Holiday Greetings from Vangie Lujan, MC Steering Committee Chair.
On behalf of the Micronesia Challenge Steering Committee, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and good cheer for 2014.
As 2013 comes to a close, there are a few accomplishments that are worth highlighting. First, all the jurisdictions completed their communications plans which resulted in a renewal of the communications working group. Good communication is such an important part of coordinating the MC and we are grateful to all the regional partners for their assistance. Secondly, after lengthy collaboration we completed the Micronesia Challenge Business Plan. This document is a testament to our ability to work together and express our ideas on how we can sustain the mission of the MC, and for this I am thankful to all our partners.
We also signed on several new interns to the Young Champions program this year, continuing our work of engaging the next generation of leaders in conservation throughout Micronesia. And the Challenge's reputation as a successful model for regional conservation continued to grow, with several of us presenting our stories in conferences from India to Poland, Georgia to New York, and Washington D.C to Fiji.
If there is a theme that can summarize our work in 2013, it is that we were able to personalize the Micronesia Challenge in each of our islands, and ask ourselves what this initiative really means to us individually, for our islands, and for our region. To me this proves a notion that we know is true, but rarely get to see on a large scale: That the success of the Challenge truly lies in each of us. This past year showed us that the more every one of us invested in understanding what the Micronesia Challenge meant to each of us personally, the more it grew. We look forward to this kind of success in 2014.
To read Vol. 25 of the Newsletter in its entirety, click here.