Spreading the Word Through Citizen Board Members.

As we enter this new era, there is much talk about restructuring and new beginnings. There is no better place to start than with your local, state, and national citizen board members. The Citizen Board Member Branch of the National Recreation and Park Association has been working diligently these past few years to prepare materials to educate citizens as helpmates for park and recreation professionals. We are now ready to share these ideas.

We have been actively participating in the legislative process at Mid-Year for several years now. That has led many of us to become legislatively active at the state and local levels, if we had not already been networking by that method. To help facilitate this process, we have produced a manual titled "Citizen Advocates for Parks and Recreation." This is a handbook for action. We encourage every park department to have one of these available for each board member. It covers the advocate's role, meeting with elected officials, coalition building, and networking. As your board or commission members use this manual, they can then, in turn, work with the grassroots citizenry to also become advocates.

Another valuable resource is our citizen manual, "Spread the Word, Parks And Recreation: The Benefits are Endless." Hopefully, all of you are familiar with our Benefits materials and are using them within the parks departments. This manual is designed specifically for citizen board members using the Benefits Manual as a guide, but also applies it to citizens. As reference material, it can be used by board and commission members in preparing presentions to citizens, communities, governing bodies, and agencies. It is an educational tool used to "spread the word" to the general public to garner support for parks and recreation. It was available for use at the NRPA Congress in Phoenix in October.

At the NRPA Congress in Nashville, the CBM Branch taped a nine-minute video to be used as a resource for parks and recreation departments as well as for boards and commissions. Titled "The Vital Role of Citizen Board Members," it is designed to be used as an educational tool to both educate and motivate citizens as advocates for the parks systems. Various citizen board members discuss their role in working with the professionals and the public in general. It can be used to generate excitement and enthusiasm among those you work with so they can generate support from the Community. If is on sale for $10 and can be purchased through NRPA.

Additionally we have two pamphlets available. "How to Survive an NRPA Congress" by Donald Bresnan and Regina B. Glover gives new board members helpful hints as new attendees to a national, congress. It can also be useful for those attending a state conference. "Board Member Training Resources: Conference Speakers and Workshop Leaders" is a resource of outstanding individuals who can effectively serve as conference and workshop presenters on matters related to the training of board members and citizen involvement in parks and recreation. Both of these would be excellent additions to other resource materials you mat now be using.

Our publication "Guidelines for Organizing State CBM Branches" is designed to help states organize or strengthen their citizen organizations. It offers methods to lay the groundwork, inventory potential members, set up special workshops as well as supplies sample letters. It is a simple and direct resource to help begin a state Citizen Board Member branch at the state level.

We as a national board are very excited about these resources. We believe that they can make a difference in the productiveness of boards and commissions regardless of location or size. As a retired school teacher, I firmly believe that education is the key to success in all areas. Why should parks and recreation be any different? All we ask is that you try the resources either separately or as a unit and measure their success. You won't be disappointed.

You may obtain any of these publications by contacting the NRPA/CBM Staff at:

CBM-NRPA Branch Office 1285 Parker Road Conyers, Ga. 30207 Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]

or by visiting the online NRPA Store at www.activeparks.org.

-- Margaret B. Young, NRPA Citizen Board Member, Board of Trustees