NPS PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL MEETING

NPS PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL MEETING
HIGHLIGHTS
MAY 20-21, 2002


PURPOSE

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to improve the ability of the National Park Service to implement partnerships that will preserve resources and extend the benefits of resource conservation and outdoor recreation.

RESULTS

The outcomes of the meeting were:

· Further understanding of the Director’s charge to the Council
· Clarification of the elements of a vision for NPS partnerships and the
Partnership Council
· Partnership Council discussions focused on decisions and action plans for the
following areas:
 Review and refinement of a draft charter to guide the work of the
Council.
 Recognition of the importance of communications to the ability of
NPS to implement partnerships, and the need for a communications
strategy.
 Identification of preliminary steps to define roles and responsibilities
for implementing partnerships.
 Formulation of recommended actions aimed at developing the capacity
necessary to further the use and success of partnerships.


PARTICIPANTS

Participants in the meeting were prospective members of the Partnership Council. Representatives included the WASO Associate Directors, WASO Partnership Office, Regional Directors (represented by the regional partnership coordinators), the two service centers, one superintendent from each region, and the National Park Foundation.








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DIRECTOR’S CHARGE TO THE COUNCIL

Director Fran Mainella spoke to the Council and answered questions about the future direction for NPS partnerships. The Director discussed the following topics and asked the Council for specific input on each.

Partnerships As “WIN-WIN” Relationships
· Partnerships are not a program, but a way of doing business
-- They are about much more than fund-raising
-- Clarity of expectations is critical to good partnerships
-- You don’t have to have partnerships -- a partnership should be
chosen only when and as long as it is a win for both the NPS and the
partner
-- The NPS does not always need to be in the lead
· The Director asked the Council to provide:
-- Input on the vision for partnerships
-- Ideas for action
-- Examples of success stories and what makes good and successful
partnerships

Director’s Order 21
· DO-21 needs to:
-- Be clear, correct and user-friendly
-- Match up with what is going on in the field so that it avoids
reinventing the wheel
-- Clarify the Proud Partners Program
-- Keep parks from being commercialized or “tacky” in terms of signs
and donor recognition
· The Director asked the Council to provide:
-- Input
-- Examples of what is not working

Training
· Relates to:
-- Mentoring
-- Everything from orientation for new employees to training
superintendents
-- The fact that many NPS senior employees who have partnership
experience will be retiring in the near future
· The Director asked the Council to provide:
-- Guidance to the new head of training, Martha Aikens


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Seamless Network of Parks
· Includes these goals:
-- Build the public stake in parks and the feeling that it is important to take care
of resources
-- Continue NPS branding
-- Work with state park and private interests
-- Reorient messages and effectively market NPS
-- Partner within NPS
· The Director asked the Council to provide:
-- Ideas
-- Input to a new person who will be named to head-up marketing

National Partnership Conference
· Status and goals
-- Planned for November 2003 in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. or San
Antonio (Los Angeles has been selected as the site.)
-- Will involve NPS staff and partners
-- Will be a partnership conference with a focus on seamless network of parks
-- Will also emphasize case studies and best practices
-- Will look beyond the NPS
· The Director asked the Council to provide input on:
-- Location for conference
-- Who to invite and how to invite them
-- Program for the conference


DECISIONS AND ACTION PLANS

CHARTER FOR PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL

The purpose of the Partnership Council is to advise the Associate responsible for partnerships on the creation, delivery and efficient use of partnership programs, tools and ideas across program and geographic lines. The Council discussed and agreed on the following refinements to the draft charter.

Purpose

The Council will advise/make recommendations to the Associate responsible for partnerships on a range of topics and issues. Some will be effectively decided by the Council, some will be considered and decided by the Associate, and some will be taken by the Associate to other Associates, the Director or NLC, as appropriate.




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An added purpose of the Council will be to facilitate open communication and dialogue among the field, regions, directorate and National Park Foundation and other park support organizations. The Council will generally deal with existing or future policy or actions that need to be implemented through the line structure of the NPS.

Representation

The Partnership Council shall consist of 24 members, as follows:
-- 6 representing the WASO Associate Directors
-- 1 representing the WASO Partnership Office
-- 7 representing the Regional Directors
-- 2 representing the Service Center managers
-- 7 representatives from the field, preferably Superintendents, one from each
region
-- 1 representing the National Park Foundation President (NPF will sit on the
Council because it is the only partner that has a Congressional charter to
partner with the NPS.)

In addition, there will be two ex-officio members invited to provide advice, council, review and liaison. One will represent the Solicitor’s Office and the other will represent the Regional Directors’/Deputy Regional Directors’ Council.

Council members bring input, issues and ideas to the Council from the parks, programs or regions that they represent. The Council will name task groups of NPS employees, as necessary, to formulate recommendations for dealing with specific issues.

Governance/Leadership

The Council will be led by two Co-Chairs, one from the Regions and one from the Associate responsible for partnerships. The Regional Office Co-Chair will be assisted by a Back-up Co-Chair. The Co-Chairs will be responsible for ensuring monitoring and tracking of the Council’s decisions and action plans. The Regional Co-Chair will be responsible for identifying views and concerns of the seven regions and feeding them into the Council’s discussions. The Council will make decisions primarily by consensus. In some cases, two or more options will be sent forward along with analysis of the strengths and limitations of each; or a majority view will be suggested along with the statement of an explicit minority position. The Council also agreed on principles and procedures for continuity of operations and the scheduling and conduct of meetings.

NCR was elected by the group to serve as the first Regional Co-Chair and the Intermountain Region was elected to serve as the Regional Co-Chair Back-up. NCR be represented by Glenn Eugster as the Regional Co- Chair and Peggy Halderman


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will represent IMR as the Back-up. Peggy will then move into the Regional Co-Chair
role for the second year and a new back-up elected.


Action Plan for Proceeding With the Charter

The charter was revised and sent to all Council members for comment. Once consensus agreement was reached, the Associate Director took the charter to the NLC as a recommendation.

COMMUNICATION

The Council agreed to begin work on developing a broad communications strategy and plan. Initial discussions on the strategy centered around the types of communication that will be needed internally for the NPS and externally with our partners, and communication procedures to facilitate the work of the Council.

The following types of communication that are crucial to enhancing partnership activities were identified by the Council:

· Sharing of basic information within the NPS, especially information that will facilitate internal partnership capacity building.
· Communication related to partnership accountability and reporting to OMB, GAO and the Inspector General.
· Communication with and among partners.

The following communication procedures were established for the Council:

· Highlights of Partnership Council meetings will be distributed within one month after each meeting:
-- To the Partnership Council by the Co-Chairs
-- To NPS staff by each Council member for staff in their region or program area
-- To the National Park Foundation by Julia Washburn
-- To the Friends Alliance by Chris Niewold
-- To APPL and non-APPL cooperating associations by Rose Fennell or Corky
Mayo

· Bi-monthly conference calls and regular meeting agendas will be used to report on important issues for each region and Washington programs.

· Council members will submit descriptions of best practices, interesting projects, training opportunities, etc., to Chris Niewold for posting on the InsideNPS Partnership Web Page.

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A draft letter on partnerships from the Director to all NPS staff will be prepared using the Partnership Fact Sheet. Other uses will also be considered including placing the letter in Arrowhead.


ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR PARTNERSHIPS

For its discussion of roles and responsibilities in NPS partnerships, the Council divided into several subgroups. Each subgroup identified roles for its particular office or organization. These offices and organizations include parks, regional offices, service centers, Washington offices and the National Park Foundation. Council efforts to clarify roles and responsibilities for partnerships will be ongoing over the next few months including the development of a matrix. Roles and responsibilities will be a major agenda item for the next Council meeting in October.

CAPACITY BUILDING

The Council reviewed a set of recommendations in the “Capacity Building Work Group Report” and identified the following actions:

· Training -- The following actions were endorsed by the Council:
-- Review and refine the skills and competencies identified in the work group
report.
-- A task group was named to share the information from the work group report
with Martha Aikens, the new head of training for the NPS.
-- Prepare an assessment of training courses offered by NPS, other agencies and
the private sector that address the necessary skills and competencies.

· Volunteer Management -- The importance of this program was recognized by the Council, and the Council is willing to provide support to Joy Peachman.

· Partnerships 2003 Conference -- The Council agreed to provide assistance and support for the conference through whomever is selected to lead the effort.

· National “Seamless Network of Parks” -- A strategy for implementation of the concept has been developed by the Pacific West Region and will be shared with the Council.

· Partnerships Reference Guide and Director’s Order 21 -- Council members will review and comment on both documents. The Partnerships Reference Guide will be revised based on this review. For DO-21, comments should focus on specific examples



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of how it could be improved. A task group was appointed to evaluate the comments and recommend whether DO-21 needs to be revised, and if so, how. The recommendations will be presented to the Director.

· Partnership Web Site -- Some preliminary work on developing the web site has been completed. A task group will evaluate this work and recommend further action.

· Cooperative Conservation Initiative -- The Council expressed several concerns about the initiative that will be communicated to the program managers who might be responsible for it if legislation is passed by Congress.

· Challenge Cost Share -- The Council agreed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and consider recommending changes that could be implemented on a national basis.


ELEMENTS OF A VISION FOR NPS PARTNERSHIPS

The Council devoted a considerable portion of the first day to framing a vision for NPS partnerships: what they are today and what they could be in the future. Ideas were identified and listed for the major accomplishments of NPS partnerships about which Council members are proud, major areas of potential, and specific strides that might be made in the next several years to improve the ability of NPS to foster and implement partnerships.

Major accomplishments of NPS partnerships were grouped under the following categories:

· Successful relationships (i.e., gateway community relationships, and those for safety, emergency response, fire, law enforcement, sustainable design technical support, cooperating associations, etc.).

· Internal capability (i.e., establishment of WASO Partnership Office, DO-21, messaging project, etc.).

· External resources (i.e., VIP program with 119,000 volunteers nationwide, growth of National Park Foundation contributions since 1995, $100 million in donations by friends groups, cooperating associations and other organizations, etc.).

· Proud Partner Program




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· Education programs

· Resource preservation

· Successful partnership projects (i.e., public/private consensus on strategy for restoring Everglades ecosystem, National Parks Pass, restoration of Crissy Field, heritage
trails, Zion National Park’s transportation system, restoration of Washington Monument, Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, completion of visitor facilities for Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS in time for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, etc.).



Discussion of the major areas of potential for NPS partnerships resulted in Council recognition of the need for creating a national conservation ethic as the overarching area of potential. In addition, the Council identified the following needs:

· Internal capacity building (i.e., training of cadre of partnership leaders in the NPS, creation of additional volunteer opportunities, making best use of expertise from private sector partners, development of the Senior Ranger program, etc.).

· External capacity building (i.e., technical assistance to friends groups to increase their effectiveness, formulation of place-based friends-raising and fund-raising strategies, expanded long-term relationships with corporate partners for education, fund-raising and other purposes, etc.).

· Increased funding support (i.e., through building of endowments for capital projects and programs, development of detailed outreach strategy for planned giving, additional financial and technical support for partnering, etc.).

· Increased emphasis on education as recommended by the National Park System Advisory Board. Programs are needed to involve teachers, schools and communities in utilizing the parks as powerful educational resources offering unique, place-based learning opportunities.

· Partnerships with local, state, federal, tribal, international and private organizations

· Creation of a national seamless network of parks and special places

· Promotion of sustainable practices and design





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· Increased use of volunteer expertise


The Council also generated ideas on specific things that might be accomplished through NPS partnerships in the next three years. Efforts to enhance partnerships may be most effective when focused on the following actions:

· Training and capacity building (i.e., define competencies and skills needed and conduct training courses to develop “partnership confidence” in every NPS staff person).

· Development of efficient internal and external communications and dialogue (i.e., successful national conference on partnerships and seamless network, national, regional and topic-related forums, professional marketing effort, etc.).

· Creation of infrastructure to support and enhance the development and use of partnerships (i.e., clear policies, procedures, guidelines and effective staffing structure for managing partnerships at all levels of NPS, incubator process to help build friends groups, enhanced management of volunteer opportunities at the park level featuring experts in specialized fields, interactive partnership web site, etc.).

· Establishment of leadership framework for partnerships. The Partnership Council should assume this role. The core of the framework would be an understanding by all NPS managers of the benefits of working with partners and developing positive relationships beyond park boundaries.

· Creation and enhancement of relationships with specific organizations (i.e., American Association of Retired Persons, tourism community, community groups, professional organizations, and local and state education agencies for development of criteria for s chools and formal education programs in parks, etc.).

· Enhancement of fund-raising through the formulation of a more organized approach to raising funds and the establishment of endowments for maintenance and other purposes.










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For Further Information: For more information about NPS partnership activity contact:

h National Partnership Office:

Chris Niewold, NPS-National Partnership Office (202) 208-4932
By e-mail: Christopher_Niewold@nps.gov


h Regional Offices:

Alaska Region, John Quinley, (907)257-2696
By e-mail: John_Quinely@nps.gov

Intermountain Region, Peggy Halderman,(303)969-2831
By e-mail: Peggy_Halderman@nps.gov

Midwest Region, Marty Sterkel,(402)221-3201
By e-mail: Marty_Sterkel@nps.gov

National Capital Region, Glenn Eugster, (202) 619-7492
By e-mail: Glenn_Eugster@nps.gov

Northeast Region, Mike Adlerstein, (212) 825-6881
By e-mail: Mike_Adlerstein@nps.gov

Southeast Region, Rick McCollough, (404) 562-3124, extension 718.
By E-mail: Richard_McCollough@nps.gov

Western Region, Ray Murray, (510)817-1439
By e-mail: Ray_Murray@nps.gov