National Parks Centennial Initiative

National Parks Centennial Initiative
April 18, 2007 Teleconference call
Prepared by J. Glenn Eugster
NPS-NCR, Partnerships Office


Steve Whitesell opened with a status of the Centennial effort.
He indicated that the date for delivery of the proposal to the Administration is May 31, 2007. He indicated that the recent leadership meeting in Shepherdstown, WV went well. He said it was an Executive listening session. He noted that the Secretary has relied on groups and individuals to give council and that he started early with this advise. The Secretary relies on these groups and individuals in a free-flow arrangement.

He chose to invite 50 people to the gathering including 9 from Department, some individual advisors and legal help. There were also 12 from NPS including 4-6 superintendents, Regional Director Quintana, and individuals that Secretary met over the last 6-8 months. Vince Cippola and Jaime Patten attended from NPF, as did Jeff Reinbold-on detail to NPF, Tom Kiernan and Tom Martin from NPCA, John Bridgeland was at the White House, Derrick Crandall from the American Recreation Coalition, Fran Googlemier from Outdoor Industry, the Vice President of REI, Quintin Martin of Coca Cola, John Shotman of River Resorts, Terre Jones from Wolf Trap, and others.

Steve said NPS provided an audio visual, which was done by NPS-HFC to give an overview of the Centennial Initiative. The film led into Public Listening sessions with voice-overs rolled into talking about goals developed by the Think Thank Team. They used break out groups to go over the goals. Participants were asked how you feel about these goals. They weren’t looking for consensus rather best reads—does it sound good.

The participants questioned NPS about whether we were thinking big enough. They said think bolder and grander in the goal statements.

The NPS team shared an idea of re-flavoring the Signature Projects, which are now called Centennial Projects. Three prototypical projects were shared. They included: 1) the Franklin Museum Project in Philadelphia. The Pugh Trust will put in $12 million if the federal government would match $6 million; 2) The Edison Curatorial Storage Facility which reflects the roots of the recording industry and parallels similar curatorial projects from other regions.

This sparked discussion about appropriateness of these funds going for this type of need. There was a split in opinion within the audience. To some it sounded like core operations. John Latschar of GETT did a great job of explaining that we have had a lot of projects in the system for a long time. He contrasted these ongoing needs to the idea that philanthropic projects should only reflect the margin of excellence.

The third project involved the idea that every park would adopt a 3rd grade class from now until they graduate from High School. Steve said there were good conversations around that idea.

The group also discussed branding and what the message of this Centennial Initiative should be. Nothing that was discussed changed our current direction. The NPS team left the meeting convinced that the report that goes to the Department and the Administration will be like a vision document and less like a performance management tool. In total our leadership group was told you are on the right course, proceed!

Jennifer Mummart mentioned that she sat in on the discussion on goals and themes for the education topic. She said that the private sector people thought that education was like marketing, promotions and communications. She encouraged us to use caution with how we use the term education.

Steve Whitesell added that the report will highlight one proposed project per theme. He said, as of now, the report won’t include a comprehensive outline of 10 years of projects.

Steve and Jennifer asked the teleconference participants if they had any questions.

Q—-Who gets the report.
A--2,000 copies will be produced. Copies will go to all field areas; all members of Congress; and other multiple audiences. There will also be a complimentary re-launch of the Centennial webpage available as well.

Q—-What kinds of changes will there be to the goals? A--Kate Richardson said that there will be a more assertive approach from NPS rather than passive. This will be more around word-smithing. The content will be the same.

Q—-What about the themes? Will they be the categories we used?
A—The Think Tank Team used all the material that came through the website. The comments were synthesized. Goals—statements were formed that include statements that reflect “By 2016 NPS will…..”

There are 5 goals/ themes: Stewardship, education, environmental leadership, recreation, and organization renewal.

Projects were grouped and lumped based on what made the most sense.

The Think Tank Team also came up with implementation strategies for each goal/ theme.

Q—-What are the 5 projects?
A--They are still thinking about these.
They will expand the 3 projects noted earlier to five.

Jennifer Mummart noted that they are trying to do a good summary of what has been done to date. Tomorrow or Friday this information will be on Inside NPS and there will be a regular update.

Q—- The Rocky Mountain Regional Office expressed concern about whether projects are ready? They said there is a big concern about the criteria that was used for the search. They feel that we need to ask people, Are you really ready?

A—-NPS team leaders agreed with this concern and in the next week or two they will go out to everyone with guidance on this issue. They encouraged us to hold off so that we can get the same information from every region and park. WASO wants to any new information on projects and partner contributions to be consistent. The request will go through Centennial Initiative Regional Coordinators.

The group continued to discuss this issue. Some participants were concerned that some regions didn’t score projects the same way. Of the ones that are listed as “partner ready”, do they have cash in hand now? Can they get cash in hand quickly?

Steve Whitesell said that they are trying to get some answers so that everyone has fair access to the dollars. There was mention that there is some concern from OMB that we may be playing bait-and-switch with partners that have already committed money. Steve reaffirmed that we want to have the maximum opportunity to give access to dollars but also make sure that NPS is logical in the way we make decisions.

The NPS leaders indicated that their preference is to showcase multi-park efforts. They want to have compelling project that are no-brainers.

Q—-WASO leaders wanted to know what can we do?
A--People want to know what is going on. WASO is working on this. As much as they want to keep us informed they don’t want to jump ahead of leadership’s prerogative for announcements.

Steve Whitesell suggested that we keep up dialogue with public listening sessions. He said that people have asked that we continue to have this type of dialogue on a regular basis.

Jennifer Mummart said that she wants to continue to get brief summaries of listening sessions.

Q—-What about the legislation? A—The discussion at Sheperdstown, WV was about what’s right and what’s wrong with the current legislation. The legislation that went forward is the official Administration legislation. There is a little bit of an ownership issue in that it requires buy-in from OMB, Treasury, the Department, the Administration, and there is considerable buy-in to what was proposed.

There is some recognition that there are problems—money has to come into Treasury first is a big concern. Some of the participants thought that maybe there should be a grant program. Many private groups evidently want to avoid Davis-Bacon but this might not be possible. We have to remember that we have leadership that won’t turn its back on Davis-Bacon requirements.

The legislation has been sent to Hill, including the Authorizing Committees and there hasn’t been a conclusion about introducing this yet. Rumor has it that the House wants to see the list of projects before acting on the legislation.



Q--Any discussion on what happens next? How are we going to manage the Centennial?
A—-This is a shared concern and it will be discussed at NLC meeting in May. What form should this take? How do we hire and house 3,000 seasonals? Issues are on their mind but haven’t been decided what the solutions are.

Alaska has some ideas about overarching management approaches. Steve Whitesell said people are looking at different aspects of the Centennial but it hasn’t been pulled together yet.

Q—Who brought a whitepaper to Shepherdstown, WV? NPCA was the only group to do it. They have a lengthy piece on what the Centennial should like. It has targeted outcomes. Interesting but possibly premature.

The next teleconference call is next Wednesday at the same time.