Three more days have flashed by. On Friday, our Camp Coastal activities included a very brief presentation by Jeremy Gault from Ireland's Coastal and Marine Resources Center. One of the things he talked about was a rather intriguing concept he called "expert couplets" where they pair up a research group or institution with a local authority responsible for coastal resources management and the two organizations work together to identify research needs and management improvements. Next on the agenda was a discussion of the CRC approach to a project to implement ICRM in Xcalak, Mexico with a comparison to what our small groups had thought up in our 45 minute proposal-writing/brain-storming exercise. One of the useful things about this course is that we get to talk to folks like Pam and Don after they have completed a project and spent time reflecting on what went well, what didn't, what was anticipated, and what surprised them. They have some incredible experiences to share with us and talk very candidly about their successes and failures.
After Xcalak we talked about our personal projects, the focus of the last week of the class. I proposed to work on the document I need to produce for our programmatic evaluation in August that should include a combination of accomplishments report, response to findings of our last review, and a bit of strategic planning for the next few years. It seems to fit with the themes of measurement and evaluation, systems thinking and leadership that we've been covering in the past two weeks.
The last item for the day was mysteriously labeled "leadership retreat" on the schedule. It turned out to be a small group exercise using mind-mapping as a technique to capture a wide array of information that might not seem to be connected and to discover interrelationships between the seemingly disparate elements. We first worked on a map dealing with our personal lives and then did one for our programs or a project at work. After discussing the maps we all came up with I was struck again with just how fortunate I am in both my personal life and career right now. I'm a lucky guy.
Saturday A vanload of us visited Newport, RI for much of the day. I struck out on my own and spent the day looking at boats in a very, very busy harbor, and exploring the waterfront district. There were lots of t-shirt shops and tourist-traps but there were also some neat old buildings and a few interesting shops hiding among all the tourist bustle. Along the way I found an Irish pub and had a Murphy's Irish Stout and a Reuben sandwich. Very tasty. I like to put a little mustard on my Reuben, and they gave me a very nice, very hot Coleman's English mustard. It has a wasabi-like affect on the nose that worked well with the sandwich. 
Today (Sunday) Pam picked up me and Gwen and took us to the free community yoga event at a place called "All That Matters" in Wakefield. Gwen and I took the Kundalini yoga class while Pam did the basic yoga session. I've only done one other Kundalini class and my abs burned during and after the class. It is a bit too far into the eastern mystical tradition for me in terms of philosophy but I was looking for a more energetic class than what the basic session had to offer. This Kundalini class did have some chanting and a bit of the philosophy but it also had enough movement and body work to get me completely drenched with sweat. Perhaps the most surprising part was the seated dancing to a powerful drum-dominated song and just how much of a workout that can be. It was kinda fun too. We closed the day with a cook-out at Brian's house. There was a wide variety of good things to eat with lots of seafood (including milkfish and a big bushel of Perry's Matunuck oysters), Philippine food and a bit of decent wine and beer. Brian has a nice, comfortable place with gardens in the back yard. It was a nice way to conclude the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment