NPS Partnership Council Conference Call Highlights May 2006 Attendees: Kassandra Hardy (Unilever Congressional Intern) Judy Gottlieb Chris Soller John Paige Maryanne Gerbauckas Dan Wenk Todd Suess Jeff Bernstein Glenn Eugster Marty Sterkel Diana Maxwell Leslie Dietrich Pamela Underhill Rich Fedorchak Helen Scully Suzanne Brinkley Diane Jung John Piltzecker Greg Kendrick Nancy Woods Rick McCollough Wendy O’Sullivan Tammie DeGrossi Nora Mitchell
1. Director’s Order #21 on Donations and Fundraising (DO #21) – John Piltzecker a. The revised DO #21 and its accompanying Reference Guide was released May 1. Both are posted on the NPS Policy website. The hyperlinks are: Director's Order #21: http://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DO21-reissue.html Reference Guide: http://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DO21-ReferenceGuide.html b. A notice in the Federal Register about the availability of DO #21 will be posted shortly. Thanks in particular to Karyn Ferro, and Jeff Bernstein and Barry Roth in the Solicitor’s Office for their work on the revision, as well as the work of the Partnership Council for the last few years. (Thanks to John Piltzecker too!) c. We will discuss DO #21 at the upcoming Partnership Council meeting. This will also be an opportunity to discuss the two model agreements found in the Reference Guide. 2. Partnership Construction Process – Dan Wenk and Chris Soller a. The annual report to Congress is being reviewed at the Department level.
b. Four partnership construction projects (Golden Gate Trails, Yosemite Trails, Georgetown Waterfront Park, Mesa Verde Visitor Center) are being reviewed at the Department level prior to submission to Congress for initial review. c. The Denver Service Center has developed a tracking system for partnership construction projects and will manage the system. Chris Soller will be responsible for providing DSC the information needed to populate the data base
for each partnership project. The data requirements for the tracking system closely follow the benchmarks and data requirements of the partnership construction process. Dan Wenk will make a presentation of the tracking system at the Partnership Council meeting in DC. d. Flight 93 National Memorial Partnership Project has been approved and fundraising agreement has been completed and executed by all partners. 3. National Park Foundation Update – John Piltzecker: a. The National Park Foundation board will be meeting at Great Smoky Mountains National Park on May 6. b. American Airline’s Proud Partner renewal with the National Park Foundation was approved by the Director. We are working on finalizing our renewal with Ford and a new Proud Partner relationship with Coca-Cola. We are also discussing the terms of our Proud Partner renewal with Discovery Communication. c. The National Park Foundation Superintendents’ Council will meet in Washington, DC on May 17. 4. Upcoming Partnership Council Meeting – May 16-17 a. The Partnership Council meeting will be held at the Washington Plaza Hotel at Thomas Circle in Washington, DC May 16-17. Please register for the conference. b. We will be joining board members of the APPL for a working lunch the first day of our meeting, May 16. At 5:30 p.m. on May 17, Partnership Council meeting participants are invited to join the board of APPL, the National Park Foundation Superintendents’ Council and the staff of the National Park Foundation for a reception at the National Park Foundation offices at 11 Dupont Circle. c. The Friends Alliance will be holding its DC meeting at the Washington Plaza Hotel, May 18-19. This meeting will be co-sponsored with the National Park Foundation. For more information on the Friends Alliance meeting contact Curt Buchholtz at Rocky Mountain Nature Association, curtb@rmna.org. d. Marty Sterkel expressed interest in the issue of Hybrids (combination cooperating association/friends group) and ensuring all perspectives and the issue is moving forward with PC council concerns and perspectives represented. Glenn suggested Ray Murray as a good representative to the workgroup led by Corky Mayo. An additional suggestion was made to add an additional person from the Council with a different perspective than Golden Gate’s unique success and situation. Marianne Gerbaukus consented to be our other rep to the group.
e. Glenn’s suggestion to provide some information to the Council in regards to Earned Income/Revenue Generation was discussed. How to best do this in a timely manner , with the best possible expertise will be given time on the agenda at the May meeting under the item of emerging issues. 5. Training and Development Update – Rich Fedorchak a. A new Superintendent has been selected for the Mather Training Center—Dave Dahlen. Dave is currently Chief of Interpretation at Glacier National Park. He will EOD in August. b. Needs Assessment: We are at the final stages of the survey design. All the questions have been finalized and since it is web-based, the survey will used a “filtering” design that will ask questions based on the developmental level of the respondent. Next step is to pilot this survey to 150 employees in late May or early June. c. Met with Service-wide Cooperating Association Coordinator Rose Fennell, APPL staff and others on creating a course on Coop Association Management (roll-out of the revised DO #32). Tentative dates in late August as a TEL class and next March as an APPL workshop. d. Met with APPL staff, National Park Foundation staff and Partnership Office staff to discuss the Tapping Funding Through Grants TEL training scheduled for September. e. Tentative Schedule for DO #21 TEL class is late September. f. Will be auditing the “Developing and Working with Friends Groups” May 10-12 at the National Conservation Training Center. The FWS has been doing this course for several years and the NPS had participated as course coordinators and participants in the past. g. Met with NCTC’s Dawn Lagrotteria, Branch Chief Training and Angela Graziano, Course Leader to revive the Sustaining Funding Strategies class that the NPS had worked on and added funds to two years ago. h. Tentatively scheduled to speak to the Fundamentals V class in June on working with NPS Partners and on Partnership competencies and training. 6. Partnership Council Charter – Diane Jung a. Diane Jung led a discussion on potential changes to the Partnership Council charter. Please refer to email messages sent by Diane to the Council in preparation for further discussion at the Council meeting.
7. Partnership Graphic Identity Program – Marty Sterkel and Pam Underhill a. Pam Underhill will be in contact with Phil Musselwhite at the Harpers Ferry Center to discuss next steps in developing a graphic identity program for partnerships. Thanks to Pam for taking the lead on this committee.