Executive Director.

TCSF is seeking a part-time ED for day to day management, grant writing and fundraising, plus an administrative assistant. Suggestions are welcome.

Annual Review and Strategic Direction.

The comprehensive review includes progress towards the 1995/96 Action Plan and a draft 1996/97 Action Plan. A draft is at: http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/96action.html.

Program for Building Information and Technology Capacity.

The NTIA grant program is well underway with substantial progress. Over 70 organizations have been surveyed, and the results form a baseline of electronic communications capability and geographical information system (GIS) needs and functions in the region. For the 25 participating organizations, 15 home pages have been created to date (the Tahoe Basin Wide Area Network (TABWAN) is located at: http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/tbwan.html). It is also accessible from the TCSF home page, which continues to expand. Over 200 people have been trained to date. The grant will run through September, 1997. With the addition of the Tahoe Truckee Regional Economic Coalition, California Resources Agency (CERES Program), and Tahoe Truckee Community Network, there are now 13 partners in TCSF's InfoTech Program. TCSF has joined with Bob Twiss and U.C. Berkeley to prepare a proposal for a feasibility study to evaluate how to integrate the various GIS systems in the Tahoe region into a regional GIS. TCSF participated in a national workshop organized by Communities of the Future on how information technologies can aid community transformation towards sustainability. At the day's end, the 15 participants agreed to explore how to collaborate. Blacksburg Electronic Village, Charlotte's Web and TCSF also agreed to explore how to expand InfoTech and electronic communications beyond current applications.

Sustainability Curriculum Program.

TCSF and its partners, Sierra Nevada College (SNC), and the University Extension, University of California at Davis (UNEX), have built a broad program engaging students in real-life problem solving to address environmental and economic/human well-being issues. The program expands environmental education support to include sustainability, augments existing curriculum with Tahoe-specific features, promotes thematic and dialogue-based teaching methods, incorporates a diversity of student cultural backgrounds, and improves the science and social science knowledge of environmental education teachers. Its three primary components are teacher education, support for classroom projects, and training and support for community leaders to interact with classrooms. We have held two teacher preparation workshops, two workshops for community leaders, and are currently supporting 8 projects throughout the region which involve over 900 students. During the next several years, two additional components will be added and strengthened: use of telecommunications and advanced computer technologies by students and their teachers, and outreach beyond the Tahoe region to other educators interested in sustainability.

Collaboration with Cape Cod:

Like Tahoe, Cape Cod has a tourist-based economy and a fragile, threatened environment. Public-private partnerships in each region are providing an emerging foundation for efforts toward sustainability. A Memorandum of Understanding between organizations in the two regions is now being finalized to use information technologies and allow each to benefit from the experiences of the other. More will follow in the future.

New Board Members:

Please let us know if you can receive this electronically by contacting Joseph Kruth at 702-588-2342 or 70740.3231@compuserve.com