Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Ad Hoc Outreach Committee
April 5 , 2000
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
1 7 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the 8 5th day of April 2000, there came on to be heard 9 matters under the regulatory authority of the 10 Parks and Wildlife Commission of Texas, in the 11 Commission Hearing Room of the Texas Parks and 12 Wildlife Headquarters complex, Austin, Travis 13 County, Texas, beginning at 5:05 p.m., to wit: 14 15 APPEARANCES: 16 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION: AD HOC OUTREACH COMMITTEE: 17 Chair: Alvin L. Henry Lee M. Bass (absent) 18 Carol E. Dinkins Dick W. Heath 19 Nolan Ryan Ernest Angelo, Jr. 20 John Avila, Jr. Katharine Armstrong Idsal 21 Mark E. Watson, Jr. 22 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT: Andrew H. Sansom, Executive Director, and other 23 personnel of the Parks and Wildlife Department 24 25 . 2 1 APRIL 5, 2000 2 3 ITEM NO. 2 - BRIEFING - OUTREACH INITIATIVE STATUS 4 REPORT. 5 MR. SANSOM: Commissioner Henry. 6 It's your Outreach Program. 7 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Mr. Chairman, 8 this is a fairly new effort that's underway, so 9 I'm just going to ask Dr. Larry McKinney to come 10 forward and give the oral presentation that 11 they've prepared to make. I think that will save 12 a little time. 13 DR. McKINNEY: Thank you, 14 Mr. Chairman. What I will try to do again, in the 15 essence of time, is try to be brief but try to 16 bring you up to speed on some things that we're 17 doing to initiate some of the outreach efforts, 18 according to the Chairman's Charge. We'll just 19 begin with that. 20 Of course, for our agency, outreach 21 is an important part of everything we do as an 22 agency and always has been, as you've seen from 23 the presentations today and so forth. It seems 24 like a growing part of our time is spent dealing 25 with issues like that, social issues rather than . 3 1 the resource issues, because that's important to 2 what we do. 3 But what we're going to focus on in 4 this strategy, this outreach strategy, and along 5 with the Chairman's Charges, is to look at 6 Frankwood building our constitutent base, bringing 7 new users in and future users. That's the 8 strategy that we're going to be looking at 9 according to our charge. 10 If we are successful, what would it 11 look like? What will our outreach goals achieve? 12 Well, it's really three things, I think. 13 One, at a very minimum, is 14 developing an appreciation through participation; 15 people doing things at our sites. At a minimum, 16 we're going to do that. 17 Certainly, we hope to develop 18 conservation-minded citizens at some point. We're 19 going to need them in the future for decisions 20 we're going to make. 21 And certainly not least is users, 22 paying users, which we are going to need as well. 23 So if we're successful, are the 24 types of things that we're going to achieve. If 25 we've going to do that on the scale that we need . 4 1 to across the State, we're going to have to be 2 very systematic about it. We're going to have to 3 build a framework of how we're going to approach 4 it and follow that framework, and that's really 5 what I want to spend a few minutes on is looking 6 at that. And that outreach framework is going to 7 have to be built on sound educational apprentices, 8 and it's really straighforward; but there's a 9 model that we'll have to follow, and I want to 10 spend just a few minutes kind of laying that model 11 out, because I think it makes sense in giving us 12 direction as to where we want to go. 13 And, of course, that model is built 14 initially on building awareness and appreciation; 15 that is, going out and getting the people to 16 participate. If we're going to bring these people 17 into the loop, they have to develop an awareness 18 of what we're doing and an appreciation for it; 19 and we're very good at that, frankly. But what 20 we're going to be looking at here is: Where are we 21 missing that target market? What are we missing? 22 What groups are we not getting at, and how do we 23 get at them? 24 To give you an example of what 25 we're talking about and what we do here, for . 5 1 example, Expo is an important way in which we get 2 at that. Park visitations, Kid Fish, outreach 3 efforts like that are what we do in getting that 4 awareness or appreciation up up to where it 5 should be. 6 As we move through that model, and 7 once we get that awareness and appreciation, 8 trying to develop the skills and knowledge to use 9 to enjoy the outdoors and acquiring that type of 10 thing is where is we want to take our next 11 outreach efforts. 12 And in those types of things, what 13 we do, for example -- and we're very good, again, 14 at this -- is hunter education, technical guidance 15 that we provide to landowners. Those types of 16 things for our publications and interpretation in 17 our parks is that next level of getting these 18 folks skills, our users skills. 19 The next level that we move into, 20 again, is moving those users into constituents. 21 We want to make them constituents of ours. So 22 once they have acquired their awareness and 23 appreciation and they've acquired the skills to 24 participate, we want them to take ownership in 25 what we're doing, to become a constituent our . 6 1 ours. 2 And these are the types of things 3 like becoming an Outdoorwoman and Buffalo 4 Soldiers, those types of things that we do. 5 It's also at this point, really, 6 that it becomes very resource-intensive. It takes 7 people and dollars to move into this next phase. 8 We're very good at the agency at working the mass 9 level of bringing into people into parks and that 10 awareness and appreciation; but when we move into 11 the area of trying to convert these users into 12 constituents, that's where we need the partners to 13 help us do it, because it's an intensive job. 14 And, finally, of course, what we 15 want to accomplish is really a behavioral change, 16 making our constituents make this a part of 17 something they want to do with their lives. And 18 in that role, our job is to provide opportunities 19 for them to do that. Outdoor Kids, the 20 Conservation Passport, those types of things is 21 what we're trying to develop. 22 The model act really describes what 23 happens in an outreach process, a successful one, 24 basically how do we make best use of it? Well, 25 these are some assumptions we have to make. . 7 1 First of all, we basically are 2 doing outreaches on a programatic and individual 3 level. We're been doing this for some time. It's 4 nothing new to us. We know how to do that. The 5 difference is that there are many people that we 6 are not now reaching. That's where we have to go. 7 And if we're not reaching them, then certainly 8 there is room for improvement in what we do in 9 our outreach so that we can get to those folks. 10 And we have to understand that there are inherent 11 limits to our capacity and to the resources we 12 have to do this, and we have to address that 13 issue. 14 So if we have this as a model and 15 we accept both that and the assumptions, then 16 basically where do we need to focus on the 17 outreach strategies? And they really come down 18 into a number of major areas: coordination, 19 evaluation, targeting of partnerships, and then 20 resources. And I briefly want to touch on a 21 couple of those issues. 22 For example, coordination: This is 23 really an issue that's important to us internally 24 of trying to make sure that all of our divisions 25 work together effectively. What we have is a . 8 1 very decentralized system, and we enjoy a lot of 2 the benefits from that; a lot of diverse programs, 3 very effective programs. 4 But if we're going to move in the 5 direction that we need to go to be effective, we 6 have to better coordinate; so we have to develop 7 ways to do that. And at the end of the 8 presentation today, we're going to be talking 9 about some of those. 10 Our regional concepts: We're going 11 to look at sites in our regions where we can focus 12 the various divisions together. For example, 13 you'll hear today about Sheldon as a center in the 14 Houston region where we can bring our staff from 15 our divisions together to be effective in that 16 kind of outreach. And there's others as well, 17 Government Canyon and so forth that we're looking 18 at. 19 Evaluation is something that we 20 need to improve on, because how can we tell where 21 we are going if we don't know where we've been? 22 Are we going to be looking at all levels from 23 individual efforts and performance plans to try to 24 standardize our programmatic evaluations? Which 25 we do, but we need to make sure we can work across . 9 1 the board with that. 2 And most importantly, agencywide -- 3 which is another one of the charges looking at us 4 -- how can we make that evaluation across this 5 State? How are we being effective on a statewide 6 basis? And that effort is underway. Lydia 7 Saldana and others and Bob Cook are leading that 8 effort to try to establish the basis so we can 9 make those kinds of evaluations. 10 Targeting: Again, our targets for 11 this effort are youth, minorities, women, and 12 urban situations. That's where we want to target 13 our efforts to build that constituent base and 14 bring new users into our fold to become 15 constituents. 16 To do that, it's going to take, as 17 I said, partnerships. We're going to have to 18 develop those partnerships for several reasons. 19 One, we simply do not have the people power to do 20 it. We're going to have to magnify our impact 21 through building partnerships with others, and 22 also to bring resources. Again, we do not have 23 the resources to do we need; but, certainly, if we 24 can bring our partners in with us and multiply 25 those resources, we can accomplish that. . 10 1 And I'm going to turn this over now 2 to Bob Murphy, who is our Outreach Coordinator, 3 and others who will come up and talk with you just 4 very briefly to give you an idea of how we're 5 going to take all of that -- and I ran through it 6 very quickly with you -- but how we can focus 7 those areas and try to make some impact. So I 8 think, frankly, it's quite exciting. It's an 9 opportunity, I think, for us to bring all of our 10 resources together to work with you all as 11 individuals Members of the Commission to have us 12 build some of those partnerships and gain those 13 resources to match what we have. And I think then 14 we can really begin to step into that next level 15 of outreach and accomplish what we're going to 16 need to do to be a relevant player in the new 17 Texas of the next 30 years with a population that 18 is changing. 19 So at this point I'm going to turn 20 it over to Bob Murphy to begin to give you just a 21 feel -- and we'll talk more about these through 22 the year -- just give you a feel for where we want 23 to go and get your input on this. 24 MR. MURPHY: Thank you, Larry. 25 One of the snapshots I'd like to . 11 1 give you is of an effort that we've been working 2 on for months now. And I don't want to jinx it 3 by giving you too many details, but basically 4 there's a grant before the Texas Education Agency 5 right now, and their granting process is called 6 "Technology: Integration and Education. They 7 currently have $33 million to give to schools to 8 integrate techology into their education 9 curriculum. 10 And what we have formed is a 11 partnership with some rural schools across Texas. 12 We will be focusing on 22 of our sites and having 13 those rural schools that are close in proximity to 14 those in 19 school districts applying for 15 $2.4 million through that $33 million grant 16 program. 17 Basically, we partnered with the 18 Texas Rural Systemic Initiative, a group that is 19 already together focused on the poorer schools, 20 the poorer counties in Texas. And we are asking 21 for support for those 19 districts. The money 22 would go to them, but they would then study our 23 parks and our wildlife management areas. And it 24 would meet their needs in technology, it would 25 meet their needs in training and in other . 12 1 programs in order for them to bring their students 2 to our sites and study them. 3 Basically, again, part of that 4 money would come to us. About $700,000 would go 5 to our Foundation to create a management plan, a 6 management program for this grant project. It 7 would also provide money for evaluation of the 8 entire program and money to have the teachers 9 working at our sites during the two summers that 10 surround the school year that this grant would go 11 for. 12 In summer of 2000 the teachers 13 would learn about our sites. In the school year 14 of 2000-2001 the students would visit our sites 15 and learn about it, share what they learned 16 through the Internet, and communicate with each 17 other. And then in summer of 2001 those local 18 communities, some of them very small and very 19 interested in this for their students to learn 20 about, would then celebrate the progress they made 21 through this grant. 22 So if we get the grant, we'll come 23 back and celebrate ourselves. 24 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Would you 25 just give us an example or two of what rural . 13 1 communities are involved in this? 2 MR. MURPHY: Well, if you look up 3 in the Panhandle area, there's three red stars 4 surrounding the wildlife management there, the 5 Playa Lakes wildlife management areas. Those 6 three school districts would be studing those 7 Playa Lakes. They would also visit Palo Duro 8 Canyon up there. The opportunity would be for 9 them to say when they first saw whooping cranes 10 using those Playa Lakes. 11 If it had been along the coast, the 12 mid-coast, Aransas County ISD would have students 13 studying Goose Island State Park and Fulton 14 Mansion and also learning through the Rockport 15 Marine Lab. And those students would also be 16 aware of when those whoopers arrived at their 17 wintering grounds. They could be sharing 18 information about the migrational patterns of 19 whooping cranes. 20 There's Village Creek State Park, 21 Caddo Lake State Park, Mason Mountain Wildlife 22 Management Area, the Chapparal, Choke Canyon, 23 Garner State Park, McKinney Falls State Park. It 24 would be an interesting complex of communities and 25 park facilities or Parks and Wildlife facilities . 14 1 for them to learn from. 2 The second thing I wanted to give 3 you a snapshot on was the status of the Outdoor 4 Kids Program. Dr. McKinney explained that program 5 in a briefing at your previous meeting, but I 6 wanted to let you know that we are in the current 7 stage of the third round of our statewide pilot of 8 this program. And in the previous two summers we 9 provided funding to our staff to conduct Outdoor 10 Kids projects at their facilities or in their 11 programs. The call for their proposals is out 12 right now, and those are due on the 14th of this 13 month, so we'll know what it looks like, what 14 they're going to be proposing, what they're going 15 to be wanting to do, and funding those. 16 The significant there is we would 17 be providing resources to our staff for the 18 Outdoor Kids Program to continue. 19 We recently just finished a survey 20 of last year's program, with a very positive 21 response from our field staff to the program. 22 There were 7400 kids involved directly with our 23 staff in that program, and they suggested that 24 this program will really suit kids aged 8 to 13. 25 They were very supportive of a recent revision of . 15 1 the Journal that's been provided. 2 I would also tell you that besides 3 the Outdoor Kids that participated at our sites, 4 we've begun to get an awful lot of school 5 districts, school groups, and community groups 6 participating in the program on their own. I got 7 an e-mail this morning from a teacher in Pasadena, 8 Texas, who has 120 children participating and 9 completing the program right now. 10 This program will be very 11 applicable to our urban regional pilots that we'll 12 be explaining at the end of this briefing. And 13 that's also going back to the tie grant. What 14 that would set up, if we have rural students, 15 rural kids becoming very familiar with our 16 properties and providing information in a network, 17 then another strategy later on would be to have 18 the urban kids also doing the same thing and 19 learning from the rural kids. 20 So this Outdoor Kids Program that's 21 all built around that would be a basis for 22 applying resources to support our staff, to 23 conduct Outdoor Kids Programs, and to coordinate 24 students learning throughout the State and 25 supporting one another and learning through the . 16 1 process. 2 So now I'll turn it over to Darlene 3 Lewis, who's going to give you an update on the 4 Community Outdoor Outreach Program. 5 MS. LEWIS: Good afternoon. I'm 6 Darlene Lewis, as Bob has mentioned. 7 I just wanted to give you a little 8 update on the Community Outdoor Outreach Program. 9 It's been around since 1996. It was introduced in 10 a legislative rider with an original budget of 11 $250,000 a year. Now, to date we've funded 110 12 projects with over 400,000 of those dollars going 13 into the Houston area, which is one of the 14 targeted areas for our regional proposal that 15 you're going to be hearing a little more more 16 about today. 17 Just to give you an idea of where 18 the Fiscal Year 2000 regional funding has gone so 19 far: To the Houston area, over $150,000; the 20 Dallas area, $130,000; and in San Antonio, about 21 $42,307. 22 The Community Outdoor Outreach 23 Program is going to play a critical role in the 24 regional pilot program, because one of the most 25 effective things that we've gotten from this . 17 1 program is the partnerships that we have been able 2 to build with this program. 3 And so in order to increase some of 4 those partnership relationships, what we're hoping 5 to do is to increase our grant-writing efforts by 6 having more workshops in these regional areas, 7 which will also help us to enhance the public 8 awareness in these areas; the volunteer training 9 program so that we can build more of a minority 10 base of volunteers so that we can have access to 11 people who could help us with other projects 12 around other areas of the State; our local 13 outreach areas; and also working with the Sheldon 14 facility in Houston as a support and training 15 facility in development in that area. 16 One of the things that we have done 17 also to address this particular issue is we've 18 modified the the grant scoring criteria to 19 emphasize this regional approach. 20 One of the things that we have 21 found with the co-op program is many of the 22 programs have grown from the one-time 23 field-trip-type events to more stewardship/ 24 mentorship-type programs. And so with the new 25 scoring system that you're going to be looking at . 18 1 tomorrow, we have also included an educational 2 curriculum to this program so we can build new 3 users and participants in this program. 4 And that's about it that I have to 5 say. So if you have any questions, please feel 6 free. Thank you. 7 DR. McKINNEY: Go ahead. 8 MR. HALL: Mr. Chairman, Members of 9 the Committe, my name is Steve Hall, Education 10 Director. I'm going to cover the regional pilots 11 as alluded to by Bob and Darlene. 12 The regional pilots essentially 13 will help us work with those who, No. 1, are 14 already involved in bringing kids outdoors; No. 2, 15 who have establish partnerships in those areas; 16 and, No. 3, who already espouse our mission, our 17 goals, our objectives and some of our programs at 18 our facilities. 19 The Nature Heritage Society in 20 Houston is such a group. They have partnered with 21 the Houston Parks and Recreation Department and 22 also with the Houston ISD, Independent School 23 District. They have also got corporations on 24 their side, and certainly civic organizations. 25 The members here I'd like to point . 19 1 out today are Glen Miller and David Baxter, if 2 you'll raise your hands, guys. And we worked with 3 Glen and David a long time in programs like 4 hunter education and angler education. 5 And another one of the groups 6 represented here today and on the team in that 7 respect are also the Buffalo Soldiers Hunting and 8 Fishing Club. They are a new organization in the 9 Houston area. Members represented here today and 10 who have hung with us all day long are Glenn 11 Miller, Clinton Anderson, and Chris Below. 12 And certainly working with Linton 13 and others down in the Houston region. 14 These are the types of 15 organizations that we're going to try to work 16 with, in conjunction, of course, with our 17 divisions, every division represented down at the 18 Houston area. And, certainly, as mentioned 19 before, Sheldon Lake State Park would be one nice 20 facility to center these efforts; but not to 21 forget, obviously, other areas like Sea Center 22 Texas and some of Brazos Bend State Park, Houston 23 State Park, and the other fine parks that we have 24 down there. 25 We don't want to forget two other . 20 1 areas that we'd like to start in, as well, and 2 that's the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the 3 San Antonio area: Dallas-Fort Worth, for example, 4 working with organizations like the Inner City 5 Fishing Institute in bringing more and more 6 inner-city kids to the Texas fresh Water Fisheries 7 Center, for example. 8 In San Antonio, certainly the 9 ongoing and new development in Government Canyon 10 represents for us one of those new areas to bring 11 inner-city kids or the kids from the Alamo City 12 and expose them to really our and services via 13 many of the things that you've at least heard 14 about today or in past meetings. 15 These regional pilots will be 16 hooked up essentially with the co-op program, as 17 mentioned by Darlene. They will be hooked up with 18 Outdoors Kids, as mentioned by Bob. 19 Certainly we're going to try to 20 contract for service and/or do cooperative 21 agreements in these efforts to make sure that we 22 look first of all at results or give them the 23 expectations very clearly as to what we need out 24 of this, and then look at the results for more of 25 a contractual nature rather than just a granting . 21 1 mechanism that the co-op grants serve. 2 And, finally, monitoring and 3 evaluation will be an important component, because 4 we've felt like we've scratched the surface. 5 We've done very good things in education and 6 outreach these past 10 years, rather a shotgun 7 approach, and lots of things going on throughout 8 the State. 9 But I think the one thing that we 10 can begin doing is really delving into: Are these 11 programs being effective? Are we effectively 12 reaching kids and women and minorities, people 13 with disabilities? 14 And these are real questions asked 15 on the national level, as well as in Texas, and 16 certainly we want to try to lead the charge in 17 that as well with this effort. 18 And with that, I know you've had a 19 long day and -- 20 DR. McKINNEY: Let me add 21 something. I just wanted to add something to the 22 conclusion on that. 23 Where we're going to focus on first 24 in this outreach effort to bring all this together 25 that we've talked about briefly is in the Houston . 22 1 area, our largest city. I think it's going to be 2 our test bed, but it's also an important one for 3 us. We have resources in place in our various 4 divisions, but we want to bring them together; and 5 we're going to use the Sheldon area as a focus for 6 us to develop its capacity. It's got an 7 environmental education center. From there we can 8 branch out to all the facilities that we have 9 there, but that will be an important part of what 10 we're doing. 11 What we'll be seeking your help 12 with is: We can commit the resources that we've 13 talked about here with Outdoor Kids and with the 14 co-op grants, but that will not be enough. And I 15 think not only will it not be enough resourcewise, 16 but what we're trying to develop is a true 17 partnership with the folks in the City of Houston, 18 the industry, and others. And so what we'll be 19 seeking your help in is helping us get together 20 with those folks in Houston to basically challenge 21 with that, "Here we are. We have the sites. We 22 have some resources. But we're a place where you 23 can invest your resources to help us reach all the 24 folks in Houston, starting with the kids." 25 And so I think it's an exciting . 23 1 opportunity to demonstrate what we can do 2 together. It will be, I think as I said earlier, 3 the platform that will launch us up to the level 4 that we need to to accomplish what we want to do 5 statewide. 6 And so we'll be looking to, 7 Mr. Chairman, working with you and Members of this 8 Commission to make that happen, not only in 9 Houston -- certainly, there as the focus -- but 10 across the State. 11 So with that and any questions or 12 whatever you might have, we'll be looking forward 13 to working with you. 14 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Madam Chair, 15 I'll turn it back to you. 16 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: All right. 17 Thank you. 18 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I'll have a 19 lot to say at a later time. 20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: All right. 21 We'll look forward to that. 22 And thank you again, all of those 23 who came; but most importantly, thank you for the 24 good work that you're doing to help with this 25 outreach. It's exciting to get this briefing. . 24 1 And with that, if there's no 2 further business to come before us this afternoon 3 -- and nobody speak up, please -- then we will 4 stand in recess. Thank you. 5 (RECESS) 6
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