Communicating Shared Values Is the Key to Growing IECA

When I was asked to write some words for this Director’s Message, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share some of my thoughts on one of the Iberoamerican Chapter’s main priorities, a priority also shared by the entire IECA Board of Directors. This priority deals with growing our association by encouraging more people to join.

As you may know, the Iberoamerican Chapter incorporates many different countries, each with very different cultures and possibilities.* But we all have in common that we experience many erosion and sediment control problems, some of which exist on a very large scale. We truly appreciate the enormous value that IECA brings by being able to access professionals who have solutions to diverse erosion and sediment control issues all around the world.

What IECA Offers
In addition to connections, what does IECA have to offer our Iberoamerican people in order to get them interested in our association? Well, let me share with you some ideas that we discussed during one of our Board of Directors meetings recently. These ideas apply not only to growing IECA in the Iberoamerican region, but also to increasing membership in the entire organization.

People easily can know what we do. I think we define what we do well and in various ways-basically, we are trying to save our environment. And people also can know how we do what we do. We help to save the environment by offering viable cutting-edge educational solutions, a wide specialized network of professionals, easy access to information about many different erosion and sediment control projects, and a wealth of information on our website.

Common Beliefs, Iberoamerican Efforts
But the actual reason people will support our organization is because they believe in what we believe. So people need to know why we do what we do. This seems to be a very simple concept, but communicating common values can be a difficult task, and it’s one that I believe will move IECA forward.

Another way the Iberoamerican Chapter is trying to attract members is by offering the Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) course in Spanish. This accomplishment was a result of an enormous effort we made to provide translations for the CPESC course content, and we were able to take the first Spanish release of the course at Environmental Connection 2013 in San Diego this past February. I want to say thank you to the many people of our chapter that made this achievement possible.

We also are trying to develop some alternatives to provide membership into our chapter to people of our region who would be valuable members but who may not be able to afford to join. Another challenging initiative we are working on is the creation of a new scientific and electronic magazine with a prestigious group of professionals who will serve as editors.

Communicating Values
While I am very proud of the above actions we have taken to attract more people to the Iberoamerican Chapter, I still am deeply convinced that the only way to move forward substantially is to be clear and efficient in transmitting our message of “why we do the things we do.” We will make our best effort with this task.

Thanks a lot for all of your continued support as valued IECA members.

* Note: The Iberoamerican Chapter of IECA is in Region One and represents the following geographic region: South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela); Central America and Spanish Caribbean (Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama); and Europe (Portugal and Spain).