SSEA Annual Meeting & Volunteer Celebration held:
February 21st, 2012 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Olympia, WA
SSEA members, beach naturalists and guests in attendance honored those volunteers who have contributed exemplary service as 2011 SSEA volunteers as well as our outstanding volunteer of the year, Diana McCandless. Diana joined SSEA for our 2011 Beach Naturalist program. Her joyful enthusiasm shined while interacting with those visiting the beach. Diana also went above and beyond by volunteering at community outreach events, interacting with school groups at Burfoot County Park, and filming an introduction to a critter video for use on YouTube! In her free time Diana enjoys open water swimming in Puget Sound and getting to know the local aquatic life. In her professional life she is an Environmental Specialist at the Department of Ecology. She studies Coastal Erosion along Washington and Oregon coastlines. She does cartography (map-making) and programming (using Matlab) to analyze bathymetric datasets (underwater ocean surface).
Keynote address was presented by Jonathan Kochmer of Earth Economics. He provided lots of great material on valuing the protection of our natural world. He highlighted examples of the cost/benefit analyses of specific actions that impact Puget Sound, including stormwater, drinking-water protection and wetland protection. The mission of Earth Economics is to apply economic tools and principles to the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
Board Elections were also held. Bill Hayes, Diana Larsen-Mills and Vicky McCarley were elected to 3 year terms ( 2012 – 2014).
