NPS Partnership Council Conference Call Highlights
July 6, 2004

  1. Update from WASO - Chris Jarvi
    1. Proud Partner
      • Proud Partner Meeting Recap - June 15-17th - The NPF Proud Partner meeting was held in Yosemite NP. Status reports on the progress of the Partnership Office, the NPF and the individual Proud Partners were given. Discussions revolved around ways in which the resources of the Proud Partners could better be leveraged among the Partners and with the NPS. Ray Murray, Wendy O'Sullivan and Chris Jarvi were in attendance. Attached is the status report given on the Partnership Office.
      • Ford Hybrid Donation - Ford Motor Company announced the donation of 12 Hybrid Ford Escapes to the NPS in Washington DC with the Secretary of the Interior in attendance. This donation had been vetted through the Partnership Office. Selection of the sites for placement of the vehicles was based on the donor's desire to locate the cars in prime market areas and where they could be easily serviced.
    2. GAO Report Response (http://www.gao.gov/) - GAO has requested a response to their five recommendations provided in the study that they did of the NPF. The Associateship is developing a response to be signed by the Secretary of Interior's Office.
    3. FY2004 $500,000 Partnership/Volunteer Workplans - The latest Workplan for expenditure of the $500K provided for partnership/volunteer program implementation met with the approval of the Director. However, the Director reiterated that she did not want the funding to replace funding lost because of budget problems in the regions and expected expanded results in the partnership and volunteer programs from this augmentation. The regions will have the burden of proof.
    4. Rivers and Trails Strategic Plan Status - The final draft of the RTCA strategic plan was completed and sent to the Partnership Council for review under separate cover. The Partnership Council is being asked to review the document and brief their respective Associate/Regional Director re: content. The NLC will be given copies for their review.
    5. Hiring Status/Approval of Budget
      • Partnership Chief/Rotation of Acting Chief
        Chris Niewold has rotated into the acting Chief of the Partnership Office. All correspondence should be directed to Chris. The recruitment of the permanent Chief has been held up by the review process needed to certify a list of candidates.
      • Tourism Chief - Interviews are under way for the position of the Tourism Chief. Nine candidates are being interviewed and a decision should be able to be made in early to mid August.
      • Staff Analyst - A PD has been created and recruitment started for the Staff Analyst position.
      • Youth Programs/Danny Smith Acting - Danny Smith is the acting Youth Programs manager until a permanent replacement can be found. While recruitment has started, there may be an option of moving a very qualified SES candidate into this position from another agency. Both options are being explored.
    6. Golden Age Pass Update - The Partnership Office is working with the NPF to find a way to put stickers on the latest printing of the Golden Age Passes similar to that done on the Park Passes. The sticker offers a copy of the National Park Owner's Manual for anyone sending their name into the NPF. The purpose of this effort is to capture names of Golden Age Pass holders.
    7. Jr. Rangers Implementation Plan and Event - The NPF has been working behind the scenes to gear up for a fundraising campaign to help assist the Jr. Rangers Program. Details of the campaign are not available at this time but the entire effort would create a new watermark for NPF assistance of NPS programs.
    8. 2016 Celebration Update - The NPS and the NPF are contemplating a cooperative effort in planning and celebrating the NPS centennial in 2016. This has been discussed at the Partnership Committee and will be discussed by the NPF Executive Committee in mid July at Rocky Mountain National Park.
    9. SeeAmerica Update - The campaign met everyone's expectations to date. All indications are that attendance is up in the first five months of the year at the National Parks. While this cannot be directly linked to the SeeAmerica campaign, it undoubtedly has been helped by this effort.
    10. JV Conference Award Proposal - At the request of the Department, a proposal has been created to honor some of the best presentations made at the Joint Ventures Conference. Five categories of awardees have been created and each agency may nominate one awardee per category for their agency. A total of no more than 35 awards would be given. The awards would be signed by all seven agency heads and given out as the agency heads or appropriate Secretaries traveled around the country in the next several months.
    11. Musco Lighting Grant - Musco Lighting made a $500,000 grant to the NPF to help upgrade the lighting standards for the NPS. Sample projects would be done to look at energy efficient types of lighting and the results would eventually be incorporated into a manual to be used in the development of new construction projects. Musco has also offered to light the Washington Monument at no cost to the NPS.
    12. Park Stewards - The Park Stewards proposal that was created to capture more names in the parks for fundraising purposes is being implemented on a trial basis this summer in two ways. Acadia, Rocky Mountain and Cuyahoga Valley National Parks are testing various methods of name capture this summer to test the effectiveness of such systems. Further, the NPF has hired a consultant to determine the best way of developing an affinity item that can be bought by the park visitor that wishes to identify themselves as "park stewards". A professional fundraising consultant is being used to identify the right type of sales item (pin, video disc, etc.) and the work will be evaluated in terms of its uniqueness and attractiveness. The consultant's concepts will be evaluated by a committee composed of representatives of the NPF, the Friends Alliance and our larger cooperating associations.
    13. Agency Head Roundtable Meeting 7/14 - The second Agency Head Roundtable Meeting will be held on July 14th. A robust agenda is being developed to brief the Agency Heads on work done on partnerships to date by each agency and by the 4 C's work group.
    14. Friends Alliance at National Parks Advisory Board Meeting - Estes Park 7/14-7/15 - The National Parks Advisory Board is meeting in Estes Park on July 15th on a variety of topics. A select group of the Friends Alliance Board asked for the opportunity to speak at the meeting on the impact of budget cuts on philanthropy.
  2. Partnership Project Assessment Update - Peggy Halderman
    Meeting with Regions on Partnership Construction Process.
  3. DO 21 Update - Karyn Ferro
    Still working/reviewing document. Still trying to make September deadline.
  4. Training Update - Celeste Bernardo
    Partnership Agreements TEL course delayed for at least 30 days due to policy issues (policy doesn't match handbook and contracting procurement).
  5. Strategic Vision Update - Marty Sterkel
    No additional input received so Strategic Vision is final. Product will be sent out as soon as Chris Jarvi approves it.