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By: Robert Williams, Co-Chair,
VAP
The Virginia Association
for Parks (VAP) is a "power-sharing" organizational structure. We have a co-chair for state parks and a co-chair for national parks, and our Secretary is a state park volunteer. We also have four advisors who are paid park professionals and therefore non-voting members of the Executive Committee. Two of our advisors are state park employees, and the other two are national park employees. Though we are still in the formative stages, the leadership team is considering several possibilities to assist parks throughout Virginia. In addition to continuing to offer training programs and opportunities for park support organizations to work together, we are continuing to be strong advocates for all of Virginia's parks. Those involved with VAP wrote letters to the editor of their local newspapers and sent letters to elected state officials requesting a sharp increase in state park funding.
In November 1997, state and national park volunteers, staff members and supporters from all over the Commonwealth of Virginia gathered in Fredericksburg, Virginia for a weekend training session. The Friends of Fredericksburg Area Battlefields (FoFAB) and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park hosted the program. Though the workshop had originally been planned for National Park volunteers only, the Assistant Regional Director for Public Affairs of the Northeast Region of the National Park Service encouraged FoFAB to include state park volunteers also. At the same time the workshop was in the initial planning stages, Vera Guise, President of American Grassroots Unlimited, was thinking of ways to begin coordinating existing park support organizations for mutual self-help.
American Grassroots and FoFAB decided to join forces to meet their mutual goal of training and assisting park support organizations on both the state park and national park level. Sarah Bishop, President of Partners in Parks, also joined the team. Guise and Bishop were able to use their extensive organizational skills to develop a dynamic workshop that included individuals from all over the Commonwealth. The National Park Trust, the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Parks Mid-Atlantic Council, and the National Park Service Northeast Region provided financial assistance for the workshop to keep registration fees and other expenses affordable for those who attended.
From this workshop and several other planning meetings, the Virginia Association of Parks was created. Goals of the Association include:
1. Advocacy for parks;
2. Fostering a better partnership with parks;
3. Defining the "friends" organizations in a broader context;
4. Bringing other associated groups into that context;
5. Promoting a better understanding of "friends" organizations, and;
6. Fostering communication between park partners.
Our programs while in their infancy, include:
1. Offering assistance in forming new support organizations for those parks that do not already have one;
2. Coordinating "consulting teams" around the state that could offer free technical advice and assistance to small or newly formed park support organizations.
3. Offering affiliate or subsidiary status in VAP so new organizations could receive state incorporation, tax-exemption, and liability insurance under the umbrella of VAP.
(This would greatly assist new park support organizations and small park support organizations by allowing them to enjoy these benefits without the time and expense of filing for this status on their own.)
4. We may also be able to "bundle" grant applications thereby providing assistance for several parks who have similar needs.
Now that the state and national park organizations have heard of us, we would like to begin reaching out to regional and local parks. Although we are a new organization, as far as anyone can tell, the VAP is the first organization of its kind anywhere in the country. Therefore, word of our organization has spread and we have been told that park directors from other states who have heard of our efforts are looking to us to pave the way for similar organizations throughout the country.
Our mission of assisting local, regional, state, and national parks in Virginia is closely related to the mission of the National Park Trust; seeking to assure the protection of America's parks. One opportunity our board is considering is the chance to work with the National Park Trust to conduct training workshops throughout the country explaining how other states can establish organizations similar to VAP for their parks.
Although we are a relatively new, all volunteer organization, we are pleased to have the opportunity to make some positive contribution to assisting park support organizations in our collective goal of preserving and protecting America's "national system of parks". If you have any suggestions or comments on how we can better serve our parks, please feel free too contact us.
Call to Action
Get involved by visiting your favorite park and talking with park staff to learn about the challenges they face and how you as a private citizen can join a local "friends" group.
If you have any suggestions or comments on VAP, please contact:
vap@parksonline.org
Email the Trust at NPT@parktrust.org with your success stories so we can share them with others.
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