Realignment--NCR Partnership Office

Memo to: All Superintendents, Regional Directorate
From: Regional Director

Subject: Realignment--NCR Partnership Office

Effective August 5, 2002 the National Capital Region Partnership Office will report directly to the Regional Director. There are a number of reasons for the realignment, however, the primary objective is to provide more visibility to the initiative.

Increasingly there is a need to use partnerships as a technique to provide for park visitors and protect park resources. Recent changes proposed in the Washington Office leadership portfolio reinforce this need and gives higher priority to partnership activities service-wide.

The NCR Partnership Office was created in March 2000 in order “to find ways to use partnerships to help National Park Service Park and program managers, and community leaders meet National, State and local goals and objectives within the Potomac River watershed and metropolitan Washington region”.

The location of the Partnership Office is intended to demonstrate the importance of ongoing partnering and fundraising efforts. This change does not include the consolidation of existing regional partnership, volunteer, and outdoor recreation activities or the addition of new staff. It does, however, reinforce NCR’s strategy and commitment to use partnerships to support park, State, community and volunteer initiatives through the integration of programs, projects, and activities at regional and park levels.

NCR leadership believes that voluntary partnerships--both projects and long-term relationships, can be a key approach to dealing with issues and opportunities that cut across park, program, policy and technical lines, and across the landscapes we work in.

For further information on the activities and services of the NCR Partnership Office, contact Glenn Eugster, Assistant Regional Director, Partnerships, at (202) 619-7492.