OCCA Names New Executive Director

Following an extensive nationwide search, the Otsego County Conservation Association has announced that Darla M. Youngs is the organization’s new executive director.

Youngs has served at the OCCA helm as acting executive director since July 1, when former director Erik Miller left for a position with the Southern Tier East Regional Planning Development Board. Her promotion was made official in December.

“The Search Committee conducted a very deliberate and thorough search, and we are confident that we have the best person for the job,” said OCCA Board President Vicky M. Lentz. “Darla’s intimate knowledge of the organization and her extensive supervisory and managerial experience put her at the top of the list. We’re fortunate to have had the perfect candidate so close at hand.

“An added bonus is that the transition was seamless – we haven’t missed a beat,” Lentz said.

OCCA’s administrative director since October of 2008, Youngs originally focused primarily on bookkeeping, organizational and administrative oversight, fundraising, event planning, and newsletter design. Over time her responsibilities expanded to all program areas.

Since late 2009, Youngs has been responsible for public relations generated on behalf of OCCA, including press releases, eco-bulletins and “The Lookout,” OCCA’s quarterly newsletter. She has been a member of the Executive Board of the Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee since 2007 and a member of the Earth Festival and Otsego Lakes Festival steering committees since 2006. For the past two years, Youngs has overseen OCCA’s annual “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” Garage Sale as well as the Annual Meeting and Dinner.

Programmatically, Youngs has been increasingly hands-on in all respects, from water chestnut eradication on Goodyear Lake and trail clean-up at Basswood Pond State Forest to the Circuit Rider Planner Program and preliminary environmental reviews for Otsego Rural Housing Assistance. She has organized OCCA’s popular nature walk series for the past two seasons, and was instrumental in reviving both the OCCA-sponsored DEC campership program and the Natural Resources Survey mapping initiative. Fund-raising appeals, grant writing and website/social media development have also been among her focus areas.

After earning her associate's degree in journalism from Morrisville State College, where she graduated first in her class, Youngs relocated to Long Island to begin her journalism career. Over the next 10 years, her on-the-job training – which she terms “invaluable” – led her to positions as managing editor and editorial design director of two prominent weekly newspaper chains.

In 1994, Youngs left her post as head of the production division of Richner Publications, where she directed a staff of 30-plus, to return to central New York so that she could raise her two sons closer to home, where they could enjoy farmland, rolling hills and forests as they grew up, as she had. At that time, she became production director of "The Freeman's Journal," the third oldest weekly newspaper in the nation. She continued with the Journal through a change of ownership, and was promoted to general manager by Otsego Templeton Publishing Co., Inc., then the parent company. She held that position from 2001-2006.

In 2006, Youngs left the paper to pursue a career that would allow her to spend more time with her family. She was hired by Otsego 2000, another local environmental nonprofit organization. In 2007, she was promoted to associate director there. While at Otsego 2000, Youngs administered the Cooperstown Farmers' Market among other duties.

“Darla is a natural, strong leader. Her ability to efficiently and effectively carry out administrative duties is a huge asset. Since leadership and efficiency are crucial to OCCA’s success, these assets weighed heavily in her favor,” Lentz said.

Youngs said she looks forward to her new role at OCCA.

“I have been very fortunate in that I had the opportunity to train under Martha Frey and Erik Miller, two of Otsego County’s most successful environmental non-profit leaders. I intend to put what they taught me to good use,” Youngs said.

“The next step will be to complete our team. Rima Shamieh, OCCA’s new environmental planner, came on board last month and I’m currently interviewing to fill a newly-created program director position which will allow us to increase our programming in water and air quality, land protection, and livable communities, and will complement Martha Clarvoe’s work as special projects manager.

“This is an exciting time for us,” added Youngs.

Youngs grew up in Pine Woods and graduated from Morrisville-Eaton Central School. She is an award-winning graphic designer and sole proprietor of DM Youngs Design. She and her two sons – Morrison and John Darcy – live in Hartwick.

OCCA is a private, non-profit environmental membership organization dedicated to promoting the appreciation and sustainable use of Otsego County's natural resources through education, advocacy, resource management, research, and planning. For more information on OCCA, or to support programming, call (607) 547-4488 or visit www.occainfo.org.

Free Training Opportunity for Your Nonprofit!

Let's face it, we are all in sales, whether we are offering a service or trying to raise money for our missions. During these challenging times, we all could use some help improving our "sales" approach and techniques. Here's our opportunity! This special training is being offered for free to the Leatherstocking AEA participants by Vibrant Creative, a NY Council of Nonprofits partner. We hope to see you there!


SALES TRAINING
WITH FRED ASHFORTH
* HANDLING THE WORD "NO"
* MAKING A LASTING IMPRESSION
* INCREASING SALES
* BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS


P R E S E N T E D B Y
VIBRANT CREATIVE

WHEN :: Thursday, February 9, 2012 9am-12pm with lunch included 12pm-1pm
WHERE :: Holiday Inn * Oneonta, NY
RSVP :: by January 27 to chris@vibrantcompany.com
COST :: Totally free.

Rural Giving Tied to Economic Development

Article of interest for our region:
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Born and raised in rural Jones County, one of North Carolina's poorest counties, Chris Meadows opted after college to stay rather than join the exodus of young adults moving out of the county.

Now, as principal of Jones Senior High School in Trenton, Meadows wants to inspire other young people to remain, and give them tools to succeed.

In a collaborative initiative that includes the N.C. Rural Center, the Jones County affiliate of the North Carolina Community Foundation is working to raise $10,000 to create an endowment fund to support an entrepreneurship program at the high school.

"If we get our kids to come back and start a business and be successful, they will start a cycle of transferring wealth from one generation to the next and keep the wealth here instead of going out of state or out of the county," Meadows says.

The Jones County initiative is part of a larger effort by the Rural Center and the North Carolina Community Foundation, and their counterparts in states throughout the U.S., to reverse the flow of wealth and residents from rural counties.

"Throughout rural America, kids are leaving because there aren't jobs," says Jason Gray, director of research and innovation at the Rural Center. "Homegrown philanthropy can and should be a resource to plug into targeted community economic-development work that makes these communities a place where their children can stay."

Over the last two decades, while the statewide population under age 18 grew 22 percent and the population age 24 to 30 grew 5 percent, 22 rural counties lost population under age 18, and 54 rural counties lost those age 24 to 30, including 15 counties that lost over 20 percent of that age group.

In Jones County, for example, the number of residents age 24 to 30 fell by 232 from 1990 to 2010, or 23.4 percent.

The Jones County initiative has the goals of inspiring students to launch local businesses, and inspiring donors to invest in endowment funds to boost the local economy while retaining philanthropic assets in the community.

Beth Boney Jenkins, vice president for development at the North Carolina Community Foundation, says a local couple has pledged to give $1,000 to create the new Jones County fund if the foundation's local affiliate can raise $10,000.

"Rural development philanthropy," she says, involves "bringing people in rural communities together to teach them how to use philanthropy to raise local dollars to address their own needs."

Sally Migliore, director of community leadership at the North Carolina Community Foundation, says the Jones County initiative can serve as a model for other rural counties, each of which can identify and address its own needs, "inspiring and promoting philanthropy over the long haul" to address local needs.

Gray says the Jones County initiative is part of a larger effort by the Rural Center to help rural communities retain and support youth and young adults.

Meadows says a key goal of the entrepreneurial fund will be to "showcase the potential" of staying and working in the county.

"That's one of our biggest challenges," he says. "We just have to show kids there's a lot we can do in Jones County if we decide to stay here."

State of the City: Budget Focus for 2012 Will Impact Nonprofits

Mayor Dick Miller had a stark message in his State of the City address delivered Tuesday night that mentioned possible layoffs for city workers and targeting nonprofits to raise revenue. A summary article in The Daily Star is available here.

The full State of the City speech is available here.

Here is the section of the speech addressing nonprofits:
The Council won’t have many options. It will either have to reduce essential services with related layoffs, or generate additional revenue either through cooperative efforts with the City’s not-for-profit entities or consolidation with the Town and sales tax preemption. There are other ideas: a commuter tax, renegotiation of the City share of County sales tax revenue, or a sales tax increase. These are unpopular concepts, but I would not be acting responsibly if I did not call attention to problems that won’t simply go away, or to potential solutions that must be considered in order to deal with them. With a property tax cap in place, and fees adjusted to rates in comparable communities, the City has virtually no options to generate revenue that don’t involve the cooperation of other entities from the New York State and County legislatures to the local not-for-profit community. We have pushed out the day of reckoning, but it will be upon us nonetheless. The City will face tough choices. Those who care about its condition will have to decide how important it is to them to maintain services in public works, fire, and police at current levels. Our situation is a difficult one, but it is straightforward.

CADE To Undertake Organizational Review

The Center for Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Development (CADE) today announced that it will begin a review of its organizational structure and needs, following the resignation of its Executive Director, Chris Harmon, and expects to initiate a search for a new Executive Director in the second quarter of 2012. Harmon, resigned his position effective December 2, 2011 to pursue other interests. The resignation was accepted on behalf of CADE by Sarah Manchester, Chair of the Board of Directors.

“CADE has been fortunate to have Chris as it’s Executive Director. He has been enormously important to the success CADE has had in helping to build agricultural infrastructure in New York State,” Manchester commented “We will miss Chris but we wish him well and we are confident that CADE will continue to be a strong force for agriculture in New York State.”

“We will seek a new Executive Director but we are not going to rush into it,” added Manchester. “Instead, we will use this as an opportunity to assess our future organizational needs while we continue to serve existing and new clients with current staff and consultants.”

During Chris’ tenure, CADE has, among other projects, worked successfully to increase livestock processing capacity in New York State, as evidenced, for example, by the construction of a new USDA slaughterhouse in Hartwick and expansion of production capacity at other NY slaughterhouses. CADE has also partnered with New York farmers to increase farmer profitability, such as by developing new product lines and opening new markets. CADE’s programs emphasize practices that are environmentally sound and that promote local economic development.

CADE will continue operations as usual during the organizational review. Inquiries can be directed to Nicole E. Day, Director of Programming & Communications (telephone: (607) 433-2545; (607) 434-2924 email: nicole@cadefarms.org).

CADE, the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship is a non-profit organization established in 1991 with a mission to increase the number and diversity of successful farm enterprises and related businesses in New York. CADE connects producers of farm products to markets by providing professional, individualized and confidential business and marketing consulting to agricultural entrepreneurs. CADE works to build a vibrant local food system, in which locally owned agricultural businesses thrive and consumers are nourished by healthy sustainably produced food. With a knowledgeable staff supplemented by consultants experienced in production, business development, marketing and distribution, CADE is a catalyst for strengthening multiple sectors of regional food systems.


25 Elm Street, PO Box 641, Oneonta, New York 13820
Tel: (607) 433-2545 Email: info@cadefarms.org
Website: www.cadefarms.org
Twitter: CADEFarms

'Dismal' prospects: 1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."

•Study: 1 in 5 American children lives in poverty
Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

With nearly 14 million Americans unemployed, a new child welfare study finds one in five children are living in poverty. Nearly one in three live in homes where no parent works full-time year-round. NBC's Chris Jansing reports.
"There's no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen," Rector said. "As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work."

advertisementadvertisement
Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold — roughly $45,000 for a family of four — because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income.

States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.

The struggling Americans include Zenobia Bechtol, 18, in Austin, Texas, who earns minimum wage as a part-time pizza delivery driver. Bechtol and her 7-month-old baby were recently evicted from their bedbug-infested apartment after her boyfriend, an electrician, lost his job in the sluggish economy.

After an 18-month job search, Bechtol's boyfriend now works as a waiter and the family of three is temporarily living with her mother.

"We're paying my mom $200 a month for rent, and after diapers and formula and gas for work, we barely have enough money to spend," said Bechtol, a high school graduate who wants to go to college. "If it weren't for food stamps and other government money for families who need help, we wouldn't have been able to survive."

About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

Read more here.

Charting a Decade of Online Donations

Charting a Decade of Online Donations
November 23, 2011, 11:04 am
By Cody Switzer
Only 4 percent of donors had given online in 2001. This year, about 65 percent have given to charity through the Internet.

That’s one of the comparisons made in a new graphic from Network for Good, a fund-raising and volunteerism Web site that celebrates its 10th anniversary this month.

In 2001, the average donation through the site was $226. But this year the average gift is $73, a change that Network for Good interprets as a sign that online giving has “gone mainstream.”

Here’s the full graphic: