Defying Gravity

As today’s International Women’s Day wraps up, I’m grateful for something a lot of people are angry about. If you use an app on your phone or computer for keeping up with your calendar you may have noticed that today’s agenda was missing something. Initially I was angry about it, but then I just smiled and continued to think about the accelerated actions the day is asking of me for this year.

As women, there are a lot of people who chose to underestimate us and to that I say “well this will be fun”. I stand next to incredible women in my field who are doing amazing research to move the industry forward, pushing for clean water and environment for the next generation, and who keep showing up for their clients that work in stormwater and erosion control, but the foundation we stand on was built by the women and male allies who came before us. They crawled so we could walk and the ones coming up behinds will run. To the women who pushed me and continue to inspire me, my appreciation knows no bounds and to the women who will engage in this industry soon enough, I hope you take a flying leap into the unknown and “defy gravity”.

As an avid theater enthusiast, I fell even more in love with the musical “Wicked” this past year in theaters and even more in love with “sisterhood” watching Ariana and Cynthia support each other. I hope every woman finds their very own mentor/sister/friend/confidant/ally in another woman like they have for each other. If you haven’t yet, please allow me to introduce you to some of the most amazing women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Now onward toward my accelerated action plan to “close my eyes and leap” because I'm “through accepting limits, 'Cause someone says they're so, Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try, I'll never know”. So here’s to “defying gravity” so the next generation can fly.

40 books for my 40th Birthday

Hey y’all!! One month from today, I’ll be turning the big 4 0! And I have a simple request for my friends, colleagues, and family. I want your most influential book recommendations; I want to know what book influenced you the most and why. I intend to read all 40 before my 41st birthday in 2025 and will be keeping track and reviewing them as I go. I’m an avid reader, 75+ books a year, of both personal development and fiction, so let me hear what you book made a change in your life.

A Stormwater Professional in an Erosion Control Association

I came to the International Erosion Control Association as a vendor 15 years ago to help sell a solution to an industry I didn’t know much about at the time.  Here’s the beauty of the last 15 years of being in that same association: I received an education on the entire treatment train that should occur during construction and then into a maintenance program for that same site.  From site visits, sediment barriers, slope interrupters, curb and grate protection, flocculants, sediment basins, skimmers, grate inserts, vaults, bioswales, vaults, and underground detention, just to name a few.  This education made me a better stormwater professional, and I can now see the industry as a whole rather than just where I fit in.   

 One major benefit to being a member of this association is the networking and close colleagues I’ve gained from being involved.  I’ve met engineers, contractors, installers, inspectors, vendors, maintenance providers, educators, and researchers all of whom have a role to play. These people have become friends and acquaintances I look forward to seeing at a conference or a board meeting; the networking opportunities through these relationships allow me to know who I can call on for a solution. I learn from my fellow members all the time: a new BMP to solve a problem for a client, a better understanding of a new regulation, or what the universities are studying to give the industry better standards of practice.  The objective being we all have to be willing to learn. 

 This association also gave me so much more than what I’ve already listed. Mentors who have helped shape my career and push me outside my comfort zone. Leaders who saw leadership qualities in me and pushed me to strengthen them. Friendships that extend well past conferences and into life itself; I can call on any of those friends for anything and they’re always willing to lend a hand, an ear, or advise me on any situation.  I am immensely grateful for it all. 

IECA has given me more than just what the standard association gives which is why I give back so intensely and talk so highly of it.  So as a stormwater professional I will continue to be a member of the International Erosion Control Association. I admire their mission to “advance the standards of practice and connect the erosion control and stormwater management community”.  This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the IECA, the International Erosion Control Association, an organization I am not only a proud member of for 15 years but also involved in two boards and a newly forming committee. I’ve been asked recently why I as a stormwater professional would be so active in an organization meant for sediment and erosion control and I have many answers to this question:

Isn’t sediment and erosion control a construction best management practice in stormwater management? Without preconstruction erosion and sediment control practices post construction management would not exist. Without stormwater, why do you have erosion and sediment control issues?

Sediment and turbidity are always an issue post-construction because the number one contaminant in stormwater is sediment. While most the industry puts sediment and erosion control and stormwater management in two separate categories, I will stand firm in the belief you cannot have one without the other.

If we as professionals do not recognize that stormwater is the issue that causes sediment and erosion control concerns, then we are not seeing the entire stormwater system pre and post-construction in a holistic point of view.    

Not wining friends but maybe influencing people

As I have said before I am an avid reader and I have been known to read more than one book at a time…yeah is there a book-aholic’s anonymous because I may need to refer a friend…

Anyway, years ago I read “How to Win Friends and Influence Others” by Dal Carnegie and as a woman who got her degree in Human Development and Psychology this book was fascinating to me.  The simple actions of letting others speak more than you do, of encouragement over degradation to push others, and to avoiding arguments to influence others have become my go-tos all the time professionally and personally.  But here’s the thing a very glaring issue was brought to my attention earlier this year and I don’t know that encouragement is the right way to get this message across. 

 **Disclaimer: I’m putting this out there to hopefully better an amazing association that I have grown to love and will continue to serve in any and every capability given to me.  I am not bitter about the results, but I am bitter about the sheer lack of participation, appreciation for the staff who work tirelessly to educate this association’s membership, and the flapping of lips at how the association is doing this or that incorrectly.  Please read the rest of this post with this in mind.**

 Earlier in my career, I was one of the people I feel this particular contempt for.  I didn’t contribute at the national or chapter level.  I wasn’t a member of a chapter board, I didn’t vote in the elections, I didn’t serve on a committee, but I did show up and expect a certain level of education and networking.  I was what has been termed a “passive member”, but as the saying goes: “You get out of it what you put into it”.  I was “voluntold” some years ago that I would be running a group of individuals that were looking for a place of their own and I have done that.  I don’t know that I do much good, but I’m hopeful to be making a difference regardless as I look to take that group to a national level and past just the association where it began. I ran for a position on my local chapter board of this association and I have been serving on that board for over a year.  This year I was placed on a technical committee for another association for two of their conferences and I have loved that experience as well. I’m serving and I’m not sitting on the sidelines anymore. 

 In 2020, I pushed myself completely out of my comfort zone (at the prodding and encouragement of several people in my life) and ran for a spot on the national board of the association and yes, I lost.  Defeat and failure are a part of life; and I will try again because I know that the association has given so much to me and I intend to give back so that the next generation can enjoy and grow their careers in the same way.  But here’s what I learned: the majority of the membership of this association is very similar to me in the early years of my career; they’re passive members!!!! They’re not as engaged as me now and that breaks my heart and enrages me at the same time. This association has given me mentors, friends, education, confidence, laughter, and a place to be completely myself: a woman who loves to play in the dirt and the stormwater.  How do other people not feel the same way I do?!? In my 13 years of being in this industry I’ve only missed one national conference; I’ve never missed a single chapter conference or local field day for my state and have been to several of the other chapter’s conferences; and may have cried actual tears when I heard we were going virtual in 2021.  I love this association and it is because of it’s people so when I learned that 85% of the membership is as passive as I used to be I became indignant. 

 So here’s the thing, the next time you go flapping your jaws about how you don’t like this or that about what your association is doing I have some questions:

1)    Did you vote for the board? Nationally or at a local level?

2)    Do you serve in any capacity: board? committee? Or even making other people aware of events and services available to its membership?

3)    Do you do anything other than pay your dues and show up?

If your answers to those questions are: no, no and yes, that I politely ask you to keep your trap shut. 

CWP Coastal and Island Conference 2020

Early last week, I had the immense pleasure to be a part of the Center for Watershed Protection’s Coastal and Island Conference.  I can’t say that I enjoyed the being virtual (I miss people!). but I loved the sessions I got to be a part of and will admit to “geeking out” several times during the conference.  I was grateful to have been a part of the technical planning committee for this one and look forward to the annual conference after being on the committee for that one as well.  If it’s not already on your calendar put it on there! April 13-16 in St. Petersburg if it doesn’t go virtual as well. 

Okay back to last week, here’s the sessions I geeked out over: hearing about green infrastructure on the coast of Georgia and the Great Lakes, a board game called “The Watershed Game” (more on that later in this post), flood mitigation in St. Augustine and Southeast Michigan, how educating landscapers and residents on proper fertilizers manages the nutrients downstream in Florida, the amazing work that Mac Stone is doing as a conservation photographer, and how using nature-based solutions and road stabilization is helping island ecosystems, and an island themed happy hour where I got to break out my new straw hat! And now for a deeper dive….

Y’all, it is a well-established fact that I am a complete stormwater nerd and will lose my cool over new products and ways of doing things in the stormwater world, but let me tell you when I learned there was a board game that could help educate people about stormwater and watershed management I lost it! I cannot believe that this existed without me knowing about! They have several versions and I may have put every version of it on my Christmas list. I legitimately want to play it at the next conference we’re allowed to be at in person!!! Check it out: https://watershedgame.umn.edu/

Hearing Mac Stone (website for reference - https://www.macstonephoto.com/)  on Tuesday morning talk about his work in The Everglades was awe inspiring.  The work that went into getting some of the pictures he’s taken: the mosquito bites and the mud splattered clothes, and the wading into a lot of alligators….yeah I’m out, but his work makes me want to hop in a car and go see it for myself.  I live for national park trips and this one just went up several notches on the bucket list.  He quoted Marjory Stoneman Douglas “The Everglades are a test.  If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet” and that hit hard.  How often do people outside the industry think about how what happens upstream impacts the downstream? How long are we going to expect the environment to adapt to all the curveballs we continually throw at it? We responsible for this planet, but do we act like it?

A major theme that I saw throughout the sessions was the emphasis on education.  Listening to several of the presenters last week, it was amazing what can happen when we educate people.  There were fewer nutrients in streams just be educating residents and residential landscapers to use the right fertilizer.  Municipal workers gained a better understand of green infrastructure.  A board game could teach people that the way we use land impacts our streams and lakes.  A picture can educate people about the sensitivity of nature.  It is our job to educate others.  So here’s my parting question for today: Who are you going to educate today to ensure we pass the bigger test of keeping our waters clean?

Nice to meet you...

So here’s the thing I’ve discovered in the last 13 years of working in the stormwater industry, work life balance is a myth. And it is more than just priorities, I am a whole person (aka I am more than just the job!) and here’s to getting to know the whole person.  So yes I’ve started a blog for my business; I’ll highlight events going on in the industry, products (shameless plugs will occur for products I do specific business with, but some products will get highlighted because I think they’re fantastic) news (and yes sometimes my opinion on said topic that’s the beauty of it being my blog), and probably some book reviews and highlights (I read a lot – there’s always a fiction book or a personal development book being read at all times!) I make zero promises of specific time frames for more blog posts, but there will be more of them!

Now for today’s blog post, a little background about the whole person that is Kellyn, yeah that’s me! I grew up mostly in the upstate of South Carolina before graduating from Alabama with a degree in Human Development with a minor in Psychology. The intent was to go on to graduate school and eventually become a marriage and family therapist, but we make plans and God laughs right? I took a job working for GeoHay to save some money for graduate school, but I fell in love with the erosion control and stormwater industry. I love the people, the way I get to help solve problems, and every day is different, so I am never bored.  A little over three years ago, I left a job I loved to work for myself and I feel even more in love with the industry as I started to work as a consultant and representative for different companies and to start my own distribution company for industrial stormwater.  I love my job!!!

Now the beauty of working for yourself is you also get to work on more than just your job. About a year and a half ago, I ran and won the position of secretary for the Southeast Chapter of the IECA and I can say I get to work with some of the coolest people in the association! In addition to that, I was given the amazing opportunity to work with the amazing women of this industry and are in the process of making our own association of Women of Water; a place to engage, empower, and educate women in the water industry.  I love these ladies!!!!

Outside of my professional life, I am a woman of varied interest.  I love to bake and there are those in my professional life who have benefitted from that love around Christmas time (do you make the annual goodies list?). There’s something amazingly satisfying to making something completely from scratch. I’ve already mentioned I love to read, and I am always reading something.  My to read list is always gaining new books, so please feel free to tell me what you’re reading! If it’s above 70 degrees, you will find me on a jet ski enjoying the water; so, there is a perk to living in the south since I can still jet ski in November.  In college, I learned to ballroom dance (yes that was my PE credit) and I still love to salsa dance.  I’m an animal lover and up until last month I had a border collie mix who lived to be 15! I love going to the theater to see musicals, plays, and other shows. My favorite place on Earth is Yellowstone National Park and it is a dream of mine to own a place in Jackson Hole, WY one day.  I love vacationing in national parks and I’m grateful to those who commit to conserving those and other areas of beauty.  I love spending time with my family and friends and getting to know new people; my mother always told me I’ve never met a stranger.  So it’s nice to meet you, what’s your name and who are you as a whole?