It has been one year since Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill to allow the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to seek a specialty license plate, and we are getting closer to launching the marketing campaign for their plate.
In the last year:
- The Department of Motor Vehicles has clarified most of the regulations to implement the new law;
- The Sierra Nevada Conservancy has approved the design “concept” for the plate;
- The Sierra Fund has continue to solicit unpaid “pre-registrations” from Californians, with a total collected of nearly 3,000; and
- The Sierra Fund and the Conservancy have finalized their Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) clarifying fiduciary, management and infrastructure issues.
The Sierra Fund is now ready to develop a marketing plan for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy License Plate campaign. The Sierra Fund is seeking a consultant to develop a marketing plan for the Plate, working with the marketing advisory committee and Conservancy staff. The Sierra Fund will choose the consultant after consultation with the Conservancy, a process that is consistent with the MOA. Requests for proposals to develop the campaign are available by contacting our office.
Our goal is to develop a multi-faceted outreach campaign that ensures the Sierra Nevada Conservancy permanent, sustainable funding, while bringing Sierra and California citizens into active support of saving the Sierra. We have developed partnerships among conservation groups ready to support this campaign, including the Sierra Club, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Sierra Business Council and the Sierra Cascade Land Trust Council.
Campaign Institutional Infrastructure
This campaign will be coordinated between the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and The Sierra Fund, in order to fulfill requirements of state law that forbid the use of any state funds to sell the plates. In general, the Conservancy's role in the process is to design the plate and help advice the marketing strategy, while The Sierra Fund will fund and coordinate the campaign itself.
Plate Design
A design concept was approved at their July 25 board meeting. Once the design is finalized (likely early fall 2007), a plate application brochure meeting the specifications of the DMV must be created. The plate and the brochure must be turned in together for DMV approval.
Next Steps
Once the marketing plan is complete and presented to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy Board for their comment, the campaign will be ready to launch, sometime this winter. The program will work directly with organizational partners to ensure outreach among established networks in the region. We will work with Sierra businesses and organizations to create awareness of the campaign and incentives for registration such as discount lift tickets at ski resorts.
We will be contacting those who have registered for the plate as soon as registration materials are approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Please feel free to call or email The Sierra Fund if you have questions about the Campaign, or visit our website to pre-register for the plate: www.sierralicenseplate.org
