Value

I attended a meeting of the staff and board of the Maine Conservation School last evening. We had an interesting discussion of what changes the staff sees as needed at the school. One of the issues we discussed was fees and how to hold them down to make the program affordable for as many Maine kids as possible. A part of the discussion that we did not have was what value the school is delivering to the kids and are they getting a good return on their investment of time and money. I believe that they are but it got me to wondering about why conservation and conservation education specifically are not concerned about delivering value.

Earlier that afternoon I had been to look at a new (used) vehicle and was amazed that the prices were higher than we had paid for our first house. What amazed me the most was that we looked at those prices and soon became used to them. In the end we purchased a 2004 model for $5,000 more than we paid for our first house. Of course it has most of the latest innovations and I am certain will last us for ten years or more. We traded one with 205,000 miles that we bought to take our trip across the country in 1998 also used at the time. The perception of value is there; vehicles last longer than they did when I was a kid and are safer. Not to mention easier to drive, both of my sons drive 1987 models and wow what a difference fifteen years made.

So how do we make the value statement for conservation education. Put simply when you know what we have to teach you, how will your life be improved. In addition how are we doing that better than we did ten years ago to deliver a better value for the investment?

Conservation in this country has been funded largely by hunters and anglers for the last 100 years and they thought that they got a good value in the past, but now their numbers are diminishing and a new customer must be developed. What value can conservation deliver that these new customers are willing to pay for?

In a comment to a post last month an individual stated that the conservation community had been trying to figure out how to get the wildlife watching public to help fund conservation for thirty years with no success. Clearly we need to deliver something that customers are willing to pay for and we have not yet found that something.