Course:LFS350/Projects/2014W1/T3/Proposal

Version Control

The need to amend and change the project charter will inevitably be present. These changes should be well communicated between all project stakeholders and documented with the version control chart below.

Version	Author	Submitted By	Changes	Date
2.0	LFS Student Team	Project Coordinator	Edited initial version and changed the scope (research question narrowed)	11/01/2014
1.0	LFS Student Team	Project Coordinator	Initial version created	10/03/2014

Project Background (__ / 10)

Cable Bay Farm is an organic family-owned micro-farm on Galiano Island. Since 2011, the farm has significantly increased its crop production by implementing new field equipment techniques such as Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape (H. Schnare, personal communication, September 12, 2014). Prior to this the farm operated using a co-operative farming model (Lyne et al, 2011).

The Galiano Food Club Program is interested in increasing food security for the island community members (The Galiano Club, 2014). As such, in-depth research on Cable Bay Farm’s unique production methods may highlight methods that could potentially be implemented elsewhere on the island. (Course:LFS 350., n.d.) The LFS 350 student team will focus on researching the environmental impact of the current farming techniques used by the Cable Bay Farm, which includes Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape.

The LFS 350 student team will conduct their research by investigating the impacts of these farming techniques on other farms, and collaborating with community partners to conduct key stakeholder interviews, community site-visits, and information sharing. Specific details regarding research methods, project milestones, and communication are outlined in the remainder of this document.

Upon completion of this project, the LFS 350 student team will present the Galiano Food Club Program with an in-depth report on the environmental impacts of the current farming methods used by Cable Bay Farm. The information given will be framed with the overarching community food security goals in mind.

Stakeholder Summary (__ /5)

The following table summarizes the roles and responsibilities of the project stakeholders.

Name, Role & Organization	Responsibilities
UBC Student Team, LFS: Melanie Steele Katelyn Dick Cindy Huang Kevin Chan Norris Huang Adrienne Lui Kathleen Hsu Saghar Masoud	Project Coordination and Status Updates - Melanie Key Stakeholder Interviews - Katelyn, Kathleen + Saghar Background Research - Cindy + Norris Systems Model - Adrienne + Kevin Analyze CBF farming methods and associated costs - All Team Charter - All Final Report - All
Community Partner, Galiano Community Club Program: www.galianofoodprogram.ca Jane Wolverton, President	Provide high level guidance to ensure adequate and approve project scope and schedule Provide connections and linkages with community Sign off on Team Charter and Proposal Sign off on changes to Team Charter and Proposal
Key Stakeholder, Cable Bay Farm: www.farmtransplants.com Henny Schnare, Owner	Provide access to Cable Bay Farm and documentation on current farming practices Participate in key stakeholder interview

Purpose and Research Question (__ / 20)

The main goal of this project is to determine whether the farming methods used at Cable Bay Farm with high crop yield has any environmental implications and the risks and benefits associated. In order to do this the farming methods (Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape) used at Cable Bay Farm, including safety of all products used will be analyzed. As mentioned in the Project Background, The Galiano Food Club Program is interested in increasing food security on Galiano Island. The information obtained from answering our research question may be used to guide future farming practices.

Research Question

What are some environmental risks and benefits of farming practices such as Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape used at Cable Bay Farm?

Methods (__ / 20)

Our team will use qualitative research methods to answer our research question. Details of our research methods are listed below, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each type of research method. Key information sources include; our community partner and key stakeholders, company websites (e.g. Rain-Flo), journal articles, farming associations, and other websites.

Qualitative Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Interview with key stakeholders (Cable Bay Farm owners and community partner)	Not limited to rigid parameters (e.g. interview questions can be adjusted throughout the interview in response to the information given) More in-depth understanding of the farming model (e.g. hands-on experience and context) (Woodsong et al, 2005)	Potential personal bias (e.g. leading questions during interview) (Opdenakker, 2006) Knowledge of farming techniques is outside of our area of expertise Data collected might not be applicable to other farms (e.g. unique agroecology of Cable Bay Farm; only one sample so not representative of all farm on Galiano)
Review of current farming documentation	Better understanding of the farming methods Better quality interview questions	Our knowledge on farming methods may not be sufficient for us to fully understand the documentation
Observations from farm visit	Allows us to see how the system is working Better understanding of methods	Our limited amount of time at the island may not be sufficient to analyze all the insights
Observations from interactions with community members	Allow us to see how farmers and the community are cooperating in the food production in Galiano Island	Personal bias (our own point of view could influence our perception)
Review of documentations and previous studies relating to techniques involved in this project (e.g. textbooks, journal articles) (Bricki, 2007 and Woods, 2006)	Provide background knowledge on certain farming techniques Help with the development of interview questions	Time-consuming (e.g. need to read through the whole article in order to determine how relevant the article is) Limited academic papers on the specific farming techniques and specific models/brands used on Cable Bay Farm

Ethical Considerations:
In conducting our interviews, we are dealing with people; we need to be ethical in our use of their personal opinions and feelings. We will request permission before including any information gathered through our interviews in our report, and be respectful of any information given in confidence. All interviewees will have the right to remain anonymous should they choose. We will not use our position as researchers to influence the feelings of our interview subjects or pressure them into providing any information they do not wish to disclose.

Deliverables (__ / 5)

Our team will keep the community partner and key stakeholder informed of progress through weekly status reports. The weekly status report lists the actions we have completed in the last week, and outlines what we intend to complete in the upcoming week. In addition, a list of our major milestones and target completion dates is included on the bottom of the report.

Our final report will include an in-depth analysis of the environmental impacts of the current farming practices at Cable Bay Farm (Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape). The report will consist of an introduction, summary of research methods, our research findings, and our conclusion, with Cable Bay Farm used as a case study throughout.

The Introduction section will include a description of our community partner, the Galiano Food Club Program, as well as background information on Galiano Island, Cable Bay Farm and the newly implemented farming techniques they use. We will also discuss the aims of our report and the significance of evaluating environmental impacts of these farming techniques.

The Methods section will discuss the methods used throughout the project (see Methods section of Charter).

Our research findings will make up the body of the report and will include a detailed assessment of the environment impacts of each of the new farming techniques used on Cable Bay Farm (Bio-Telo biodegradable mulch, bio-control, transplants, and irrigation T-tape). These assessments will be developed with information gathered from multiple sources listed under our qualitative research methods (see Methods section of Charter).

Finally, our report will end with a conclusion which will summarize our findings and provide guidance for our community partner moving forward. The conclusion will address our research question and discuss the implications of our findings for the Galiano Island community.

Success Factors/Criteria (__ / 10)

To determine the success of our project we will evaluate our community partner and primary stakeholder’s satisfaction with our interaction throughout the term. We will do so through a project satisfaction survey which will allow each person to give feedback. The survey will consist of a comments section and a rankings section (on a 5 point scale) for our performance in multiple aspects of our interactions with our partners. This project satisfaction survey will assess how well our team met the expectations of our stakeholders, how they felt about our communications and attitude towards the project, how well we met the objectives of the project, delivered on-time, and added-value to the project.

We will also assess our personal feeling of success with the project through a structured group reflection. Our structured group reflection will focus on our sense of satisfaction with the experience as a team. For example, do we (as a team and as individuals) feel we are satisfied with our experience in the project? Did each member of the group get what they wanted out of the project?

Finally, we will measure our success based on the approval and use of our deliverable. We will consider how the document we create is used by the Galiano Food Club Program. We will determine our document a success if it is approved and made available as a resource to other farmers on Galiano Island and in the region (for example, it is made available as a pdf on their club website).

Overall, we can declare success if these three success factors are met.

Scope Change

Scope changes requested by any stakeholder of the project must be agreed upon, approved and signed by all stakeholders. The agreed format is to revise this charter with version controls. Because this is critical to keep track of, the version control is displayed at the beginning of the charter.

Communication Plan (__ / 5)

At the onset of our project, our team agreed on the following communication strategy with our:

Action Item	Deliverable	Dates	Accountable
Weekly Status Report	Email sent to community partner with weekly status report attached. The report lists work accomplished the week prior, planned tasks for the upcoming week, and the status of milestones. Any questions pertaining to the project are asked at this time as well.	Wednesday Evenings	Melanie Steele
Site Inspection and Key Stakeholder Interviews	Visit Galiano Island to meet community partners, community members, and Cable Bay Farm owners.	October 25th and 26th	LFS, CBF, and GCCP
Answers to LFS Questions	Project specific information is shared via email by the community partners in response to questions asked by LFS students.	As Needed	Melanie Steele to email questions. Responses to be given within 2 business days.
Answers to Community Partner Questions	Project specific information is shared via email or phone by LFS students in response to questions asked by community partners.	As Needed	CBF and GCCP to email questions to Melanie Steele. LFS student team to respond within 2 business days.

Within our LFS student team, communication will occur primarily through our private Facebook group, created for this project. Group members will check the site daily and use it to coordinate meetings and share information. Although the Facebook group is for members only, our team will not post any sensitive information, such as documents obtained directly from our community partners. Instead, this type of information will be shared via email only. Meeting summaries and agendas will be communicated via email as well.

Milestones (__ / 5)

The following is a list of our teams current project milestones.

Item	Event or Deliverable	Target Date	Status	Responsibility
1	Proposal Presentation	10/01/14	Complete	LFS
2	Draft Team Charter and Proposal	10/04/14	Complete	Melanie Steele to coordinate and turn in; all LFS team members to contribute
3	Revised Team Charter and Proposal	11/01/14	Complete	Melanie Steele to coordinate and turn in; all LFS team members to contribute
4	Systems Model Diagram	11/26/14	In Progress	Adrienne Lui, Kevin Chan, and Kathleen Hsu
5	Final Project Presentation	11/26/14	Not Started	LFS
6	Final Report	11/26/14	In Progress	Melanie Steele to coordinate and turn in; all LFS team members to contribute
7	Final Report Outline develop report outline based on marking rubric and allot word count for each section	11/05/14	Complete	LFS
8	Draft Final Report First draft of final report complete as per outline	11/15/14	Complete	LFS
9	Final Key Stakeholder Interview Questions	10/22/14	Complete	Katelyn Dick, Kathleen Hsu, and Saghar Masoud
10	Completion of Background Research	10/22/14	Complete	LFS
11	Completion of all Results	11/22/14	In Progress	LFS
12	Work on Final Presentation	10/22/14	Not Started	LFS
13	Confirm site visit itinerary with Jane	10/22/14	Complete	Melanie Steele, Jane Wolverton
14	Review Team Charter with Josh go over feedback, make amendments	10/15/14	Complete	LFS
15	Turn in hard copy of final report	12/03/14	Not Started	Kevin Chan and Adrienne Lui
16	Second Draft of Final Report Edits as per review on 11/19/14 meeting to be complete Submit to writing center for external review	11/22/14	In Progress	LFS (writing), Melanie Steele (writing center)

Approvals (__ / 5)

The following individuals hereby approve this Project Charter:

Role or Title	Name and Signature	Date
Galiano Food Club Program, President	Jane Wolverton	November 1, 2014
Cable Bay Farm, Owner	Henny Schnare	November 1, 2014

Writing Quality (__ / 10)

For a proposal report to receive full writing quality marks, it should be well organized and easy to read. It should address all of the topics articulated in the assignment details above, and it should be free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.