Where we stand today — and where we are going from here!

It’s now been a few months since we launched Nature First. The reception has been fantastic, and many photographers seem to have the same sense as us that we need to do our part to help preserve and protect our natural lands. 

WE ARE BRINGING ON DEDICATED PEOPLE.

During these months, the Nature First working group has been trying to plan the way forward. The biggest challenge has been trying to find time to take the movement forward while we try to manage full-time jobs and family responsibilities. We’ve come to realize that for this movement to be successful, we need dedicated people with time to invest. 

Recently, Lars Gesing, from Hamburg, Germany, now resident of Denver, Colorado, has been a great help, volunteering to serve as our communications director. He’s now handling a lot of the day to day email communication as well as the social networking aspects of Nature First. 

WE ARE TAKING STEPS TO TURN NATURE FIRST INTO A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION.

Behind the scenes, we’re realizing that to grow this movement we need to legally register as a non-profit organization and have been researching how to do this so that we can conform to local laws but also have international representation in the organization. Once the organization is registered we will be able to raise funds to hire personnel to help make this an even more viable and active international movement. We hope to have this done at some point this summer. 

WE ARE WORKING ON ESTABLISHING PARTNERSHIPS — THE RIGHT WAY.

We’ve also been discussing what it means for organizations and businesses to become partners with Nature First. At the start we began this idea of partnership before we had fully thought it through. We have numerous organizations and businesses wanting to join with us which is quite exciting but how we will officially partner with a small non-profit, with a government agency, with a large corporation or a small business are completely different. We therefore have been working to find the best structure for these partnerships and to define expectations and benefits of becoming a partner. Much of this will be solidified after we officially register the organization.

While on the surface there may not seem to be much happening, this organization is slowly solidifying and preparing to be an entity which can help the photo community become ambassadors for our natural world, reclaiming our historical role as ones who encourage the protection and preservation of our wild and natural lands.