MEET T. DESTRY JARVIS NRPA'S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.

On July 1, T. (Thomas) Destry Jarvis officially began his tenure as executive director for the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). He brings to NRPA more than 29 years of experience in parks, recreation, wildlife, and open space management through government, non-profit, and public service positions. Among the highlights of his career was his appointment by President Clinton to the U.S. Department of the Interior as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary, Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

Jarvis most recently served as Senior Advisor to the President of the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (NASCC) where he helped expand the outreach of the organization's 100-plus local corps that conduct millions of hours of conservation service work on public lands. Prior to that he served as a Presidential Appointee to the U.S. Department of the Interior as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. In this capacity he analyzed, formulated and coordinated implementation strategies on national parks for the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Interior; served as a spokesperson to the news media and public interest organizations; and negotiated park issues with Congress.

From 1993 to 1998 Jarvis served with the National Park Service first as the Special Assistant to the Director for Policy and Legislation and then, after promotion, as the Assistant Director for External Affairs. Here he was responsible for the Office of Tourism, the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, and the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs.

From 1989 until 1993, Jarvis served influential organizations including the Student Conservation Association as its Executive Vice President; and the National Geographic Society as a Consultant for the "Guide to the National Parks of the United States" project. From 1972 until 1988, he was the Vice President for Policy as well as the Director of the National Parks Program for the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) where he helped position NPCA as a strong leader in the fight for conservation and preservation of our national parks.

Jarvis is a graduate of The College of William and Mary, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, and has also served his country in the U.S. Army including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

Jarvis's professional career path is filled with tremendous professional responsibility and is marked by success at every stop. He brings to NRPA a level of leadership, understanding, and "know how" of the public policy process in Washington and is a true "inside the Beltway" thinker. Best of all, Jarvis not only brings years of professional experience and knowledge to NRPA, but also a sincere passion for the parks and recreation field.

He lives the life that he preaches. He is an avid outdoorsman and has always made recreation a part of his and his family's life. He is clearly a "Type A" personality and as such, a tireless worker, but he also recognizes that recreation is essential to a balanced and fulfilling life.

Want to learn more? I thought you would. I asked Destry if he would answer ten questions on a variety of topics so that NRPA members could learn more about him. Learn more about him as a person, about his viewpoints of where the park and recreation field is now and where it should be going, and about his passion for parks and recreation. He readily agreed and I e-mailed these question to him. As expected of a Type A personality, within 24 hours his answers were back to me neatly typed. I'm going to share these questions and his answers here with you and I have no doubt after reading them that you'll know why the NRPA Board of Trustees selected him to be NRPA's new executive director.

1. What attracted you to the opportunity to become the executive director of the National Recreation and Park Association?

For virtually all of the nearly three decades that I have been an advocate for parks in Washington, D.C. there has been one lone voice, crying in the wilderness, if you will, for recreation and parks at the state and local level, that of NRPA. I have known of, and often worked with NRPA staff over these years, and grown to greatly admire the things they have undertaken. Many of NRPA's most significant policies and several of its founding principles have fallen on deaf ears in Washington in recent years, and I saw the opportunity to lead NRPA as an opportunity to really go after these issues in a concerted manner. I think that if the rank and file Member, and more of the public that are not yet Members, can be better informed about the values of parks and their needs, then NRPA will succeed in its Mission like never before. I think that I can help make this happen.

2. You have extensive background in the political processes of Washington, D.C., and bring a wealth of this knowledge to NRPA. Con you give us a little insight into how NRPA can raise its profile in Washington to get more attention for public parks and recreation?

I would say that my Washington experience is about equal parts of expertise in the legislative and administrative processes of Washington. I certainly have lobbied extensively on behalf of both funding for parks and for new legislation from the authorizing committees. I have testified before committees of Congress hundreds of times. At the same time I have worked closely with not only the four federal land managing agencies, National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, but with other agencies whose action affect public lands, like EPA, CEQ and the Corps. I have a good sense of what makes government function.

For NRPA to raise its profile, though, it will take action first outside of Washington. No amount of contact on the Hill or inside the Administration by the NRPA Public Policy staff will be optimally effective without first having gotten NRPA's members organized and motivated to regularly participate in the public policy process. Bringing our Members to Washington for the Mid-Winter conference is important, but pales in significance compared to what these same Members, and many more, can and should do in their own cities, counties, and states to make the needs of parks better understood, and responded to, by our government.

3. In any organization it can be a challenge to motivate members to become actively involved in advancing public policy and political issues. Can you share with us how you might approach NRPA members to get them more actively involved in the public policy process that is vital to NRPA and the entire park and recreation field?

There is certainly no simple answer to motivating Americans to participate more in their government. The common malaise and alienation from government doesn't help. But in general I think there are three things we can do to help raise the comfort level in our Members about the value of more frequent contact with their government. All three of these thoughts require the staff and Board of NRPA to do a better job of communication.

First, through an array of communications techniques, we have to assure folks that lobbying in the public interest is a good thing, not a bad thing. Too many people are under the misapprehension that lobbying requires ignoring your values and principles in an environment that requires compromise. They think that lobbyists are these fat, oily guys who slip wads of money to Members of Congress in plain envelopes. They are wrong. Just as with public service, lobbying in the public interest is honorable, and is an obligatory part of participatory government in America under our Constitution. When you don't participate, you aren't fulfilling your responsibilities as a US citizen.

Second, I believe the old saying that "when the people lead, the leaders will follow." Most Members of Congress are honest and hard working, but their schedules are so crazy that they hardly have time for an original thought. That's where public interest lobbying comes in. Because our Members are in every Congressional district, and because we have both professionals and general citizens among them, our communications with Members of Congress can provide them with information that they don't have readily available, and generally won't have available unless we provide it to them. Our professional side can offer Congress better facts and figures, comparative analysis, trends assessment, and other technical, cutting edge evaluations. Our citizen side can offer public opinion and a sense of the mood of the country, again in every Congressional District. These two things are powerful, and not offered by any other organization, certainly not in the field of parks and recreation.

Third, let's realize that there are very few, if any, bills that even get introduced in Congress, much less get enacted, that did not start with local situations or needs. When similar needs or concerns arise in numerous communities across the country, then these situations become bills in Congress that have sufficient momentum to pass. Members of Congress don't sit around dreaming up a bill to introduce; rather, some constituent, or group of constituents, or coalition of organizations have formulated ideas, developed a plan, drafted a bill, and built the network of motivated and activated citizens and members that indicate to our representative in Congress that their issue merits attention and response in the form of federal appropriations, or new legislation. That's how NRPA will succeed in the public policy arena.

4. You've mentioned that public park and recreation professionals are often undervalued and overlooked considering the tremendous work that they do to benefit so many. Can you give us a few ideas of how you might raise the profile of public park and recreation professionals?

Looking inward at NRPA, I think we do a fabulous job as an organization at recognition of outstanding work, innovation, new leadership, and major accomplishments by the professionals in parks and recreation. At the same time, therein lies the problem - we're spending more time preaching to the choir than to the congregation. While maintaining what we now do well, we need to add a strong measure of work to our agenda with the general public media, and in our own park-by-park direct communications with our visitors and users. This isn't bragging, but educating about our values and purposes, and the outcomes of our day-to-day management. If we do this well, the public will have a better appreciation for the hard work it takes to keep the doors and gates open and to provide the quality programming they expect. If we don't, the public will continue to take us for granted.

5. NRPA was founded as o collaboration between park and recreation professionals and citizens/citizen board members. How important is the role of citizens and citizen-board members to the mission of NRPA?

As I mentioned earlier, NRPA is unique in its composition, and we should take full advantage of this quality. Professionals have the knowledge, skills and abilities to manage a great complexity of places and spaces, programs and partnerships, and to communicate what they do to the public, to the media, and to politicians at the local, state, and national levels. NRPA, institutionally, is here to help them to do that. Citizens, both from local activist "Friends" groups, and elected or appointed members of park boards and commissions, have a somewhat more open opportunity to engage in outright advocacy for what their local parks need specifically and for all parks generally. It's NRPA's job, institutionally, to assist them in doing more of this, more successfully.

As one specific initiative that I want to pursue, I think NRPA should seek to become an information clearinghouse, training center, and national advocacy coordinating mechanism for the hundreds of local friends groups that care about specific local parks. We should assist the best individuals in these groups to seek appointments to local park and recreation boards and commissions.

Let's grow our own, I say.

6. On a municipal level, park and recreation services are often perceived as less essential than those of other services such as education, fire and police. As an organization, NRPA has long been stressing the fact that park and recreation services, are, indeed, essential. How might NRPA further our abilities to convince the public of this?

One of the great things about park and recreation areas is that they are a tremendous return to our citizens for the taxes they pay. With police, fire, first aid, and other essential services, we want to know they are there, but hope we never need them. With public schools, we need them in our early years, but their direct relevance to us wanes as we get older. But with parks, they are essential all the time, every day of our lives from birth to death. Perhaps this omnipresence causes us to take them too much for granted. Regardless, we need to do a better job of reminding the public of how we value them.

I recall the winter during the Clinton Administration when the Congress forced the federal government to shut down by not enacting appropriations to run the federal agencies. The single thing that garnered more media attention, and that put more public pressure on the Congress to enact the Appropriations bills than any other, was the closure of the national parks.

While the national parks are one of the icons that distinguish us as a Nation, our local parks are often the icons that distinguish our communities. They give us a sense of place. NRPA needs to use that fact as we go about convincing elected leaders of the value of parks and recreation to America.

7. Let's learn a little more about you. Where were you born and raised? What sports or activities did you enjoy as a child? Do you have a favorite park or recreation center from your hometown that you still recall fondly today?

I grew up in a very small town of about 1000, Glasgow, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. When I was very young my father was elected town Mayor. He was popular and good at what he did, so he kept getting elected. He actually hated aspects of it, so we moved to the country in order not to have to run again. Our house backed up to a portion of the George Washington National Forest, so I spent many days exploring these woods. I was active in Scouts. My father was a great outdoorsman, so I grew up hunting and fishing, hiking and camping all over the Appalachians. My mother was the real civic activist in the family, active in service at both the schools and church. So, you could say I developed my love of the outdoors from my father, and for civic advocacy from my mother. I wouldn't have it any other way.

As a teenager, I didn't play high school sports; I took to the woods. I still do whenever I can. In college, I played inter-fraternity league touch football, baseball, bowling and handball. I have developed a real passion for handball and racquetball. I joined the "Y" in DC over 25 years ago, and have played racquetball there nearly three times a week ever since. Whenever the tension of work gets too high, I just write the name of who- or whatever is causing it on that racquetball, and smash away.

8. When you met the staff at NRPA headquarters in May you mentioned that you consider outdoor recreation, such as hiking and camping, as a strong interest of yours. Can you tell us how you gained a passion for the outdoors?

Well, like most things one does, I have gotten passionate about the outdoors by being in the outdoors. I also read a lot, and collect books about the outdoors. I have First Editions of all of John Muir's books, for example. I liked what Henry David Thoreau had to say in his small monograph called "Walking." A year and a half ago, just after my daughter graduated from college, she joined me for a three week backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail in the fall. It was wonderful.

I have canoed for days in the Everglades, camped in the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska, hiked across the floor of Kileaua Volcano on the Big Island in Hawaii, rafted through the Grand Canyon, and hiked through the slot canyons of Utah and dozens of other superlative places on the public lands. Someday, I will complete all 2000 miles of the AT, and if my knees don't give out first, climb Mount Rainier. My younger brother is Superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, so I am under some family pressure to do this one. So, I guess you could say I'm passionate about the outdoors.

9. Can you share with us a bit about your family and how parks and recreation have played a role in the upbringing of your children?

My wife Barbara is a career civil servant at the Environmental Protection Agency, in the field of information management; she's a branch chief in the office that maintains the EPA Web site. She loves the outdoors as well, but takes more of an interest in landscaping and gardening, though I can occasionally convince her to hike with me. My son Joshua, who is a Junior at Virginia Tech, got his exposure to the outdoors through Boy Scouts, from Tiger Cubs in first grade, until he made Eagle rank his senior year in high school. I was an adult Scout leader, from Tiger Cub Coordinator to Scoutmaster, all 12 years. I had three other boys who started with Josh and kept with it until they turned 18; all of them made Eagle. Daughter Jennifer's passion for the outdoors came a little later, through the Student Conservation Association. She spent two high school summers with SCA, one working in Isle Royale National Park out in Lake Superior, and the other building trails in the Great Bear Wilderness in Montana. She shares the passion we all have.

10. I've saved the toughest question for last. Look ahead 10 years from now. If the Association is as successful as you envision, describe what NRPA will be like as an organization? What place will it have with its members and with the public?

In the future, NRPA will be far stronger, both on the professional and citizen sides. Professional membership will include strong contingents from all levels of park and recreation agencies, local, state, and national. Citizen membership will include local activists in park friends groups from across the country, as well as citizen board members. Our corporate partners will not only support the magazine and the Congress, but engage with us in public policy, as well. Parks and recreation will be universally recognized as an essential public service, on par with police, fire and schools. Adequate funding will follow. Parks will provide the full spectrum of recreation opportunities by regional interagency recreation planning.

Our parks will all operate under principles of sustainability, and park users will take these practices with them and apply them in their homes. A park for every school, and within 6 blocks of every urban and a mile of every suburban resident will be everyone's cry, not just NRPA's. Parks, and their facilities and programs will be universally accessible; park employees and park visitors will look like America. When? Certainly not next year, perhaps not in ten, but that's where we are heading, and we'll never get there without taking the first step.

I'll need all the help I can get. Are YOU ready?