Islands’ Oil Spill Association looking for skilled volunteers

— from Islands’ Oil Spill Association —

As part of an ongoing revitalization effort, the Islands’ Oil Spill Association (IOSA) is looking for a small number of community minded islanders to get involved in protecting the islands from the impacts of oil spills.

Over 2019, a large group of IOSA volunteers have been steadily working to bring energy, organization, and knowledge to a long valued island resource.

The vision for the future of IOSA is of a well funded, sustainable, and professionally led response organization with a cadre of dedicated local volunteers. A diverse and skilled Board of Directors will provide high level oversight and leadership. The future of IOSA is bright.

In order to get there, IOSA would love the help of islanders with certain expertise. You don’t need to know anything about spill response, we’ve got that covered. We’re looking for the following:

• Facility operations, planning, or real estate build out
• Small business or non-profit human resources, recruitment, and benefit sourcing
• Small business or non-profit accounting, financial tracking, and budgeting
• Equipment maintenance, inventory, and logistics.

The commitment need not be long term, though it certainly could be. The effort is tightly managed and focused, and there are a range of levels of involvement to participate at. The primary additional qualifications are being a good communicator, energetic, flexible, willing to do some work, and enthusiastic about protecting the islands and the waters around us.

Anyone potentially interested can visit www.iosaonline.org to learn more about IOSA and can contact Brendan Cowan at brendanc@sanjuandem.net or 360-370-7612 to learn more about what’s needed.

And for anyone looking to get involved as an oil spill responder, please visit IOSA’s Volunteer Page to learn more, of check out the Training Page for upcoming training opportunities.