If you’ve paid the tiniest bit of attention to what we’ve been up to for the past 2 1/2 years, you’ve probably noticed a few reoccurring themes–ongoing projects, organizational development & fundraising, of course. But there’s been one other big theme–ACCREDITATION. See way back in January of 2012, we embarked on a process known in the land trust world as “Assessing Your Organization” that assesses compliance with the Land Trust Alliance’s Standards & Practices. Accreditation wasn’t even on our radar at the time, this process was simply the precursor to a new strategic three year plan. At the end of our organizational assessment, one of the major outcomes was that we were in a good spot to apply for accreditation if we were so inclined. After some internal discussions, despite a large project load, we decided there was no time like the present & officially took the plunge.
The whole accreditation process got off to a bit of a rough start. We were ready to go at the appointed day & time, sitting in front of the computer prepared to snatch up one of 25 or so spots in the fall 2013 round, when the Accreditation Commission website crashed. Dead. No amount of hitting the refresh button could get it back. Fortunately thanks to a well timed phone call to the Accreditation Commission, we were able to snag one of the spots. Then the real work began. I’ll spare you the painful details of hours digging through files, copying, answering essay questions & compiling these masterpieces.
That’s right. Three identical binders (+ a fourth for our records) weighing nearly 16 pounds. That’s 106 printed documents plus three identical flash drives containing another 53 files.
Then we waited & in January 2014 finally had a conference call with the Accreditation Commission where they requested a few more follow up documents & we answered the questions that had arisen as they reviewed our application. And then we waited some more, until last Wednesday, when the call FINALLY came. Did we have an impromptu office party, take the afternoon off or somehow celebrate? Nope. After all those months of waiting, Breann was the only one in the office & got to answer the actual phone call. Charli was at the Lemhi County Fair wrangling her 4-H kids & got a text from Breann in the middle of the market lamb show, & Kristin? Well, she was in Canada at a training with no cell phone service. Oh, & then we had to keep it a secret from everyone except staff & board until the following Monday.
So what does being accredited mean to us (besides breathing a big sigh of relief & applying for renewal in five years)? It means that we are laying a solid foundation for our future projects. It means that we are ensuring that we can keep the promise to monitoring each property in perpetuity we make each time we sign a new conservation easement. It means that we’re in this for the long haul & are holding ourselves to the highest standards possible.
