President's Message

The California State Parks Foundation is organizing and sponsoring the first annual Parks Advocacy and Awareness Day, on April 7, 2003. This is a great opportunity for park professionals, along with park advocates to bring attention to the value of parks for the citizens of the State of California. The grass roots effort is being organized to lobby the State Assembly and Senate, so that park issues will be heard, then hopefully not forgotten. I have been advised by our lobbyist that we need to be prepared to offer more cuts in the department, along with ways that we can generate more revenue. We need to become involved in these desperate times with being park advocates.

It is important not to discount the value of having access to the legislature, especially in these difficult times. Many other state agencies are politically well connected, in addition to having vast financial resources that are used for advertisements, campaign contributions and the hiring of lobbyists. Through an event such as Parks Advocacy and Awareness Day, people, employees and supporters of DPR will have the opportunity to share the value of parks with members of the legislature.

I am urging dedicated park professionals from DPR to commit to attending one of the training sessions, to become trained in the message that we wish to present to the legislature. The training will held in various locations throughout the state, to present the points that are important to make. The attendance at training by all the participants will also help to insure professionalism and continuity to the teams that will be lobbying. We are also planning a lobbying training session to be held at the Parks Conference at Lake Tahoe. CSPRA's lobbying firm Governmental Advocates, Inc. has offered to host the training on a yet to be determined date and time at the Parks Conference.

The general idea of the Parks Advocacy and Awareness Day is to have a minimum of 20 teams of 3 that will lobby 6 members of the legislature each. Susan Smartt, President CSPF has indicated that the Parks Foundation would like to make this an annual event. Please help the California State Parks Foundation in helping us by attending a training session and participating in this great event.

Kevin Buchanan