Registration
Posted By NAI Staff on May 22, 2009
Online Registration
Register early to secure a place in your first choice.
Registration Packet
Download this pdf for complete event information.
.: Early Registration :.
- Early Registration Deadline:
in 11 days, 1 hour, 4 minutes, 11 seconds
- Early Registration Deadline:
.: At a Glance :.
- November 16, 2009:
- November 17, 2009:
- November 18, 2009:
- November 19, 2009:
- November 20, 2009:
- November 21, 2009:
.: Workshop Sponsors :.
About the 2009 NAI National Workshop
Posted By NAI Staff on February 5, 2009
Download a flyer!
The 2009 NAI National Workshop will provide a wealth of information and rejuvenation.The professional development and networking opportunities at every NAI workshop include inspiring and informative keynote speakers, concurrent sessions in 13 different tracks, special events, and offsite sessions that allow you to learn about a unique corner of the country. NAI 2009 will offer the chance to explore the Appalachian Trail, photograph a quaint covered bridge, visit the home of Mark Twain, or stroll one of the maritime villages nearby.
The workshop slogan, “Navigating Change, Revolutionizing Interpretation” is an apt one, as our world, our audiences and our economy change at an ever-quickening pace. The NAI workshop will provide you with the tools needed to adjust and adapt to these changes. Join interpreters from around the world to share your experience, interests and ideas. Join us at the 2009 NAI National Workshop in Hartford.
Exhibitors: Reserve your booth now!
Posted By NAI Staff on February 5, 2009
Do you have an interpretive service or product you’d like to show off to participants of the 2009 NAI National Workshop in Hartford? Workshop participants will include natural and cultural heritage interpreters; managers from federal, state, and private organizations; tourism professionals; commercial vendors; and interpretation students.
Concurrent Sessions
Posted By NAI Staff on June 28, 2009
| November 18, 2009 | ||
| November 19, 2009 | ||
| November 21, 2009 |
NAI 2009 will feature more than 100 concurrent sessions in 13 tracks over three days. Presentation tracks include:
Administration and Supervision
Arts in Interpretation
Critical Issues
Cultural and Living History Interpretation
Environmental Education
Interpretation and Tourism
Interpretation for Diverse Audiences
Interpretive Techniques
Natural History Interpretation
Research
Technology in Interpretation
Visual Communications
Zoos, Wildlife Parks, and Aquaria
Attendance at concurrent sessions is included in the workshop registration fee. Full information for each session, including day, time and location, is available below.
The 2009 NAI National Workshop Program Guide, which also has session information, is scheduled to be available online for download in early October 2009.
Shine your light and show the way. Step up and volunteer at the 2009 NAI National Workshop!
Posted By NAI Staff on June 10, 2009
The 2009 NAI National Workshop is fast approaching. It’s YOUR workshop. We can’t have a successful workshop without you. So, why not volunteer? It’s a great way to get “inside” NAI and see what it takes to put on such a fabulous event.
If you’re attending the workshop in Hartford and wish to be more involved, there’s something for everyone! We need registration assistants, room monitors, host/greeters, packet stuffers, table staffers, photographers, newsletter article writers and runners, auction staff, AV assistants, ticket checkers, drivers, bus host managers, and more! There’s a lot to do and we need you to help us get it done!
So, why not sign up to volunteer today? You can sign up to be a volunteer in advance of the workshop by downloading and filling out this form or by contacting Jim Roberts at Jim_Roberts@nps.gov.
Interpretive Management Institute
Posted By NAI Staff on May 28, 2009
| November 16, 2009 | ||
| November 17, 2009 |
Interpretive Management Institute (IMI):
Innovative Approaches to Surviving Tough Times
In today’s challenging economic times, sound management of limited operational resources matters more than ever. This year’s IMI takes on the task of two of the most pressing concerns for interpretive site and program managers—how can I prove the value of my program or resource and what are some innovative ways to increase revenue generation? The IMI faculty will provide insight into both of these issues with seminar sessions devoted to helping you understand how to stay alive through an economic downturn.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Continental Breakfast
(included in registration)
Morning
Introductory Statements and Keynote Address: Taking Your Program’s Future into Your Own Hands by Diversifying Funding and Making Management Realize They Can’t Live Without You!
Amy Lethbridge, Deputy Executive Officer, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority
Amy Lethbridge is the deputy executive officer of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), a regional open space agency in southern California. The Division of Education and Interpretation, which includes public programs at six different parks, contracts with three school districts for residential outdoor education camp a speakers series, interpretive training and urban outreach programs fall under her supervision. Amy is an NAI Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT), Manager (CIM), Guide (CIG), and Host (CIH), and has trained interpreters all over the U.S. and in Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.
The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority is a small regional agency with no general fund line item in any state or local budget. So how does it continue to do big, innovative outreach and interpretation to the underserved population of Los Angeles? How is it that during this year of budget cuts and program eliminations, MRCA interpretive programs are just fine? Amy will speak to the innovative partnerships, revenue programs, and other initiatives that have allowed her programs to thrive in tough economic times. Her emphasis is on excellence in programming and delivery, using interpretation to meet management goals and creativity in partnerships and programming.
Want Support? Calculate the Benefits and Prove You’re Worth It!
Michael Kirschman, Division Director for Nature Preserves & Natural Resources, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Larry Beck and Ted Cable state that interpretive programs must be capable of attracting support, especially political and financial. The need has never been greater as agencies continue to face severe budget cuts. Unfortunately, the true value of nature preserves are all too often overlooked or dismissed. Not so in Mecklenburg County, where we discovered—and interpret—a 350 percent return on investment for preserves. By calculating environmental, economic, and health benefits, you too can prove the value of your facilities. Learn how we did it, how you can do it, and how to utilize these benefits. If you want support, prove you’re worth it!
Michael Kirschman, CPRP and Certified Interpretative Trainer, is division director for nature preserves & natural resources in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He and his team are responsible for the natural resources management, operation, and maintenance of 21 nature preserves and 6,640 acres serving an urban population approaching one million. Facilities include three nature centers, a 56-site campground, and over 30 miles of trails. Staff lead over 2,000 programs for more than 25,000 participants yearly. In 2008, during a weakening economy, the county passed a $250 million P&R bond, the largest ever, on top of a $35 million land bond passed the prior year.
Lunch
(included in registration)
Afternoon
Prove Your Worth by Proving Your Results with Logic Models
Tim Merriman, Ph.D., Executive Director, NAI
Logic models are the funding community’s way to ensure that dollars are spent to some useful end. It’s no longer enough to measure only outputs (how many programs you do); it’s become critical to measure the effectiveness of those outputs in achieving some impact or benefit to the resource or agency. Tim shares a simple way to create a logic model for your activities that helps in planning and evaluating the success of your endeavors.
Round Table Discussions
Small group breakouts to respond and work toward integrating today’s presentations into real-time challenges.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17
Continental Breakfast
(included in registration)
Morning
Report from Round Table Discussions
Creating an Ecopreneurial Organization
Gordon Maupin, Executive Director, The Wilderness Center (Wilmot, Ohio)
Gordon Maupin is in the process of creating a new kind of nonprofit conservation organization. The “new” organization will look for solutions to conservation-related problems and opportunities to serve the public that will earn income for the organization. In essence, he will help you learn how to get paid for doing the right thing.
The Wilderness Center was founded in 1964 as a traditional nonprofit community nature center offering educational programming and trails. Maupin became executive director in 1981 in challenging economic times. In the 1990s, the center expanded its mission to become a land conservancy using creative techniques to conserve forestland, agricultural land, and natural land. Over the years, Maupin was able to overcome difficult economic times and expand The Wilderness Center’s operation by taking an ecopreneurial approach to creating earned income. In this program, he will explain several of the successful ecopreneurial ventures created and offered by The Wilderness Center.
Among the ecopreneurial ventures he will discuss traditional activities such as retail sales, birdseed sales, room rentals, and similar activities. However, most of the time will be spent discussing more significant ecopreneurial ventures The Wilderness Center has begun.
• Ecotourism — The center earns $15,000 to $20,000 in profit annually.
• Wetland Mitigation — The Wilderness Center has earned nearly $1 million over six years by conserving and restoring wetlands.
• Revolving Land Fund — This is a special fund we created to purchase land for other organizations and government agencies. The center quickly and quietly buys the land and then resells the land to the organization or agency when they are able to secure the funds. The center is reimbursed for the time value on the money as well as some more income for the work and risk associated with the purchase.
• Consulting Forestry — This is a “for-profit” effort to earn income while encouraging landowners to use sustainable forestry practices.
• Nature Preserve Cemetery — The Wilderness Center operates Foxfield Preserve, the first nature preserve cemetery in the nation operated by a nonprofit conservation organization. (Yes, they bury dead people.)
Gordon is half Ozark Hillbilly and half prairie sodbuster with a touch of Cherokee. He studied biology and plant ecology at Missouri State University, earning bachelors and masters degrees. Before coming to The Wilderness Center, he worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation and for the Oklahoma Wildlife Department. He has served as executive director of The Wilderness Center since 1981, but often tells people that he has never had the same job two years in a row. He married an Ohio Yankee farm girl, Margaret Finney. They have two boys, Caleb and Isaac and live in Orrville, Ohio.
Lunch
(included in registration)
Afternoon
Creating an Ecopreneurial Organization
Gordon Maupin (continued)
Wrap-Up, Closing Comments, and Connections
How to Get Management Approval to Attend the NAI National Workshop
Posted By NAI Staff on May 28, 2009
If you have not registered yet for the NAI National Workshop in Hartford, November 16-21, 2009, maybe it is because your supervisor has not yet approved your registration. Here are some tips for getting management’s approval for attending the workshop. We know that may be difficult in these economic times, but here are some tips you can use and adapt for your agency or organization.
Front-line staff is an important asset to any business and if you come back re-charged, you will pass along that energy and enthusiasm to those you come into contact with. This will create a better experience, and hopefully a repeat experience, for your visitors. Remember, the manager who takes care of staff is really taking care of the guests.
As an interpretation professional, you know you can find the newest trends, innovations and technologies available in the field when you attend the NAI National Workshop. You also know that you must constantly fine-tune your skills, learn new interpretive techniques, network with peers, and learn about issues affecting the administration of interpretive sites or supervision of interpretive programs or personnel. You will discover how to enhance visitor experiences, learn which social, political, management or other issues or trends are affecting the field of interpretation, how to develop approaches to target various audiences, or find out how audiences can benefit from using technology in various interpretive settings. In a financial crunch, it is innovative thinking that turns the unknown into opportunities.
Be a force for change in your organization by taking your knowledge back to your peers. Everyone in your organization can benefit from your attendance. Learn successful methods and best practices from leaders in the profession and become skilled at applying these methods in multiple situations then share the Interpreters Sourcebook (proceedings) with your colleagues when you get home. This will be your chance to bring the benefits of knowledge home to your organization!
Communicate why attendance is vital: Interpreters who are better equipped professionally have the advantage – as do their agencies or organizations. Whether you belong to a large or small agency or organization, investments in improving interpretation will be repaid many times over when you come back with your interpretive batteries recharged and having had an opportunity to compare notes with colleagues who may have faced similar circumstances as you face in your position.
Here are just a few benefits of attendance:
• Adopt best practices and strategies in interpretation
• Analyze management trends
• Discuss hot topics with colleagues
• Network and make connections with other interpretation professionals and meet interpreters from all over the world
• Learn from skilled and interesting keynote speakers
During the 2009 NAI National Workshop, you will meet the best and the brightest in interpretation and you will see what NAI has to offer. With over 100 concurrent sessions, you and your organization will reap the benefits of best management practices, success stories, tools and practical solutions. You will also have the opportunity to turn your biggest challenges into your greatest accomplishments when you learn from the experts, leaders in the field and fellow practitioners.
Gain support from your supervisor: Review the daily schedule on the NAI website to identify concurrent sessions, pre-workshop sessions, and networking events that address specific needs within your organization. Each session includes a short description of its contents; use these well-chosen words to justify which of your organizational needs will be met by which activity or session.
Identify your organization’s current initiatives such as cutting costs, streamlining processes, building partnerships or overcoming specific challenges and then find corresponding sessions to attend. You will meet presenters with experience in these areas and get to know fellow attendees who face the same challenges you do. You will be able to use these important contacts as sounding boards throughout the coming year.
Look at the list of off-site sessions offering behind-the-scenes overviews of local interpretation facilities. Many of these have faced challenges in interpretation and are willing to share their successes and failures with our group through behind-the-scenes tours specially tailored for NAI.
Identify current exhibitors and vendors with whom you can discuss future contracts or services. Find new vendors who you are considering adding to your bidders list or your file of interpretive services suppliers. Learn about new vendors that represent applications and technologies you had not thought of using before. Let your imagination soar as you make new connections.
Prepare a list of the benefits that can be realized by your attendance. Then, explain to your supervisor the relationship between these National Workshop activities and your professional and organizational goals. It’s important to be able to logically describe the benefits to your organization and how you can make a positive impact with what you bring back with you.
Commit the funds early to make sure they are there in the fall.
Create a winning proposal: Put your ideas in writing and submit a proposal to your supervisor. Include your intended schedule of concurrent sessions and why the knowledge gained will be valuable to your operation.
List all areas where your division or department faces challenges and the sessions you want to attend or who you plan to visit with who can help you overcome these challenges.
Provide a list of partners, exhibitors and colleagues (both current and potential) and note not only what you hope to accomplish during meetings, but also point out the efficiency associated with being able to meet with so many current and future business partners over a short time period. This can be especially true if you work for a Federal agency consisting of distant units.
Strengthen your proposal by listing division or department goals and the corresponding workshop sessions. Don’t forget to include the cost of registration, airfare, meals and lodging in order to make it a well-rounded proposal and let your supervisor know that it is NAI has capped early registration at $385 and regular registration at $460 this year. Mention that if you were to compare the cost of this workshop’s registration with that of workshops of similar length, you would see that very few other workshops or conferences include as many meals as NAI registration does. This dramatically offsets per diem expenses and makes NAI registration a great bargain.
Don’t quit there; give feedback to management: Follow up with your supervisor after you return from the National Workshop. They will want to know your impression of the workshop, what you gained from it and how you will be able to apply lessons learned. This is where you will refer to your original proposal and goals to achieve while at the Workshop. Let your supervisor know what you have learned and how you will implement this knowledge. Share your new knowledge with colleagues in mini-workshops back at the office. Most importantly, let your supervisor know that your participation in the NAI National Workshop was a worthwhile investment for your agency or organization.
So, plan your strategy, prepare your proposal and secure your approval to go. Bring the benefits of knowledge and professional growth home to your organization!
Keynote Speaker: Sam Ham, Ph.D.
Posted By NAI Staff on May 26, 2009
| November 18, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
From Interpretation to Protection: Is There a Theoretical Basis?
Sam H. Ham, Ph.D.
Department of Conservation Social Sciences, University of Idaho
Wednesday, November 18
Perhaps the most oft-cited phrase in all interpretation literature is a sentence written by an anonymous U.S. National Park Service ranger in an obscure administrative manual a half century ago:
“Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding; appreciation; through appreciation, protection.”
When Freeman Tilden quoted the manual in Interpreting Our Heritage, little did he know that those few words would evolve into a philosophical orientation around which interpreters all across the globe would soon rally. In his keynote address, Professor Ham re-examines Tilden’s claim in light of contemporary cognitive and social psychology. Does the chain of events Tilden describes really stand up, or is it just a nice, warm and fuzzy phrase? Is there a substantiated theoretical basis for claiming that “interpretation” can create a kind of “understanding” that would indeed lead people to “protect” the world’s special places?
Dr. Sam Ham is director of the Center for International Training and Outreach and professor of communication psychology and international conservation in the University of Idaho’s Department of Conservation Social Sciences. Sam’s research has focused on the role of interpretation in sustainable tourism and in applying communication theory to heritage and nature-based tour guiding, travelers’ philanthropy, and interpretation in parks, museums, zoos, and other non-formal educational settings. He is author of Environmental Interpretation, one of the world’s leading texts on applied interpretation (which has also been published in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Latvian), as well as nearly 400 other publications. Sam’s training in applied communication has reached more than 42,000 people across the United States and in 47 other countries. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for his teaching and training, including the NAI Fellow Award, University of Idaho’s Excellence in Outreach Award, and the University of Idaho’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest honor bestowed by the university on one of its own faculty members. In 2007, he was honored by Clemson University with the William C. Everhart Award for his lifetime contributions to environmental and heritage interpretation across the world.