Northeast Regional Office (NER) and National Capital Regional Office (NCR) Partnerships

Northeast Regional Office (NER) and National Capital Regional Office (NCR) Partnerships
August 28, 2001

DRAFT FOR INTERNAL REVIEW ONLY

Partnerships, any voluntary collaboration among individuals or organizations working toward a common objective, are routinely used throughout Regional and field offices to carry out the Mission of the National Park Service. In certain situations a partnership may build synergistically on the time, talent, and support of all partners to achieve mutual benefit and interest.

In response to interest expressed by Marie Rust, Regional Director of NER, the Regional Directors of the Northeast Region and National Capital Region would like to explore possible ways to use cross-regional partnerships to achieve the Mission of NPS. Specifically this effort is intended to:

Identify options to explore how NER and NCR might use our best people on some of our most important project places/hot-spots.

Broaden the partnership and collaboration arena between NCR and NER to examine how we can use people's skills in the best possible way.

The goal of this collaboration is to find ways to use partnerships across Regional boundaries to help NPS park and program managers, and community leaders, meet National, State and local goals and objectives within NCR and NER.

For the purposes of this proposal partnerships include park partnerships, partnership areas and partnership programs.

Within each of these categories, we can identify areas of emphasis or priority and identify collaborative activities. The emphasis areas may be specific projects, geographic areas or outcomes.


Potential Activities

1.Sign and implement the Chesapeake Bay Program Office
Agreement. NER will prepare and sign the document. Jonathan Doherty will be the primary NER contact. Glenn Eugster is the NCR liaison.

2.Develop, sign and implement an agreement for NER’s
Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program activities within NCR. Robert Potter will be the primary NER contact. Glenn Eugster is the NCR coordinator.

3.Conduct four NER/NCR forums to discuss partnerships
and collaboration. Two of the forums will target parks. One will focus on Northeast parks and the other on NCR parks. The idea is to solicit superintendent and park unit input on concerns, needs and interests in order to generate partnerships ideas that regions can assist with. Two forums that target central office staff will also be
arranged. The results of the forums will be used to develop a draft agenda and identify possible future support work and initiatives. Joe DiBello will be the NE contact and Glenn Eugster will be the NCR liaison.

4. NCR/NER/SER will propose to NPS-Washington an East
Coast In-Park Partnership Seminar for park partnership training. The training will include messaging, friends-raising, revenue generation, and project specific case study examples. Washington funds will also be requested to help finance the seminar. For NER, Michael Adlerstein will be the key contact. Rick McCullough will be the SER contact and Glenn Eugster will coordinate NCR efforts.


5. NCR is conducting an NPS Sustainability Fair scheduled for November 2-3 on the National Mall in Washington, DC. NER will join the workgroup and/or have an exhibit. Marc Koenings will be the key contact for NER. Mike Doherty is the NCR contact.

6. NER has begun to identify priorities, projects and people for further NER-NCR "hot-spot" collaboration. The Hudson River Valley was identified as a priority area by NER. The area has been a focus of much preservation and conservation activity and has a long and complicated history. If there is management interest in bringing together NPS staff, Glenn Eugster and Joe DiBello are willing to organize or facilitate a one-day meeting or discussions. The purpose of this session is to develop the NPS role and a strategy for NPS to effectively collaborate internally and with state local and private partners in the watershed.


7. NER and NCR will continue to discuss partnerships at meetings or forums to share information and experiences and develop opportunities for future collaboration. These can take place at superintendent conferences; separate meetings, training curriculum and sessions, annual meetings etc.



Next Steps

This proposal is intended for review and comment by the Directorate of each Regional Office to determine the support and priority of these possible activities. Once the review is completed, if support exists, the proposal will be revised and implemented.