less risky than they turned out to be. I've said this before and will say it again - the upheaval in the equity markets is because of the UNCERTAINTY who is bearing the risk on the CDOs. The one thing Wall St. hates is uncertainty! But in the end, the debt IS collateralized, it's merely a question of what the debt is now worth. Even assuming whole swaths of development tract homes are only worth 50% of what they were two years ago, the land they sit on still has value. Think of the homes that have just been lost in the SoCal fires - is the land now worthless? Of course it isn't! What the financial institutions are currently engaging in is a wave of write-downs so they can hopefully take advantage of a few "cookies" in future earnings quarters. Don't know what cookies are to an FI? From the WSJournal, 10/4/07: "At the same time, some investors are wondering whether banks are being so conservative with their accounting that they will quietly book profits down the road as the securities they still hold rebound in value. Fans of accounting scandals know this as filling the cookie jar. Later, the cookie jar is emptied, giving earnings a boost when needed most. When valuing securities that have all but stopped trading, clarity is relative. Some investors say they fully expect banks and brokers to take the maximum possible losses while investors are in a mood to accept them, a practice known as the "big bath" or "kitchen sink" approach. Later, the logic goes, they can mark the value of securities back up and recognize profits. "If you're a smart CEO, you're going to write off everything and then some, maybe even to below-market prices, because you're going to be hidden in the woodshed with everybody else," says Daniel Genter, chief executive and chief investment officer of RNC Genter Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based investment firm that manages about $3 billion in bonds and stocks, mostly for high-net-worth individuals. "They'll make it look a lot worse than it is, but that's the smart move, because you've got little to lose and you might get some of it back in a quarter or two." Analysts also expect banks to err on the side of taking as big a hit as possible. Only an "unwise" banker would do anything "other than take as much pain as possible," Chris Wheeler, European banks and specialty finance analyst with Bear Stearns, told investors yesterday during a conference call." (excerpted from "Banks' Candor Makes Street Suspicious - Is Spate of Write-Downs A Sign of Transparency Or 'Big Bath' Strategy?" by David Reilly and Edward Taylor, October 4, 2007; WSJournal)