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The central role that enables Field Stations is that of the Site Steward. The Steward (or the stewardship team) has the knowledge, skills and abilities to access partner resources and assemble, lead, and document a field station.
A goal of the field station is to cultivate more site steward teams that create more field stations. This is very important. This goal is a design criteria that affects how we chose to do work. We ask the question, "what can make this work healthy and fulfilling for a site steward?" If we can do this, then we know how to create a self-replicating process. To support this cultivation of site stewards we break down the practice into a set of skills we can all learn.
We are in active design, so evaluating protocols and technologies is critical. We are trying to maximize value, minimize cost, and keep to simple standards that are easy to teach. We have identified three sub-roles that make a Site Steward Team:
Community Steward - understanding the protocols and needs and wants of all the partners, and being able to call in all the resources of the guild to assemble a field station. This includes scheduling, recruitment, registration and reporting. This includes conflict mediation, and maintaining relationships with the institutional sponsor and the host, including provisions required under the access agreement and insurance policies.
Recruiting - Social Media - Google Forms and Calendar - Gathering - Safety Protocols - Registration and Entry/Exit Protocols - Facilitation - Community Cultivation - Reporting
Camp Steward - arrive at the site with all the technologies necessary for all guests to be comfortable and able to take care of themselves with ease. This includes systems for cooking, heat, waste recycling, water and shelter and the ability to maintain them. These systems are accessible to guests, involve minimal consumption, and are at the end, tended and well packed for the next use.
Trailer Checkout - Layout Design - Knots and Rigging - Traffic Management - Maintenance & Repair - Composting & Greywater - Handwashing - Tools - Clutter - Breakdown & Coiling - Trailer Packing & Checklist
Tending Steward - ensure all necessary tools and supplies arrive along with a plan to do useful work in each season. Tending stewards consider both propagation, disturbance and harvest as a single dynamic relationship. How do we consider natural vegetation community type, and the attributes of patches? How do we organize around a calendar.
Mapping - Orienteering/Surveying - Patch & Site Assessment - Harvest - Perfect Timing - Treatment Design - Logistics - Work Supervision - Layout - Labor Allocation - Recordkeeping
Common Skills[edit | edit source]
Common to all roles are the following shared skills and protocols:
- Guild Ethics - fluency with the Guild Handbook, the intention of building a new cultural niche, and the strategies of self-organization and the guest-host relationship.
- The Platform - fluency with the Salish Sea Restoration Platform and creating and editing pages to hold information consistent with the style guide and protocols.
- Site Steward Roles - fluency with the Site Steward Handbook, such that in a pinch any member of the Steward team could independently get through a whole field station without a critical failure.
- Consent-Based Decision Making & Nonviolent Communication - strategies for maintaining clear communication and consent within both equal and unequal divisions of power, and being able to talk about the difference.
- Common Pool Resource Management Theory - a conceptual understanding of the management of common pool resources and systematic strategies to avoid the tragedy of the commons.
- Continuous Improvement/Kaizen Gemba - strategies for identifying and improving value creation through identifying sources of waste
Steward Information System[edit | edit source]
To make information flow easily we have protocols for sharing information that fit into the natural cycle of camps. As we get more skilled we are able to plan further ahead with less effort. Simple standards allow us to work well with less effort. Conserving effort is important so that going to the river to care for the forest is easy.
- Pre-Camp Check - Thursday before a camp, stewards verify who's playing lead role, and have a meeting for business. Some gather in person, and others join in on zoom.
- Camp Stewardship Huddle - After the morning work session there is a steward huddle in the great hall to 1) verify afternoon offerings from different guilds, 2) check on wellbeing.
- Post-Camp Debrief - after the trailer is packed on Sunday afternoon we sit and have a meeting for business.
- Shared Marketing - after an event we share photos with commentary to some share social media platform. Is this Instagram or Facebook or something else?
- Asynchronous Communication- we use a platform like Hylo, which is mission-aligned and open to co-development.
- Proposals - people make simple proposals to share using standard format (using sociocratic principles). With consent of other stewards, proposals are forwarded to the institutional sponsor or whatever mechanism for procurement has been established.
Decision Making[edit | edit source]
Meeting for business involves: 1) proposals ready for decision, 2) proposals ready for input, 3) reports.
Steward Gifts?[edit | edit source]
We have several methods for sharing resources with stewards to enable their work. Could this be a flow-funding strategy that is developed by the site steward council. Is this cash or distribution of tools for personal use, because we want competent stewards in the world with tools. Different stewards have different needs for participating. Can we keep this out of the cash economy, or should we, when so many people need the cash economy to survive? We have discussed steward stipends.
Commitment?[edit | edit source]
The underlying question is, "what does it take for a modern human to have a relationship to a place, or taxing to pay for jobs the only mechanism?" This project was conceived almost a decade ago, and has been on the ground in Skykomish for two full solar years. Decisions made now can affect work years from now. What level of commitment do we expect from a steward? How do we integrate that level of commitment into the function of the system.
