Park Academy

Yay! I get to do a talk in front of 65 park rangers on Wednesday morning at 9:30! (I'm trying to be excited about it...) I can do the talk without my notes right now, I just have to not get nervous and forget everything I've worked on for the past month and a half :)

Parks rented two inmate vans from the Nevada Division of Forestry so we are all carpooling down to Laughlin. They're picking me up in Yerington at 6:45 a.m. and we're supposed to be there by around 4 p.m. I've never been to Laughlin so that part is cool! There are other presenters--it's like a giant staff meeting where everyone gets together every couple years. Because of budget cuts it's been 6 years since the last park academy.

Me talking to a group of Boy Scouts...interpretive program.

 

Me on a full moon hike in the summer...doing interpretation.

 

I'm going to be doing a 30 minute slide show on interpretation--what it is and how to do it. I've got about 60 slides so I'm hoping it should go by pretty fast. Then there is a 15 minute break and I'm breaking everyone up into 8 groups to start developing their own interpretive program with props that I'm going to give them.  There are two of us doing this talk--Dana is going after me with a lot more information about designing interpretive panels, using the sign manual and developing an interpretive plan for each park. My presentation covers the who, what, when, where, why and how of interpretation. This was a surprise too--one day I got an e-mail saying I was a speaker at the academy and "here's the agenda!" haha

 

I'm always nervous before a presentation like this--mostly because it's people I know! So wish all of us presenters luck!! (I need it!)