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23 May 2007

Garden Route Cluster Imbizo

by Jill Gordon

During March, the management team of the Garden Route National Parks, consisting of Mvusy Songelwa (Regional Manager); Derec Giles (Finance and Administration Manager); Len Du Plessis (Special Project Manager); Clementine Mbatani ( Marketing Manager); Elzette Bester (Regional Manager for People and Conservation); Rassie Erasmus (Acting Park Manager for Tsitsikamma NP); Carel Van Der Merwe ( Manager of the Tsitsikamma Forest Estate); Peet Joubert (Section Ranger: Knysna ); Andre Riley (Section Ranger: Knysna) and Jill Gordon (Park Manager of Wilderness NP) took a “shot left” into the blue yonder on an exciting journey of discovery. Little was known about the destination point, but such was the trust of the leader in her team, that everyone sat back and opened themselves up to new places and ideas.

The Knysna Primary school bus, which served as our coach, was the incubator of escaping giggles and pulling of legs; surely taking us all back to our school days. As the Tsitsikamma sea breeze, the Knysna Forest, the Wilderness Lakes slowly disappeared into the background, hazy Karoo veld and magnificent plateaus became our new landscape. We entered each new Karoo “dorp” with gusto and left smiles and slight bemusement due to the sparkles in our eyes, behind. We even roped in a local policeman to take a group photo at one of the pitstops.

Having arrived at our destination, the serene Darlington Dam, a concession area in the Noorsveld of the Addo Elephant National Park, it was quick refreshments, before the real work began. The next few hours were spent in highlighting all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the areas we manage and this had to be translated into opportunities for initiatives as part of the Balanced Score Card for our region. A more perfect end to the day could not be arranged as Riaan Nell, the Section Ranger took us on a boat cruise on the dam, entertaining us with interesting facts on the area, while having arranged for a sunset of palette defying colours. The lodges” food was melt in the mouth masterpieces and this prompted the highlighting of each team member”s strengths.

The following day was started bright and early and saw the team identifying initiatives and matching those to the initiatives identified in the management plans. A competition for staff to identify a slogan for the Garden Route cluster was launched and certain people immediately started entering. Team building exercises brought more giggles to the fore, when everyone was roped into playing charades, while learning about our different cultures. The journey home in true Garden Route style was not without its perils. Halfway home, a poor unsuspecting traveler with cycads as his companions was accosted by four very suspicious conservation managers (no names mentioned here) and is probably still shaking in his boots.

That said, the Imbizo not only cemented the BSC, Management Plan and initiatives for this cluster, it certainly cemented a firm and close team. Now let”s see, whereto next?