Joining the Network

If you’ve gotten this deep into National NEMOdom, it’s safe to assume that you are either preparing to get started with your NEMO adaptation, or very thoroughly checking this whole NEMO thing out (or just possibly, a web junky with a lot of time on your hands). More than likely, you’ve talked to NEMO program team members, and/or participated in a NEMO workshop.

If that’s the case, you know that we have formed a National Network of programs adapted from NEMO. Many of your colleagues have asked what exactly that means, and what are the requirements, conditions and caveats involved with participating in the National NEMO Network. The answer is: “darn few.” However, those few items are important, so they bear some explanation. So here it is.

How Does a Program Become a Member?

At NEMO U2, the Network conference held in January 2002, member programs agreed on the vehicle of a Network Charter, which programs sign to become part of the Network. The Charter has two main purposes. First, it sets forth several key shared philosophical and operating principles for Network programs. These include:

a non-regulatory, research-based educational approach;
a primary target audience of local land use decision makers;
a focus on natural resource-based land use planning and design; and,
the use of landscape research and mapping technologies to help community leaders visualize their current and future landscapes.

Second, it describes the responsibility that Network programs have to fellow members, and to the Hub. The emphasis is on the free exchange of ideas and materials, helping to ensure that the Network reaches its goal of becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

For the benefit of the Network, there’s a need to distinguish between:

officially sanctioned, licensed, card-carrying Network member programs;
folks and organizations who are making use of NEMO educational materials here and there, but not in an organized, programmatic way, and;
folks and organizations that are, either knowingly or unknowingly, ripping us off.

The Network Policy Statement was drafted with these distinctions in mind.