NCR Fund Meeting with Jim McDaniel
February 9, 2001
A meeting was held with Superintendent McDaniel to discuss the NCR fundraising effort. Although the White House Liaison didn't submit written comments Mr. McDaniel offered the following comments and issues. Please note that the Superintendent has not reviewed these notes.
Jim wants to see us get started with the NCR fundraising effort and be flexible enough to change our design in the future if we need to. He believes that this is a new and untried experiment and that we need to make changes as we go. He urged us to get started, measure as we go, adjust the course and try and not be afraid.
The Superintendent would like us to create a distance between the White House and President's Park. He believes that the White House can take care of itself. It can give to our effort but it does not have to receive assistance from the proposed NCR fund.
Jim feels that the White House, with help from NPF (i.e. Easter Egg Roll, jogging track, PBA television program, etc.) and the White House Association, has the partners and resources to do what they need to. The White House evidently has a 27 million endowment and the Association has approximately 60 million in assets.
Mr. McDaniel does believe that the White House can be used to help our messaging effort with regional populations. He would like us to reinforce that the White House is a unit of NPS and they can be brought in to help our larger effort if appropriate (i.e. interpretive tours could include the White House tour or the grounds).
Jim thinks that the NCR fund can help with President's Park projects and activities and efforts around the White House, such as a museums brochure, etc.
Superintendent McDaniel believes that we should identify aspects of our effort that we can do successfully in order to create an impression of a successful venture. He believes that this is essential in order to ensure that our effort stays alive.
Jim suggested that "we run the title, Nation's Capital National Park Fund, by people who aren't us and ask them what does this tell you?". He urged us to "pre-test" the title and the fundraising message soon.
He doesn't believe that the upper region and lower region issues are important to the public. Jim stressed that "Inside or outside the Beltway makes no difference to the public. We should put the public's interests first".
Superintendent McDaniel suggested that we develop web-site itinerary's with themes to link our parks together to show visitors the relationships and close proximity between NCR parks.
He believes that we can dissolve the inside-outside concerns by stressing more team building within NCR. He believes that we don't need more meetings but that we do need more experiences that show us how to work together. He suggested that rather than encouraging independent activities we should bring together our park and program leaders for training on team building.
Jim urged us to get a professional to work with top management to build common team building approaches. He noted OPM courses in leadership as good examples of this type of approach and agency commitment to team building.
Mr. McDaniel also suggested that we consider using our existing video to produce a shorter (i.e. three minute) tape on NCR parks. He urged us to consider securing outside experts, perhaps on a pro-bono basis, to make this summary tape. Jim believes that we could use the tape to further refine our strategic thinking for the fundraising effort.
Conclusion: Superintendent McDaniel is most supportive of the fundraising effort and anxious for us to move ahead.
February 9, 2001
A meeting was held with Superintendent McDaniel to discuss the NCR fundraising effort. Although the White House Liaison didn't submit written comments Mr. McDaniel offered the following comments and issues. Please note that the Superintendent has not reviewed these notes.
Jim wants to see us get started with the NCR fundraising effort and be flexible enough to change our design in the future if we need to. He believes that this is a new and untried experiment and that we need to make changes as we go. He urged us to get started, measure as we go, adjust the course and try and not be afraid.
The Superintendent would like us to create a distance between the White House and President's Park. He believes that the White House can take care of itself. It can give to our effort but it does not have to receive assistance from the proposed NCR fund.
Jim feels that the White House, with help from NPF (i.e. Easter Egg Roll, jogging track, PBA television program, etc.) and the White House Association, has the partners and resources to do what they need to. The White House evidently has a 27 million endowment and the Association has approximately 60 million in assets.
Mr. McDaniel does believe that the White House can be used to help our messaging effort with regional populations. He would like us to reinforce that the White House is a unit of NPS and they can be brought in to help our larger effort if appropriate (i.e. interpretive tours could include the White House tour or the grounds).
Jim thinks that the NCR fund can help with President's Park projects and activities and efforts around the White House, such as a museums brochure, etc.
Superintendent McDaniel believes that we should identify aspects of our effort that we can do successfully in order to create an impression of a successful venture. He believes that this is essential in order to ensure that our effort stays alive.
Jim suggested that "we run the title, Nation's Capital National Park Fund, by people who aren't us and ask them what does this tell you?". He urged us to "pre-test" the title and the fundraising message soon.
He doesn't believe that the upper region and lower region issues are important to the public. Jim stressed that "Inside or outside the Beltway makes no difference to the public. We should put the public's interests first".
Superintendent McDaniel suggested that we develop web-site itinerary's with themes to link our parks together to show visitors the relationships and close proximity between NCR parks.
He believes that we can dissolve the inside-outside concerns by stressing more team building within NCR. He believes that we don't need more meetings but that we do need more experiences that show us how to work together. He suggested that rather than encouraging independent activities we should bring together our park and program leaders for training on team building.
Jim urged us to get a professional to work with top management to build common team building approaches. He noted OPM courses in leadership as good examples of this type of approach and agency commitment to team building.
Mr. McDaniel also suggested that we consider using our existing video to produce a shorter (i.e. three minute) tape on NCR parks. He urged us to consider securing outside experts, perhaps on a pro-bono basis, to make this summary tape. Jim believes that we could use the tape to further refine our strategic thinking for the fundraising effort.
Conclusion: Superintendent McDaniel is most supportive of the fundraising effort and anxious for us to move ahead.
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