SCAC Retreat @ Woodend

Our council kicked off the new year with a training and bonding retreat at Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase on July 13, 2025. It was great to bring together both returning and new council members in a relaxed outdoor setting to build connections and prepare for the year ahead.

Jeff explains a bit about the history of the retreat

We started the morning with Jeff Chandler from Nature Forward, who gave us some background about the beautiful location we were meeting at. After his brief introduction to the sanctuary, we moved into our council member introductions where everyone shared a little bit about themselves and what inspired them to join the council.

Our committee chairs then presented brief overviews of SCAC's five main committees and their roles within the organization. We heard from the Events Committee, which handles our internal SCAC events and programming, Communications, which manages our social media and outreach materials, Outreach, which focuses on community engagement and partnerships, Policy, which works on our climate action plan and advocacy efforts, and Grants, which is currently working on securing funding for the next fiscal year. This gave new members a clear picture of how they could get involved and allowed everyone to ask questions about the different areas of work.

Megan, the council chair, discusses how the SCAC worked in past years.

Following the committee introductions, we spent time discussing logistics for the upcoming year and reflecting on lessons learned from last year's council. This was valuable for both new and returning members as we identified things that worked well and areas where we wanted to improve our operations and collaboration moving forward.

The rest of our time together was dedicated to team bonding activities, like charades and other interactive exercises that helped us discover shared interests and build stronger relationships as a council. It was a relaxed way to wrap up the morning and gave everyone a chance to connect on a more personal level.

Kim, Marshall, and Megan pose for a digicam photo 📸