Administration

Keep it relevant, hire a student! — Are you beginning to look around your workplace in the National Park Service and wonder how the NPS can stay relevant to the younger generations? If you are a supervisor attending a retirement or farewell gathering, do you tend to sigh deeply and shudder ever so slightly when you think that it’s back to the recruitment drawing board?

Soon there will be more tools in your recruitment toolbox to reach out to students and recent graduates and bring them on board in the NPS. The Office of Personnel Management has introduced a new program called Pathways. Executive Order 13652, signed Dec. 27, 2010, is entitled “Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates.” It is aimed at helping the federal government be more competitive in recruiting and hiring talented individuals who are in school or who have recently received a degree.

The following is an excerpt from the Executive Order 13652:

“To compete effectively for students and recent graduates, the federal government must improve its recruiting efforts; offer clear paths to federal internships for students from high school through post-graduate school; offer clear paths to civil service careers for recent graduates; and provide meaningful training, mentoring, and career-development opportunities. Further, exposing students and recent graduates to federal jobs through internships and similar programs attracts them to careers in the federal government and enables agency employers to evaluate them on the job to determine whether they are likely to have successful careers in government.”

Stay tuned, supervisors. There are going to be more opportunities to reach out to students and recent graduates. For now, the current Student Career Experience Program and Student Temporary Employment Program remain in place as we await guidance from OPM. The executive order may change or consolidate these existing programs into the pathways program. There are three paths outlined in this executive order:

• A new internship program – targeted toward students enrolled in a wide variety of educational institutions.

• Recent graduates program – targeted toward recent graduates of trade/vocational schools, community colleges, and universities. To be eligible, applicants must apply within two years of degree completion. Successful applicants will be placed in a two-year career development program and will be considered for noncompetitive conversion to career jobs after completing the program.

• Presidential Management Fellows Program – enhances the current program by expanding the eligibility window for applicants and opening it to those who have received an advanced degree within the preceding two years.

One program, the federal career intern program, was eliminated as a result of this executive order. The program was revoked and required that current interns be converted or separated by March 1, 2011.

I firmly believe that we (the NPS) need to take full advantage of the pathways program. When we receive the guidance from OPM, we must seize this golden opportunity to reach out to current and recently graduated students and invite them into the NPS family. Keeping it relevant means appealing to our next generation who are being educated and who might be willing to walk that path to our door if we hold it open.

You may access the executive order at www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/27/executive-order-recruiting-and-hiring-students-and-recent-graduates.

Interpretation

The truth matters — Having graduated from college with a degree in philosophy, it should come as no surprise that I love to have long discussions about some of the more philosophical aspects of our profession.

One of the classic topics is whether or not objects/resources truly possess meanings or whether all meanings are actually ascribed by people. Another great topic: does it really matter how or why people find meanings in park resources? Or is the finding meaning, any meaning, all that matters?

The answers to the last two questions are yes and no, respectively. Yes, it does matter how and why people find meanings in park resources because the truth matters. Without the truth, or at least the best available information, people are not finding meanings in the resource in front of them, but rather in something that does not exist at all. So no, finding meaning, any meaning, is not all that matters because meanings not tied to truth are not meanings at all. Their utility at fulfilling the mission of the profession is short term at best and irreparably destructive at worst.

This philosophical point is not just an abstract one; it does have real-life implications. Here is an example. While roving the loop trail at Montezuma Castle National Monument with a colleague a few years ago, I overheard an older woman explaining to her grandchildren the history of the “castle” and why it was so important. She was not only passionate; she was doing a great job as an interpreter. She seamlessly made tangible/intangible links. Her selective use of techniques was not only appropriate, it was exceptional. The only problem was that nearly everything she said and believed about the resource was wrong. My colleague looked at me with a face that was part horror, part surprise and part what the heck do we do? The dilemma was easy to identify. Do we let her go and almost certainly assure that her grandkids will find meaning and feel more connected? Or do we interrupt and perhaps ruin the possibility for the kids to connect at all?

The intellectual answer to that dilemma is easy, but acting on it is really hard. So hard, in fact, that my colleague and I just kept on walking. Neither of us was really prepared to handle that situation. The best we could do with it was to make it a teaching point during our next seasonal training. The teaching point broke down to this: the truth matters.

While my colleague and I may not have possessed the skills necessary at the time to tactfully correct the factual inaccuracies told by the older woman on the trail, we certainly possessed the skills necessary to prevent future visitors from making similar mistakes by providing them with accurate programs today.

Those skills boil down to being capable of doing thorough research on the resources we interpret and being able to admit to visitors that we don’t know the answer to a given question. That’s better than falling into the interpretive trap of guessing or just inventing something.

However, my colleague and I may be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to those skills. Why?

Those two vitally important skill sets are not givens for interpreters, and they are often overlooked in seasonal interpretive trainings. The truth matters, and the truth is that most front-line interpreters are not taught how to properly research their resources. Those who are, are rarely given enough time to do that research. The result is that a lot of the interpretation presented in the National Park Service contains errors, errors that lead to misunderstanding and to “meaningless” connections.

The remedy is simple. Interpretive supervisors, like myself, need to do these things. First, we must train our staff to understand that the truth matters and why it matters. Second, we must ensure that all staff members possess the research and interpretive skills necessary to become resource experts. Third, we must give them the time on the clock to become experts. Lastly, we must give them the opportunity to grow into passionate voices for our resources by allowing them to choose what part(s) of the resource they want to interpret and give them the freedom to do it.

If we are able to do those four things, the profession of interpretation will be able to fulfill its mission: to allow people to find real meaning in the parks and resources they visit and ensure the protection of those parks and resources for future generations.

Protection

Forging the team — One ranger alone, no matter how talented or skilled, is never going to be capable of doing it all. Given the magnitude of our mission and the countless responsibilities that accompany it, there is no way for any single person to accomplish all that is needed from today’s rangers.

Hence, the team.

Instead of dwelling on what one of us can’t do alone, let us focus on what all of us can do as a team.

At my current park, Buffalo National River, the ranger operation as a whole is tasked with a steady workload spanning most of the spectrum of traditional ranger skills. The variety makes it a great park site to work at, but it can be daunting to ponder the skills in which we must maintain proficiency.

Each ranger must be competent at any particular skill, but there’s no way for each ranger to be the “subject matter expert” for them all. We rely on each other by delegating responsibilities in one or two areas to each ranger, who then become the expert to teach the rest of the team.

We’re all pretty decent shots, but only two are firearms instructors and armorers. Most of us can saddle and ride a horse, but only a couple can replace their shoes. Any of us can affect a cliff rescue, but only one is the park search-and-rescue coordinator.

The same holds true for coordinating the taser program, control tactics, PEBs, our warrant team, CPR and EMS needs, motorboat and paddle craft training and operations, evidence management and more.

That’s just within our own division. Throughout the NPS, rangers are smart to tap into the vast talent pool across division boundaries in order to accomplish tasks. Whether working with park archaeologists on site condition assessments or monitoring an area of suspected ARPA violations, or working with aquatic biologists to sample fish populations or map river bottoms, rangers will gain valuable knowledge and experience by partnering with other divisions.

An additional benefit, of course, is that park employees develop strong working relationships with each other, regardless of division association. This becomes vital during other park operations requiring a multidisciplined approach, including SAR operations, natural disaster incidents, resource management and maintenance projects, and interpretive programs. Parks that practice a team approach to everyday work enjoy exponential payoffs when an urgent situation calls for such teamwork.

Beyond our own NPS staff, the worth of a team can be further strengthened by including volunteers. Untold years of experience and knowledge are donated to the NPS mission annually because of generous, seemingly tireless spirit of VIPs (Volunteers In Parks).

On Buffalo National River’s SAR team, VIPs have added a dimension that a few years ago I could have never anticipated. Their skill mastery is as solid as any ranger’s, and we trust them with our lives every time they put us on belay.

The military has known the benefit of forging a strong team for hundreds of years. They call it cross-training. The medics train their teammates how to stop bleeding, the communications sergeant trains others in the use of radios, and the demolitions guys teach everyone how to blow stuff up. If the military can do it, so can NPS rangers.

We may never get to teach each other how to use det cord (although there is that distinct possibility on the fireline), but we can certainly tap into each others’ strengths for a thousand other tasks.

Why not start today? Find a colleague and build something together. Just don’t blow it up when you’re done.