• A group of concerned citizens who are interested in educating people of all ages to the importance of understanding and protecting the environment.
  
  
• The only organization in Illinois that makes environmental literacy its primary goal as it strives to instill a sense of community between native ecosystems and people.
  
  
• A communication network among conservationists and environmentalists from all walks of life.

• Sponsors exciting and informative environmental education conferences in conjunction with EEAI's spring membership meeting. The EEAI Spring Conference is held at scenic locations throughout the state of Illinois. Once every four years, EEAI sponsors the Midwest Environmental Education Conference, which draws participants from throughout the nation. Both the annual EEAI conference and the Midwest conference offer a variety of presentations, exhibits, and special events of particular interest to environmentalists.
  
  
• Promotes several supplemental environmental education curricula including; Project WILD, Project WILD/Aquatic, Project Learning Tree, CLASS Project, and Project WET. In addition, EEAI promotes education projects that focus on Illinois; Illinois Groundwater, Solid Waste Reduction and the 3R's Project. All of these efforts are made cooperatively with with the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and other private and public organizations.
  
  
• Publishes the Illinois Environmental Education UPDATE; the only periodical in Illinois devoted to current information and ideas about environmental education.
  
  
• Reviews and makes recommendations regarding environmental education materials, trains workshop facilitators and locates funding sources to implement high quality environmental education programs.

• In 1972 a group of committed and concerned environmentalists - both conservationists and educators - founded the Environmental Education Association of Illinois. Since that time, members of the EEAI have provided leadership both at the state and at the community level.

• The strength of EEAI comes from the involvement of its members. Their participation in the state and regional events raises the profile of environmental education and challenges decision-makers to give environmental concerns priority.

• EEAI is governed by a board of directors. The state is divided into five regions, each of which is served by two representatives. The membership elects the officers: president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer.

• YOU CAN BECOME INVOLVED by contacting your regional EEAI representatives concerning local activities, by reading our newsletter, UPDATE, for news about environmental education issues and by participating in the annual EEAI membership meeting and conference.

• Click here for a copy of the EEAI Constitution

• Illinois is very proud to have completed a state Environmental Literacy plan to advance the learning of Illinois environmental education. View our Environmental Literacy for Illinois” state plan at: http://www.ieeac.org/ELforIL.pdf

• Early in 2000, the Illinois Environmental Education Advancement Consortium (IEEAC) was challenged with reviewing the Illinois Learning Standards to identify benchmarks that addressed environmental education. In 2005, the group was challenged to look at the Science and Social Studies descriptors and identify those that addressed environmental education. The rubric chosen to complete the correlation was developed by the North American Association of Environmental Education’s National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (K-12). See the results at: http://www.ieeac.org/eestandards.pdf

NAAEE is the world's largest association of environmental educators, with members in North America and 55 countries worldwide!

Membership benefits include:

• 6 issues per year of the NAAEE informative publication, the Environmental Communicator.
• Discounts on registration fees for NAAEE's annual conference, and on many publications.
• Access to the NAAEE Skills Bank - a valuable database of members' expertise.
• Opportunities for professional development.

For NAAEE membership information, see the NAAEE website or contact: Janet Thoreen, NAAEE Publications and Membership Office, P.O. Box 400, Troy, OH 45373. Phone/fax (937)676-2514