The Alliance Insider

In this Issue: CAZCA Leadership, Progress & Updates, All Partners Meeting

Dear partners & friends:   For the last few of months, we have been working to strengthen our organization. We write today with good news and future plans. Steering Committee Leadership What started as the Regional Open Space Strategy (ROSS) Steering Committee has now become the CAZCA Steering Committee. With this shift comes the need for new voices, big ideas and critical thinking as we dive into CAZCA's next chapter. Over the past few months, we have been working to find new colleagues who can bring skills to the table, and as part of this effort, we are thrilled to welcome John Sefton, Jr. and Amanda Smith. John Sefton, Jr. is the Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities Director at City of Peoria and is a visionary leader in the field of community and leisure services with more than 20 years experience. Amanda Smith works on regional planning and collaboration in Arizona with Sonoran Institute, and has a background in urban planning and ecology. Over the course of the next year, we will continue to invite other members and the community to form part of this team. We are confident this committee will bring the vision and leadership to make CAZCA a truly vibrant and sustainable organization.

Progress & Updates

Announcing the CAZCA Charter This year, the CAZCA Steering Committee has worked to create and formalize a charter to help guide and give structure to our organization as we continue to implement the ROSS. This document defines the ongoing leadership of CAZCA and begin the process of creating procedures to streamline our collaborations. The charter will be available to all our partners in the next newsletter.   New Website! Over the summer we have been working on renovating and improving the current CAZCA website. The new site will have improved mobile compatibility, improved navigation, more sophisticated aesthetics and streamlined accessibility to important CAZCA products. We are very excited to report the site will go live in early September!   Greenprint Developments We have been working with the Trust for Public Land (TPL), Sonoran Institute and The Nature Conservancy to improve the CAZCA Greenprint. A recent update added several new features: Analysis results layer for mitigating heat with newly added heat vulnerability and heat island context layers Scenario Tool to give each user the ability to create their own analyses using the several existing layers giving each their own priority Urban Parks and Park Need layer created from TPL data with added ability to create park projects in the tool and analyze their potential impact We will explore the new features during our next All Partners meeting (announcement below). Want to start using these new features now? Take a look at the Greenprint !   ROSS Implementation The ROSS continues to guide us. This comprehensive plan, put together with your invaluable contributions during the planning process, continues to guide the majority, if not all, the actions and projects we plan for and seek to implement. We look forward to sharing our progress and strategizing with you at the next All Partners meeting on Feb. 27, 2020.   We are working closer than ever before with our Steering Committee partners to develop and grow projects aligning with the ROSS. We want to thank Maricopa County Parks and Recreation, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and Sonoran Institute for their continued support and hard work.

We also want to thank the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust for their continued support during these last 6 years.

Conservation Celebration Luncheon Join us on Nov. 21, 2019 for the Conservation Celebration luncheon benefiting CAZCA! This year’s theme is Explore Nature Through Sound , as we immerse ourselves in the topic of acoustic ecology. We are honored to have Dr. Bernie Krause as our keynote speaker, a visionary and innovator in the field of soundscapes and acoustics. During the event, Desert Botanical Garden will present the 2019 Excellence in Conservation Award, given to an individual or organization showing vision and leadership in biodiversity conservation . This year’s nominees are: Maxine Larkin, Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council Dr. Kimberlie McCue, Desert Botanical Garden Kelsey McKeighan, Arizona Sustainability Alliance McDowell Sonoran Conservancy

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What's Next?

As we continue to move forward, we are excited to invite you to Save the Date for our next All Partners Meeting!

We’ll have a full agenda and are looking forward to exploring the new features of the Greenprint, participating in a brief workshop for implementation and of course, seeing you and enjoying lunch! We will give an update on the location in one of our next newsletters. Thank you for your support of and participation in the CAZCA. The community of this organization has been and will continue to be its strength.   Sincerely, Aireona Bonnie Raschke, CAZCA Program Director & the CAZCA Steering Committee RJ Cardin, Director of Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Department Kim McCue, Director or Research, Conservation, Collections at Desert Botanical Garden Helen Rowe, Director of the Parsons Field Institute at McDowell Sonoran Conservancy John Sefton Jr, City of Peoria, Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities Director Amanda Smith, Program Associate at Sonoran Institute

If you have any questions as we embark on this new phase, please contact Annia Quiroz at aquiroz@dbg.org .

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