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GTCI AND INSTITUTE SPEAKER SERVICES
The Institute and GTCI staff and students speak to meetings and conferences throughout the southeast. We commonly speak at conservation organization meetings like Sierra, Audubon, and Native Plant Society meetings and we often speak at regional and national herpetological and turtle and tortoise society meetings and give several seminars at universities and local colleges (on our research) each year. We are also asked to attend town meetings, county commission meetings, and hearings to talk about issues related to upland and gopher tortoise conservation. We are happy to talk to service organizations and groups like Home Builder’s Associations or agriculture groups.
Speeches are different engagements from workshops in that they are usually related to a specific topic and are done usually in a one-hour formal presentation. Please note that although we would enjoy doing so, we would do not speak to youth groups or go to schools simply because we would be overwhelmed with requests. We hope to train volunteers to speak to their local schools and groups in the near future.
What do we talk about?
 Some sample titles include:
- Gopher Tortoise Natural History
- Tortoises and Plants
- Gopher Tortoise Conservation Issues
- Upland Habitats and Conservation
- Home Rule of Conservation Areas and Protected Species
- Your Role in Upland Conservation
- Tortoises in Your Yard, Farm, or Park - How to Live Together
- Upland Plants
- Management of Private and Public Uplands
- Community Tortoise Stewardship
- Life History of the Burrowing Owl
- Amphibians of Florida
- Reptiles of Florida
- Assurance Colonies and the Role of Private Collections in Conservation
The Presentations
The talks are usually 45 minutes long and time for questions.
We prefer to use Power Point Presentations and also use slides and some hands on materials. (We request that the group obtain the projectors and screens.)
We also do walks or hikes in uplands. These vary in time and length.
Primary Speakers
The primary speakers are Ray and Pat Ashton. For general backgrounds see the Institute’s Board of Director Page.
Arrangements
We ask that arrangements be made at least three months in advance. Most people schedule at least 8 to 12 months. The Institute is a nonprofit organization and GTCI as a program of the Institute relies entirely on memberships, donations and grants. We ask that meeting organizers agree to pay all travel expenses and a donation to the Institute that would cover the travel and program time involved by the staff.
We feel that each program is special and we try to work with the representative of the group to customize the program. If we are speaking to cattle or horse people, we will talk specifically about issues related to tortoise and other protected species on ranches. To this end, there is a Program Planning and Reservation Form which can be downloaded. Please feel free to e-mail or call us with questions or send via e-mail or surface mail, this form. We will confirm as quickly as possible.
Download the Form
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