Your Authentic Artic Experience

I’m up in Churchill working with George and the team in the garage getting ready for a busy summer.

For those who have ever been blessed with the opportunity to drive Small Van and over the last year cursed the brakes, well it turns out your curses fell on deaf ears because, as Reg showed me when he was performing maintenance, Small Van has no brakes.

Hmph. So we’re fixing that.

The sight of this machine brought a look of pure joy to my face! A new heated-water, mobile pressure washed!!!

During May 15th and 16th John participated in a Polar Bears International Media and Marketing team meeting. To take advantage of where team members were from and to keep the group’s amount of air travel as low as possible, we met in Los Angeles, staying in Santa Monica.

The goal of the meeting was to introduce to each other newer PBI volunteers on this team, bring everyone up to speed with the state of current PR and media initiatives and plan how, over the next twelve months we can leverage media exposure for PBI from planned projects and initiatives like Leadership Camp and PBI’s In-Field Ambassadors.

I’d say the meeting was very successful. New to PBI on this team are Ashley Hart, an internet marketing specialist and Shari Burnett a public relations professional, both bringing with them successful experience in their respective fields. Also in attendance were Raul Leckie, Barbara Nielsen, Rachel Paap, Patrick Wallace, Krista Wright, Kathy Meyers, BJ Kirschhoffer, and via Skype video chat Dan Cox.

Meeting highlights:
• The branding of PBI educational outreach conducted from Buggy One to PBI Tundra Connections. I love it! The goal is that this new moniker will appeal to both educational and corporate audiences (steering clear of terms like classroom and conference).

• A plan was developed to attract corporate sponsorship for select PBI initiatives like Project Polar Bear and PBI Leadership Camps.

• Goal was set to select a member of PBI’s Scientific Advisory Council to act as a spokesperson for the organization at International Union Conservation of Nature – Polar Bear Specialist Group meetings and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change meetings.

Raúl and John enjoying a Moosehead beer in California:

John and the PBI Media Marketing team dining at The Huntley Penthouse. Tres fancy.

Thank you Rachel Paap for moving the meetings from the LAX Sheraton to Santa Monica!!!