Attendees

1. News from the Partnership Office
   
   
   1. Training
      
      
      • Rich Fedorchak has submitted funding requests for Tel Net and classroom training courses in 2006. Proposed Tel Net training will include DO #21 revisions, obtaining funding through grants and overview of the National Park Foundation. The classroom training proposal includes developing and working with friends groups. Funding has also been requested to develop curriculum materials.
      • He is working on the Needs Assessment with Clemson University to develop a questionnaire to identify the needs of partnership training for the NPS. There was a suggestion that the questionnaire provide adequate space for comments.
   
   
   2. Staffing
      
      
      • Jennifer McMahon (Cuyahoga Valley) and Rich Weideman (Golden Gate) have been selected as the first two candidates for the Unilever National Park Executive Exchange Fellowship. The Executive Exchange involves working one month at the NPS Partnership Office, one month at the National Park Foundation, and one month at Unilever's corporate headquarters-providing an opportunity to study internal/external communications from three perspectives: agency, non-profit foundation and corporate. A second call for proposals/candidates will be issued in the spring of next year.
      • Jerry Mitchell, Management Assistant at Yosemite, will be working at the National Park Foundation on a long term detail beginning September 26.
   
   
   3. Partnership Construction Process
      
      
      • There is a call out to regional partnership coordinators to get information to inform Congress for projects for the next 3-5 years in the $5 million category and also for the $1 million to 5 million category. Chris Soller is the contact for this in the Partnership Office.
      • Fundraising agreements submitted to the Partnership Office through the Partnership Construction Process should come to the Director unsigned. The Director will sign the agreement once the project is approved; Regional Director and park partner will sign after the Director has approved the project.
   
   
   4. NPS Advisory Board-Philanthropy Committee update
      
      
      • The Philanthropy Committee has taken a focus on the year 2016, which is the 100-year anniversary of the NPS. What will philanthropy look like in the year 2016?
      • John Debo from Cuyahoga NP is heading up this effort.
   
   
   5. DO #21 Update
      
      
      • The draft DO will go out for internal review once Departmental policy on donations is finalized-at that time it will go out for internal review through the NLC and then be announced in the Federal Register for external review and comment. (Just released 9/30/05)
   
   
2. Work Group Reports
   
   
   1. NPS/NPF Communication Workgroup
      
      
      • A memo went out from Vin Cipolla regarding changes at the National Park Foundation.
      • The NPS/NPF Communication Workgroup should have a conference call before the PC meeting.


3. Other Business
   
   
   1. Fall Partnership Meeting
   
   
   
   • Partnership Council meeting will be October 25th and 26th.
   • Partnership training course (sponsored by Midwest and Intermountain Regional but open to all) will be October 25th-27th.
   • The draft agenda and briefing book are in the process of being developed.



4. White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation
   
   
   • Brian O'Neill reported that the sessions had very good content. There was good dialogue on partnering and collaborative conservation. A list of priority actions was created to be done as a follow up to the conference.
   • There is a plan to set up a Cooperative Conservation Task Force.