The Eco Preservation Society (EPS) gained its Non-Profit Organization and charity status in 2008 from the state of Washington and was granted its 501C3 status by the IRS in July of 2009. In November 2009 EPS received its foundation status in Costa Rica.

On paper the Eco Preservation Society is regarded as a young organization but its youth is analogous to anything young and aspiring. Filled with energy and ambition to grow, EPS is going through its growing pains in 2010.

With the addition of global reforestation projects from Costa Rica to South Africa, up to India and over to Thailand and a few more that are “in the pipeline,” internship and volunteer programs, alliances and sponsorships with hotels, governments, and small-businesses and a director of social media as an addition to the team, it is apparent that 2010 is nothing shy of exponential growth.

The functionality of EPS is unique in the fact that all of its team members come from various backgrounds. This gives us diversification, flexibility and uniqueness in regards to our talents and operations in the different sectors, which are conservation/biological research, social media, reforestation operations, logistics and eco-tourism.  These variables are added together to formulate an equation that produces an outcome of an environmental organization that has global presence under qualified management.

That being said, with 2010 already racing by as we are spread thin with all of our endeavors, we thought it was best to have the Eco Preservation Society’s first staff retreat. This would allow all of EPS’s members to be together physically for once instead of virtually, which is usually the case.
Six members in total, of which four live in close proximity to one another in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, another living in Manuel Antonio and the other living in the Osa Peninsula left us with the question of “Where do we host it?”

It did not take very long to decide that the best decision would be to host our staff retreat at Playa Blanca, which is a secluded beachfront property that the Eco Preservation Society has marketed for those interested in what we call a “Costa Rica Unplugged” experience. Set back in a cove in the gulf of the Nicoya Peninsula, the Playa Blanca property is home to a tropical dry rainforest climate, white sand beaches, picturesque palm trees, roaming horses, a view of scattered islands that lay in the calm ocean waters, and monkeys. Tons of monkeys. Not just monkeys, Howler monkeys that do just as their name describes…howl!

We decided to have our staff retreat on March 3rd – 6th. A Wednesday to a Saturday schedule gave us the notion that we had to do two things that week. One, get everything in the office done on Monday and Tuesday, and two, look forward to a week of progress, heavy meetings and a celebration of our growth pace in 2010 with our team in a natural paradise setting.

That was the description of what, where, when and why. Here is my description of how the retreat came and went.

• Part 2