Example recruitment email for Crowd the Bay participants

[Fill in highlighted texts with appropriate information]

Dear [Recipient's name],

The Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies (COMIT) has been developing a crowdsourced bathymetry (CSB) program in Tampa Bay, and I thought you and [Recipient's organization] would be a great fit to participate in this initiative.

In short, CSB is a global citizen science initiative that uses simple data logger technology to record depth information from boat echosounders. 

We have been building our own regional CSB program, called Crowd the Bay, as part of our NOAA Office of Coast Survey-funded Center for the last two years. We think you and your organization could benefit from, and potentially participate in, this movement to more frequently collect bathymetry (seafloor depth) data in and around Tampa Bay. I am adding a couple more links that will provide some information:

A short video by CHS on what installing a logger means, and our Equipment Check webpage.

I would be happy to speak with you and to dive deeper into COMIT's Crowd the Bay initiative, what it means to be a part of this CSB initiative, the applications of CSB data, and how COMIT can best provide that information to potential stakeholders such as yourself.  Data can be provided to you in a variety of formats to best fit your needs. However, shapefiles tend to be the best way to visualize your data. If you are interested, we have instructions for visualizing CSB data from shapefiles with free QGIS software here.

If you have any questions and would like to setup a time to talk, or you would like to be removed from our communications regarding CSB, please let me know. 

Regards,