In the past, my inability to become organized and manage data has hurt my attempts to develop credibility in the snake world. This has really hurt me with the Center for Snake Conservation's work with the City of Boulder. We are (I am) always scrambling to complete data requests and there are still giant gaps in the data. It sucks to have to eat my pride and say I suck at data management (but I am good at finding snakes).
So what do you do when this is the case? For me I think back to mentors who were extremely organized and could manage HUGE quantities of data without much effort. They ALWAYS had a paper data form that was completed in the field and then filed away when they got back into the office. The trouble is that we are now in the electronic era and paper is disappearing from our work lives. My bigger trouble is that I am not electronically savvy enough to build an electronic database that can be used in the field.
What do I do then? Well - I use my creativity to create a unique Center for Snake Conservation Snake Data Sheet. I will just have to not lose them and get them filed away properly. I am starting this season off RIGHT!
Here is my new data sheet:
