ACTION PLANNINGFOR COMMUNITY LANDCARE

COMMUNITY LANDCARE ACTION PLANNINGAcross Tasmania there are over 300 community ‘care’ groups including Landcare, Bushcare, Coastcare, Rivercare, and ‘Friends of’ groups - plus hundreds of individual landowners improving their local patch.

Every week volunteers are pulling weeds on beaches, planting native vegetation on riverbanks, fencing threatened plant communities and rehabilitating urban bushland. The projects undertaken are vast and varied!

Whether you’re a community care group or a landowner, planning is essential to deliver successful on-ground activities.

Good planning will:

▪ help organise your time;

▪ prioritise projects;

▪ set realistic goals;

▪ establish roles and distribute tasks to reduce burnout;

▪ make better use of time available;

▪ sequence tasks;

▪ enable projects to continue when people involved change;

▪ improve competitiveness when applying for project funding;

▪ assist with the monitoring and reporting of activities;

▪ help track progress and achievements;

▪ provide a better understanding of your work within the bigger Natural Resource Management (NRM) picture; and

▪ maximise project success.

The process of putting an action plan together should be inclusive, inviting those involved to contribute their ideas. Prioritising the goals and developing the activities schedule should be a collective decision made by the whole group, so everyone has ownership of the plan.

A good action plan is straight forward, easy-to use and frequently referenced. It should be flexible and easily adjusted as circumstances change.

This planning resource provides a clear framework for community action planning. It has evolved over almost a decade to help community care groups plan their work. The same approach can be used by landowners planning landcare projects.

Landcare Tasmania thanks the many groups, individuals, local councils and NRM regions who have contributed to the ongoing development of this resource.

We hope you find this updated version useful.

PREPARING FOR ACTION PLANNINGThe planning process is generally a workshop session taking approximately 2.5-3 hours. Decide on a time, date and venue and avoid combining it with other meetings or events.

To develop an action plan, groups may run their own process using this guide and the worksheets in the Facilitator’s Guide or have a facilitated meeting. There are many advantages in having an independent person run the session as they provide a different perspective and can keep the workshop on track. (Contact Landcare Tasmania or your regional NRM office for more information on a facilitated planning session.)

Consider who should be involved in the session. Invite members of your care group, or as a landowner, your family and neighbours. It is also worth involving other organisations (eg Parks and Wildlife Service, local council and regional NRM regional staff) and ensure everyone is given plenty of notice.

Prepare background material for the workshop including:

▪ group history;

▪ list of activities accomplished;

▪ relevant maps; and

▪ lessons learned through previous work.

Look at relevant plans and documents for your area including the local site plan (if one exists), Tasmanian Coastal Works Manual, Rivercare and Catchment Natural Resource Management (NRM) plans and regional NRM strategies. Landowners should also look at relevant plans, particularly their local Property Management Plan (PMP) and management agreements that may be in place.

The following provides the framework for action planning and should be available at the workshop (either on paper or electronically):

▪ ‘Action Planning for Community Landcare’ (this guide);

▪ Facilitator’s Notes;

▪ Step 1 - ‘Annual Volunteer Time Estimate’ table;

▪ Step 2 and 3 - ‘List Landcare Ambitions and Decide Priority Goals’ worksheet;

▪ Step 4 – ‘Priority Goals – Go to Whoa’ worksheet;

▪ Step 5 – ‘The Grand Plan’ calendar; and

▪ ‘Worthwhile?’ Planning Session Evaluation Form.

Depending on your venue, you may need a powerpoint project, screen, whiteboard or butchers paper, (see Facilitator’s Notes for more information).

Organise refreshments too. Care groups may be able to find sponsors to cover these costs.

Have printed maps and satellite images available to sketch on during the planning workshop. See www.thelist.tas.gov.au and www.google.com/earth/index.html for your local site.

TAKING STOCKThink about your current situation. Is your group newly forming? Perhaps your group is large and well established, but ready to review its direction for the future. Do you want to improve the overall volunteering experience of your group? Maybe even grow your group’s capacity to take on larger works and expand your access to funding opportunities for projects?

For land owners, where are you up to? Do you have a PMP or other site plan already? Are you familiar with the natural values on your patch – or on neighbouring properties? Have you started some landcare work which will need follow-up and maintenance in the future?

Define a time period. This may be one, two or three years. It’s up to you! One year may be a more manageable timeframe. If you are more established in your work, and you have longer-term challenges to consider, three years may be more appropriate. What would you like to achieve during this time?

Two weeks prior to your workshop, send this planning guide along with STEP 2&3 worksheet to all group members or people who will be involved setting the goals. Those who cannot attend can forward their feedback so everyone has the opportunity to contribute.

5 STEPS TO ACTION PLANNING

STEP 1: ANNUAL VOLUNTEER TIME ESTIMATE This calculation will highlight how much time you have to contribute to landcare projects. It will act as a guide for the year ahead. On the table you will record:

▪ The number of meetings, working bees, events, etc., anticipated in the next 12 month period

▪ The number of hours for each activity (eg. 3 hours per working bee)

▪ The number of people attending (e.g. 5 people)

▪ Multiply these numbers (e.g. 12x3x5=180hrs/yr) for the Annual Volunteer Time Estimate

STEP 2: LIST LANDCARE AMBITIONS ▪ Confirm the period for which you are planning eg one, two or three years.

▪ List what you’d like to achieve in this period, these may be on-ground, administrative or com-munity related and do not need to be in any particular order.

▪ Include ambitions submitted beforehand by members not attending the workshop.

▪ Group the goals and activities that might overlap or link together.

STEP 3: DECIDE PRIORITY GOALS ▪ Give each person an equal number of sticky dots (eg four) to place next to their priority

ambitions in the ‘You’ column. (If working by powerpoint, people will need to nominate their preferences to be tallied and totalled onscreen. All ‘votes’ can be assigned to one goal or allo-cated to various goals.)

▪ Consider broader NRM priorities and place dots in the ‘Fit in the big picture’ column for ambitions that align with regional and local strategic plans. (These should be allocated by the facilitator while drawing on the knowledge in the group.)

▪ Consider current funding programs and place dots in the ‘Funding’ column for ambitions that align with funding priorities. (These should be allocated by the facilitator while drawing on the knowledge in the group.)

▪ Tally the dots to form a priority ranking in the fourth column.

▪ Gain agreement from the group that these will be used for the planning session (depending on the timeframe decided ie 1-3 years, confirm the number of achievable goals).

▪ Transfer the priority goal choices and their ranking to the priority goal worksheets (eg priority 1-4) in preparation for STEP 4.

STEP 4: PRIORITY GOALS – GO TO WHOA ▪ Depending on the size of the group and the number of goals, you may break into smaller

groups (eg one for each goal). Assign a timekeeper and person to write for the group.

▪ Move smaller groups around to ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute to every goal and each work-sheet is as detailed as possible.

▪ Fill in the table, working from left to right, completing all sections eg Activi-ties required to achieve the goal. Who will do it? What help or resources are needed? What are the costs and/or fund-ing options? How will you know when you have succeeded?

▪ Remember to include permits and approvals that may be required for vari-ous activities.

▪ Number the activities in sequence.

▪ Transfer the activities sequence num-bers to the timeline at the bottom of the table (include the priority number and the sequence number (eg 1:1, 1:2, 1:3)).

▪ Groups working over a timeframe longer than one year will need to develop consecutive years on the calendar to accommodate longer timeframes.

▪ Fill in the details on how you will know that you have succeeded as this will help measure progress in the future.

The group may decide that the goals with the most dots are not the priorities after all! The final decision is yours – you will be doing the work!

During the action planning workshop, you may only have time to focus on four or five goals but your group can prioritise and complete as many Go to Whoa worksheets as you like after the session. With additional planning up your sleeve, your group can adapt more quickly should a change in circumstances affect the progress of any particular goal. But before starting more work, re-visit your annual Volunteer Time Estimate. Don’t take on too much – burnout can be an issue!

STEP 5: THE GRAND PLAN ▪ Reassemble as one group.

▪ Transcribe all the goals and activities onto The Grand Plan calendar. Are there gaps? Over-loads?

▪ Consider your original Volunteer Time Estimate. Are your activities realistic for the time avail-able?

▪ Multi-year projects will need multiple pages with one page per year.

▪ Discuss and shift activities as necessary.

▪ Gain agreement from the group and review your final plan.

USING AND MAINTAINING YOUR PLANDistribute the plan to all group members and other interested parties (please send a copy to Landcare Tasmania too).

Mention your plan when applying for grant funding and include it as a support reference. Take your plan to meetings and working bees, and use it to track progress.

Your plan should be a flexible, working document. If you need to amend goals or actions, get together as a group and make adjustments. Send the changes to your key contacts.

During the period of your action plan, keep track of your progress against the goals. Take notes about what worked and what didn’t. Did everything go to plan? Were time frames realistic? Were there any surprises along the way? What would you do differently next time? These lessons will improve your planning in the future.

Don’t forget to book a time to update your plan at the end of your agreed timeframe eg after one, two or three years.

…And remember to celebrate the work you’ve achieved too.

Happy landcaring!

WORTHWHILE?Please complete the Planning Session Evaluation Form and return to Landcare Tasmania. Your feedback will help us improve the planning support available to the landcare community.

Landcare Tasmania PO Box 21, South Hobart, TAS 7004

p: 03 6234 7117 f: 03 6234 7127 e: info@taslandcare.org.au

Produced by Landcare Tasmania With funding from the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country initiative