NATIONAL TRAILS TRAINING PARTNERSHIP MEETING

October 6, 2005 (2:15 pm-4:30 pm EST) - Partner Conference Call

M I N U T E S

Introductions

Dianne Olson, Tread Lightly! and Pam Gluck, American Trails, welcomed the group. Dianne Olson and Jamie Schwartz, USDA Forest Service chaired the meeting.

Attendees

Dianne Olson, Tread Lightly!
Monica Clay, Tread Lightly!
Jamie Schwartz, USDA Forest Service
Pam Gluck, American Trails
Stuart Macdonald, NTTP and American Trails
Dana Bell, National Off Highway Vehicle Conservation Council
Steve Elkinton, National Park Service
Christopher Douwes, FHWA, Recreational Trails and Enhancements Programs
Jonathan LeClere, FHWA
Nathan Caldwell, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Celina Montorfano, American Hiking Society
Heather Deutsch, Rails to Trails Conservancy
Troy Scott Parker, Nature Shape/PTBA
Jonathan Stevens, Forest Service
Helen Skully, National Park Service
Deb Salt, Bureau of Land Management
Dave, National Fish and Wildlife Service
Gary Warner, PFNTF

1. NTTP Branding (Pam Gluck, American Trails)

Pam followed up with the group regarding NTTP offering branding for partner organizations. She mentioned that NTTP will be considered an organization, but won't take on its own training. Initial phrase considered for organizations that were interested in branding their training with NTTP was: "Brought to you by XYZ, in cooperation with NTTP."

Discussion:

Partners should submit a proposal or description of the training they want to brand for partnership consideration

Develop criteria for acceptable training

Federal partners can not endorse trainings

NTTP brand should add credibility to courses

Concerns that review of proposals by partners will be burdensome

Will the organization be approved or the particular training?

Action item:

Develop a written document/outline for the branding idea and submit it to all partners for review.

Development Team:

• Pam Gluck
• Stuart Macdonald
• Dianne Olson
• Jamie Schwartz
• Dana Bell
• Jonathan LeClere

2. New Training and resources

Pam Gluck, American Trails:

• National Trails Symposium - October 19-22, 2006, Quad Cities; Call for proposals will come in early 2006

• American Trails Website update - resource pages have received over 69K views with 750 different resource pages; one document on wildlife and roadways received 1,500 page views

Dana Bell, National Off Highway Vehicle Conservation Council: Workshops Scheduled

• October: (Hawaiian Islands) Recreation Management and Public development workshops
• Missouri: OHV recreation Management and Public development
• May 2006 (Florida)OHV recreation Management Workshop
• November, Washington &endash; Association Development Workshop
• Minnesota: Association Development Workshop
• New interactive CD for Adventure Trail. Will be available for free or at cost.

Troy Scott Parker, Nature Shape:

• Writing 2nd book which should be available in about a year
• Holding workshop at Professional Trailbuilders Conference; see www.trailbuilders.org for conference information

Jonathan LeClere, Federal Highway Administration:

• Update on State Trail Administrators Meeting in Delaware, September 20-22. Held successful field day a the state parks; Focus on accessibility. Meeting outcomes and notes will be listed on FHWA's website

Steve Elkinton, National Park Service:

• Course for managing Data gathered from GIS
• Idea: DVD set for conducting training regarding National Trails System (For Interagency Use)

Celina Montorfano, American Hiking Society:

• Working on Southern Appalachian Initiative
• Trail Construction and Capacity/Organization Building
• Developing 2006 Volunteer Vacations schedule

Heather Deutsch, Rails to Trails Conservancy:

• New report on management out; will send out the update with notes

Gary Warner, PFNTF:

• 10th Conference on National Scenic and Historic Trails
• Pre-Conference organizational capacity building workshop focusing on: volunteer development, board development, and fundraising
• 2006 - Workshop for Historic and Scenic Trails

Dianne Olson, Tread Lightly!:

• Tread Lightly! will be attending the Leave No Trace coordinators conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, October 24-27th. Conference attendees will be working to transition future conferences to an outdoor ethics conference.
• Tread Trainer Courses are currently listed online: www.treadlightly.org/trainer.mv and Tread Lightly! is now accepting requests for courses in 2006.

3. Update on Colorado Outdoor Training Initiative (COTI) (Pam Gluck)

• Pam Packer has left COTI
• Working to take the COTI state model and implement it at a national level.
• Looking for funding sources, specifically through the states
• Has curriculum for trail crew leadership ready

4. Update on federal partners Trails Management Process (TMP) course

Nathan Caldwell updated the group on the recent Trails 101 Management course held at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on September 12-16th, 2005.

Course is open to all agencies and nonprofits; however a balanced representation of each sector is desired at each course. Jack Peterson, the course coordinator, led a successful course focused on trail design and constructed trails for the facility and the Appalachian trail.

Discussion/Highlights:

Cost of the administration is: 9 instructors for a 5 day workshop are around $25k. Additionally, salaries or the cost of managing the project contracted out for +/- $5k.

Bureau of Land Management's supply of the course does not meet the demand.

Need to develop an East Coast and West Coast set of course instructors

Looking for a new course coordinator

No tuition cost for participants

Future Courses:

• Next course will be Feb 27-March 3, 2006, at the Read Rock Conservation Area, Las Vegas, Nevada.
• September 18-22, at the NCTC, Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

5. Update on Online NTTP database (Stuart Macdonald)

Stuart Macdonald updated the group on the NTTP database. Go to http://strawberry.forest.net/trails/event.lasso to search database for trainings by state, training type, or date. Database should represent all NTTP partners.

6. Accessible and Sustainable Trails Workshop (Stuart Macdonald)

Pilot Workshop encouraged people to take a better look at trails.

Following accessibility standards in building trails also leads to sustainable trails.

Accessible and sustainable trails are inexpensive to built and maintain.

State trail administrators have shown interest and states can use up to 5% of their RTP funds for education and training related to safety and environmental protection.

Future

Identify where the interest is for training in 2006.

States should try to use the RTP to fund the demand for the course

2 more workshops in Maine and New Hampshire

7. Update on College-level Trails and Greenways Curriculum (Stuart Macdonald)

Marshall University, in West Virginia, offers college courses for trails and recreation management. Raymond Busbee, developed an Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) management course funded by the Rayhall Transportation Institute.

California State Training Institute offers courses similar to the federal agencies TMP course.

Many trail/recreation related courses are popping up throughout the country and there is a need for local instructors.

NTTP would like to:

• Make various course materials and curriculums available to higher learning
• Find funding to translate existing courses into an online course
• Pull all the training/curriculum threads together to produce a cohesive source for trails training.

8. Marketing, ideas, and assistance on promotion of NTTP(Monica Clay & Pam Gluck)

Web stats show increased use

NTTP promoted through American Trails newsletter and website.

1,000 brochures were printed and distributed

5,000 revised brochures printed.

Follow up:

Contact Pam Gluck at American Trails for NTTP brochures

Send ideas for news release to Pam or Stuart

Submit trainings for database and calendar even if they are "by invitation only"

Partners are encouraged to run ads promoting NTTP in publications

Logo and website at minimum

Ads can be found at www.nttp.net

9. 2006 Co-convener

The opportunity to act as NTTP Co-convener is open to all NTTP partners. Representatives from the federal agencies and from the non-profits/trail organizations are preferred. Tread Lightly! and Forest Service offered to continue on another year. Nathan Caldwell from FWS was nominated and will get back with the group on his availability. It was suggested that the opportunity for co-convener was sent to all NTTP partners.

10. Future NTTP meetings

Tentative Dates and Times:

• February 17, 2006 (9am-12 noon) - Reno, Nevada in conjunction with the Professional Trail builders Conference.
• June 5, 2006 (9am-4 pm) - Washington, D.C. in conjunction with Great Outdoors Week (GOW). Agenda for GOW is being checked before date can be firmed up. Beth from the NPS will facilitate.
• October 23, 2006 (9am-4pm) - Quad Cities, Iowa in conjunction with the National Trails Symposium

Notes/Follow up:

Sam Fontaine from the National Park Service offered services to NTTP in organizational development.

Action items:

• Develop a written document/outline for the branding idea and submit it to all partners for review.
• Cost for TMP course
• New release ideas
• Firm up dates for future meetings
• Contact Sam Fontaine for organizational development services
• Send out call for 2006 co-conveners to all NTTP partners

Meeting record submitted by Dianne Olson incorporating notes from Monica Clay and Stuart Macdonald.

The National Trails Training Partnership
American Trails, P.O. Box 491797, Redding, CA 96049-1797 • (530) 547-2060 • Fax: (530) 547-2035 • nttp@americantrails.org • www.AmericanTrails.org

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