In alignment with our core belief in equity and inclusion in the environmental education field, the EENC team is always striving to build a membership base that accurately reflects and represents North Carolina’s population, and to bring our membership benefits and network to as many environmental educators across the state as possible.
Last year’s Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance’s Landscape Analysis revealed what many of us working on the ground already know: despite our state’s many strengths in environmental education, major geographic gaps in service and support for educators remain – especially in “rural areas, areas with the highest social vulnerability index, and areas with the lowest income” (SEEA).
EENC ended 2023 with over 500 members in our community, across 69 different counties. But we seek to serve all environmental educators in our state – from Murphy to Manteo – so in 2024, we’re taking on a year-long challenge to fill in known geographic gaps in our membership. Our goal: to grow geographic representation within EENC’s membership community to every single one of North Carolina’s 100 counties!
Will you join us on the Road to 100?
The Starting Point: As of January 1st, 2024…
EENC has 528 total members across all membership levels;
Those 528 members have reported working across 69 counties in North Carolina;
6% of EENC members have not yet reported their county of work;
31 counties have no reported members (see list below);
50 counties have only 1-5 reported members (list also below).
Counties With No Reported Members as of 1/1/2024 (click to expand):
Counties With 1-5 Reported Members as of 1/1/2024 (click to expand):
The Goals: By December 31st, 2024, We Aim to See…
Reporting members in all 100 counties;
Membership growth in counties with only 1-5 initial members.
How to Help Us Get There:
Current Members in all counties: tell us where you work! To update your EENC profile with the relevant information, log into your EENC account, then navigate to the Member Area > My Account and fill in the “County Where You Work” section.* If you haven’t yet, also fill out the other profile sections while you’re at it!
Current Members in counties with 1-5 reporting members: help spread the word! As one of only a handful of members in your county, you can serve as an EENC ambassador within your community to help grow local membership representation. Make sure your co-workers, partner organizations, participants, etc. know about EENC and the benefits of membership.
Prospective members: now’s the time to join! By becoming an EENC member during the Road to 100, you not only gain access to all of our membership benefits, but help us build a statewide membership network where your voice is heard. No matter what county you work in, we want YOU to be represented in EENC’s member community. And if you’re the first person in your county to become a member, you’ll receive an Honorary Membership to gift – details below!
The first new member to join EENC in each not-yet represented county will win an Honorary Membership for them to gift to a co-worker or community partner of their choice. Because we don’t just want one new member in unrepresented counties – we want to set off a snowball effect of membership growth! The EENC team will contact each first new member directly to coordinate the Honorary membership gifting process.
How to Keep Up-to-Date With The Road to 100:
Use the below interactive map (view in browser) to see the status of EENC membership representation by county at any time! Counties shown in green have one or more reported member; counties shown in gray have no reported members. Open the legend to see the exact number of reported members in a given county. This map will be updated monthly to reflect our progress. We’ll also share periodic updates via our website blog, social media channels, and newsletter. See you on the road!
*While we also collect home addresses through member profiles, The Road to 100 data is pulled from responses to the “County Where You Work” input section. This decision to use workplace location is grounded in a desire to understand the geographic distribution of environmental education programs and services offered by our members.