Output measures are represented in numbers. Outcome measures show participant satisfaction. Mixing the data together provides good management understanding and decision making. For example, while satisfaction for learning went down in education/interpretation the number of interpretive programs and participation hours was increasing. Interpretive walks increased from 15 people to 40 people. The numbers looked good, but the experience was satisfactory! We do 60,000 satisfaction surveys a year within the system.

Each district superintendent has a contract with the management staff about their piece of the effort. They use the historical data, available resources, and staff and predict what is going to occur in their region. At the end of the year a discussion occurs about what happened.

Use the Malcolm Baldridge National Performance Criteria as a benchmark for comparison of how well we are doing! This allows us to see how well we compare to other public agencies as well to private organizations.

7. Ohio's Strategic Plan - Dan West

Our goal was to get it done fast and have something to show for it. We set a timetable of 9 months to get it accomplished. We are pretty close to being on schedule. It may take an additional month. Why did we do it? 1) We are at a crossroads in Ohio State Parks. 2) We had just celebrated our 50^th anniversary and along with the Gold Medal it provided some great opportunities. 3) We had a new administration and they were tugging to get some things done that may not have been our focus. This was our primary reason. Two-thirds of our House has turned over. We are going to have to prove a lot of things to a lot of people. The timing, commitment and ability was right to do it.

We didn't want to change our mission much. Keep it simple, maybe add to it, but that we didn't take away the customer service perspective. The customer service perspective has really worked for Ohio. We looked at a model that would look at mission, core values, and give us a vision. For the first time we have a vision and we are sticking to it. Ohio has a merit pay step and we are going to tie the merit pay to the strategic plan. To do so we are rethinking the manager performance plan.

Key Question we asked our self is "Who will lead this process?" We had about 15 people in the core group. You have to have someone in a key leadership position involved. Had I not been involved we would never have had buy-in. We used consultants in the process and interviewed 6 firms before we selected who we wanted. Financial and human resource commitment was important and we under estimated this. In the end we had people involved who we didn't think would be involved. Two people pretty much worked on it full-time. We had tons of data. Over 100,000 surveys over 10 years. We had analysis paralysis! It doesn't come cheap. It's not cheap with your employees, with your financial and support services. The cost is worth it. We use it with the legislative agenda. Be very careful who you ask for input. You don't need it all so it is important to assess what their knowledge and contribution can be.

The key is the "tactical plans." This defines the outcomes of the process. Communication of the plan is the most important part of the piece. The next step is to take it out to the employees. There will be public forums with community outreach. We will sit down with each legislator with a park in their district and communicate things they need to know: financial information, capital resources, and other selected data.

Pitfalls of the process: 1) Getting employee involvement is essential - they think of it as "your plan" not "their plan." 2) Getting middle-management involvement may be the hardest component to secure. 3) Think about the linkage to the individual parks. If you are decentralized it is even more important to secure this linkage and buy-in. 4) Consider the people you have on your staff who will be doing the plan. You must have 1 or 2 people outside of your core group working this all the times and they should not be part of the core group. 5) You must have linkage to performance and outcomes.

Separate documents were prepared for environmental education/interpretation and law enforcement. I would not create these first a second time.

8. Idaho's Strategic Plan - David Overland

Premises of the strategic planning process were to 1) follow DFM strategic planning guidelines, 2) incorporate existing IDPR assessment vehicles, 3) Provide clear agency direction, 4) provide opportunities for involvement of IDPR staff, 5) keep it short (set a goal of 20 pages or less), and 6) make it interesting.

The strategic plan involves 1) a planning document (at 3 levels); 2) assessment vehicle; and 3) reviewing and/or reporting body. The planning documents, for example, occur at 1) the agency level, 2) the Bureau level, and 3) the individual level. The strategic planning team was composed of 10 people, mostly from the executive staff, but required and allowed for lots of staff input. Examples included receiving over 900 ideas, suggestions, recommendations from 100 staff members. Preferred Futuring by Lawrence Lifferth is a recommended book. Suggestion to focus on the future that people want, that the citizens want, rather than focusing on what's broken and what doesn't work. There are 2 visions in the agency. One is the vision statement that was published. The other was the "preferred future" that was pieced together into a vignette that weaves it into a story. The "preferred future" comes from staff input. The strategic plan came with a CD that provides much of the information of the strategic plan including an audio content of the "preferred future." The current plan is for 5 years and future plans are for 6 year cycles.

The process of strategic planning included: 1) as a prerequisite create an agency vision statement; 2) announce the strategic planning effort; 3) conduct orientation sessions; 4) appraisal of current agency situation; 5) identification of agency challenges; 6) envision the agency's "preferred future"; 7) identify strategic areas and goals; 8) select agency 2-year performance initiatives; 9) prepare bureau performance plans including park, program and bureau vision statements and formulate goals for same levels; and 10) prepare individual work plans

The products include: 1) agency 5 year strategic plan document including a CD with a preferred future vignette; 2) Bureau and region 2-year performance plans; 3) Individual work plans; 4) Individual annual performance evaluations; 5) Bureau and region annual reports; 6) Agency annual report.

A number of plans need to be put in place to achieve the strategic plan. The strategic plan is supplemented by 2 year performance plans. Performance initiatives were developed from strategic goals and include 39. They can be addressed by each unit within the system, but may not if the unit cannot contribute to the system.

9. Pennsylvania's Strategic Planning Process - Edwin L. Deacon

The process took from the mid 1980's to early 1990's to complete the first strategic plan. Started with trying to identify where we are. Asked "Why are we doing a strategic plan?" Boiled it down to 2 issues: 1) We needed to identify another source of dependable funding; and 2) We wanted everyone to be on the same page. We felt that we had to show our worth to the legislature. Developed an economic impact of state parks on the Pennsylvania economy. This took 5 years to complete. Published a "State if the Parks: 1988." It's purpose was to get everyone on the same foundation as the strategic planning process began. From public and organizational input we identified 8 issues we were dealing with: 1) lodges in state parks; 2) provision of modern conveniences in the parks; 3) how to pay for the parks; 4) how to protect the state parks; 5) how many parks are enough; 6) who should operate state park facilities; 7) how to promote the parks; and 8) should recreational opportunities be expanded? Asked people to respond to the issues provided through a newsletter and validated it through a 10,000 person survey. Given this information we began to ask, how do we achieve the issues? Followed with 4 public hearings across the state. Lots of special interest groups spoke.

The final document deals with the 8 issues and suggests 34 recommendations. Work groups were organized for each recommendation and produced White Papers that explained how the Bureau would accomplish each recommendation. In 1992 were able to convince the legislature and public to approve a $50 million bond issue to kick off the program. Additionally 1/2 of 1% of the Real Estate Transfer Tax would be allocated to state parks. Both issues passed overwhelmingly. We now derive about $17 million a year in extra funds. The $17 million has gone to reduce the deferred maintenance.

The governor used this process as his platform for improving employment and the economy for Pennsylvania. A new plan needs to be done, but the energy is not present because the first plan was so exhaustive. We haven't looked far enough into the future and need to do this.

10. Strategic Planning - A Canadian Perspective - Colin Campbell

Initial futures efforts began in 1976 to predict key trends. Conclusion was that "Bringing the future into an agency's present can help it to shape and control its future." The process is as important as the product.

Two major issues: Park expansion and Park Resourcing

In 1992 the Federal and Provincial Ministers set a goal of 12% of Canada to be protected by 2000. This included the improvement of biodiversity representation and protection. The effort has been successful. 24 million hectares since 1992 nation-wide. This is equivalent to twice the size of Alabama. Each Province approached it in different ways. Ontario worked from the top down. Quebec has achieved 42 of 43 identified areas. British Columbia working through a grass roots process has gone from 6% to 12% in 10 years.

Strategy was targeted at the highest level "highest goal system expansion." 2^nd attempted to secure joint compliance. 3^rd a clear numerical target was set. 4^th only political penalties for noncompliance.

Hints: 1) Chose the right process and if necessary design the process. 2) Finish and implement the process and adapt to new challenges. Don't hand it over to someone else. 3) Select your target well and go for it.

A strategy must have passion!

Colin Powell stated about leadership, "Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them. They understand that management techniques are not magic mantras, but simply tools to be reached for at the right times.

11. Rhode Island Asset Management Process - Janet Keller

The focus was on the micro-level for the asset management plan. The goal was to achieve increased tax funding, increased staff, new equipment, and to create a dedicated fund. The study involved an inventory of the entire state park system; set a market value on the park system; identified the deferred maintenance; and made a comparison with other states. An asset classification system was put in place for condition (1-5) x importance (1-5) = priority (1-25) where 1 represents low and 5 represents high in importance and a 1 represents low deterioration and a 5 represents a deteriorated condition. Identified 3 categories of income: revenue sources, institutional arrangements, and budget structures.

It would be helpful to use the AIX data if we worked to make the definitions more clear.

As a result got a $700,000 increase in the operating budget (on an annual operating budget of $6 million) and got increased funding for vehicles and equipment. No commitment to staff or to dedicated fund for parks.

12. A Management Strategy for Minnesota's Itasca State Park - Foster Hudson

The focus is on a single state park - Itasca State Park is the flagship of the Minnesota State Parks created in 1881. It is 30,000 acres. Found ways to protect it from most of the influences of man and from fire. We discovered that protection from fire was not the best idea to do. We ended up with a mismanaged forest. It is an old growth forest of pine - some as old as 300 years. A lot of biodiversity in the system. Because of the protection we knew we couldn't make changes - hence the need for a strategic plan and backing from individuals. We knew we had a lot of experts and a lot of criticizers. An advisory group was formed to provide information on what we "ought" to be doing. The advisory group included about 35 different agencies. Adopted a model of management based on pre-European settlement. The planning team was considerably smaller than the advisory team. It was reduced to mostly park and regional staff.

Initially a zoning concept was established, based on use. Three zones were established. The management strategy established 8 major goals. It required the park to change the way they do business in order to achieve the goals. The plan was written in 1994. In 1995 a resource coordinator was hired. The unit plan came out in 1999. It took 3 years to write.

The strategic plan helped us to obtain funding. It is very expensive to manage Pine. The process included: 1) establishment of a forest resource map based on the 1800s; 2) identification of current forest types.

13. Open Discussion

Mel Poole (NPS) - We have been able to bring in our colleagues from the state parks in Maryland in order to achieve strategic planning. In some cases it has been successful and in others less so. Sharing of resource data sets over time can be a good information set. We are living in the era of cooperative agreements and the  NPS Solicitor General has suggested that more of this needs to be done. The upside of strategic planning forces us to look outside the box and to look at opportunities we may not have previously looked at.

Gentry Davis (NPS) - The NPS Director has directed the staff to work directly with State Parks since we have the same mission.

Kevin Brandt (NPS) - We borrowed from Maryland a trash free program that they had successfully done for 7 years. We are collecting 92% less trash than before we had this program in place. Less litter on the ground. Bee stings are down. Animals into the trash problem are gone. Employee injuries from trash removal is down. We've removed 300 trash cans and put up signs and trash bag dispensers. Only 3 trash cans are accessible to users of the park and they are close to concessionaires and don't look like trash cans. We still haven't figured out what to do with dog waste. This year there have been no complaints on the dog waste.

Phil Gaines (SC) - We are doing it in 12 parks and the biggest hurdle was getting staff support.

Denzil Verardo (CA) - Redwood State and National Parks are a true joint effort. In some cases NPS employees are managed by state employees and vice versa. This effort started a whole lot of smaller efforts. Training between the agencies has increased dramatically. We do maintenance training and there is joint training for interpretation, diversity training, and the like.

Jerry Hoover (KS) - If CARA does get past, what kind of components will go into a plan to meet its requirements? If it doesn't get passed, what components will go into the Land Legacy plan. Bob Karotko (NPS) - We really don't have an answer to that. We can take this information back to NPS and ask for a response. Glen Alexander (NASPD) There is a January meeting in Florida that will begin to address this issue in more detail.

Ron Switzer (NPS) - In some cases we are trying to address problems at too low a level for effective resolution. An example was a state-wide study of security and safety issues in Kentucky. We found a lot of commonalties in deficiencies in the state and federal areas. As we put it together we were able to make some recommendations as to how the facilities could be improved and how in the planning process new facilities could be improved. The result has been a $54 million improvement program primarily focused on the resort parks. As NPS managers we don't do enough to engage the State Parks and Governors offices to talk to each other. Tom Creider (OK) The Corps of Engineers has initiated this process in Oklahoma.

Bill Fink (NPS) - The GIPRA requires that all plans must be done by Federal employees. Some consultants are coming in to facilitate strategic plans for programs.

Janet Keller (RI) - We have developed data bases that are fairly transparent and are available to other states if they are interested. We were able to accomplish this in about 6 months with 1.5 FTE.

Bob Karotko (NPS) - I was pleased to here Foster talk about strategic planning at the park level. At the NPS level we began system wide planning we began with pilot parks. This allowed us to do a better job when we went system wide.

Denzil Verardo (CA) - A caution from outside facilitators is there is a fine line between vision and unattainable goals.

Colin Campbell (BC) - One of the reasons why we have strong support is because we have been doing plans for 25 years in local parks and have engaged the public throughout the process. It is the sum of those experiences that has given us credibility with our public. Many park agencies are very introverted and we have to work hard to engage external levels. We bring the public into the process and we become an agent of the public.

Tom Creider (OK) - Please elaborate on the community relations as part of your strategic plan (to Idaho). David Okerlund (ID) - Everything in the plan came from the public or staff up the decision making process. It was important to become publicly focused. Our goal was to get people on the ground closer to the people. Users and staff were the primary sources of input into the plan. One of the goals is to have all staff members to be involved in the community. That will be done through performance goals.

 Edwin Deston (PA) - Are there any strategic plans looking beyond the boundary of their state parks to work with municipalities and counties to serve as boundaries? Gentry Davis (NPS) - The NPS has done some of this. Dan West (OH) - Illinois is very involved in this. Stan Graves (AR) - We've looked at conservation easements around battlefields and discovered it is almost as easy to purchase the property as to secure the easements. Jerry Hoover (KS) - We started a process similar to Itasca State Park several years ago and have brought in a manager from another park to facilitate the process. Out of that many of the managers are facilitating the same planning process in the communities and building coalitions. Now we are being pulled into areas where we can't support the process and not sure exactly what to do. Tom Creider (OK) - One of the casualties of LWCF is the loss of the SCORP programs. Maybe an updated SCORP needs to go beyond boundaries. David Tarrant (SC) - Land Trusts are now looking in SC at large private property owners asking them to voluntarily create easements. Mel Poole (NPS) - We've put a lot of information in GIS on watershed and have shared it with local and county planning staffs. We are in the early stages of putting land conservancies together using a variety of techniques. Gentry Davis (NPS) - We need to bring people in at the very beginning to support the process.