February 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 52

That's a role with which Pine and her team have no problem. Justifying programs and providing data and hard evidence in support of them is their stock in trade.
" When we go to meet in a Congressional office, there
is a lot of pre-planning and post-activity that takes place, "
Pine says. " This is when our members are so important . "
Pine describes a not-so-hypothetical example of such
groundwork. In planning a meeting with, say, a key member
of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Pine's
team would pull together a raft of relevant information.

A Timeline for the FY 2012 NRPA Land
and Water Conservation Fund
Appropriations Advocacy Campaign*
November 2010-February 2011 -NRPA

works with the
executive directors of state park and recreation
associations and their elected leaders to encourage their
members to have local governments adopt resolutions
supporting 40 percent allocation of LWCF funds to the SS
program. These resolutions were then hand delivered by
NRPA staff to Congressional offices.

February 14 -President's

budget is released. It outlines
plans to implement a competitive grant program for 60
percent of State Assistance Funding.

February-March -Outreach

to other national
organizations to communicate the impact on their
members of the Department of the Interior proposal to
implement a competitive grants program.

March 17 -NRPA

President/CEO Barbara Tulipane and
NRPA members meet with DOI officials to discuss the
association's opposition to the competitive grant program.

March 17 -NRPA

members meet with Congressional offices
during the association's annual Legislative Forum to
discuss FY12 appropriations and to advise on the
detrimental impact of DOI's competitive grant program on
local communities.

May 17 -Barbara

Tulipane submits written testimony to
Congress regarding FY12 Interior Appropriations.

May-July-NRPA

drafts letters on behalf of the state
associations, which are sent to the appropriators by
leadership in state associations.

June 3 -NRPA

and 16 other national organizations send
letter to Interior Appropriations Committee Chairman and
Ranking Member

March-December -NRPA

staff regularly meet with
appropriations staff to obtain information, lobby for
increased funding, and lobby against the competitive
grant program.

June-December -NRPA

staff works with NRPA members
in key states providing members with talking points and
encouraging them to reach out to their members of
Congress.

*NOTE: NRPA did not undertake its Hill visits on behalf of FY12 appropriations until April 2011 due to
the late completion of Congress's work on FY11. The normal cycle runs from January to March.

50 Parks & Recreation F E B R U A R Y

2 0 1 2 w w w . N R P A . O R G

" We would find out how many projects have been funded with Stateside money in his Congressional district, "
Pine says. " We will likely call several members in that state
to get inside information on recent projects that have been
built and what benefits they have provided. Likely, also,
we'll find out what's a project in his district that needs to
be built-but is not able to be built unless funding is provided for Stateside. "
NRPA also provides a " human story " by offering real-life
stories of Stateside-funded projects. They will also demonstrate with National Park Service supported data that had
40 percent of total LWCF funding gone to the Stateside program, then the Member's state could have received specified amounts of money.
At this point, NRPA members step up their contact with
representatives. Pine and her team meet with members
from strategic districts and states and let them know with
whom NPRA has met. Thus, if needed (and usually they are
needed), NRPA members will have at their disposal an array of pre-crafted letters and information.
This is a practice NRPA would normally have exercised
in the traditional January-March time frame. But because of
the stalled budget process, Congress fell behind preparing the FY 2011 budget, the FY2012 cycle got off to its infamously slow start. NRPA found itself doing its work between
April and June, with the final vote coming at the very end of
last year. The 2013 cycle, Pine says, should be back in sync.
Candi Rawlins, Executive Director of the Tennessee
Recreation and Park Association, led her state's efforts in
the FY 12 LWCF campaign. Rawlins explains that the effectiveness of her state's efforts in the FY 12 LWCF campaign
had much to do with the long-range cultivation of Tennessee's political leadership.
" Our members have seen me write about LWCF in our
e-newsletter for so long, they would probably like me to
stop, but I do it as a continuing education that we owe our
members and citizens as to what their elected officials are
doing and how it will impact them and the citizens they
serve, " Rawlins says.
Both Tennessee senators, as well as all the members of
the Tennessee Obesity Task Force and all members of the
Tennessee Conservation Voters (two of our lobbying partners) received her letters in support of LWCF Stateside funding. " We invited all our partners to sign on to our letter as
well as our departments, and their names come first on the
signing list (It is on our letterhead). I wanted to make the
point that it was not just parks and recreation but many sectors of the community that were concerned here. "
That Tennessee is a mostly Republican-led state has affected her advocacy less than one would think.
" Our Representatives and their staffs have always been
most kind when we call or email, " Rawlins says. " I have
even had a senior staff member take my call on a Friday
night after 5 p.m., when there was an important vote coming
up and we needed to get a message to his senator. We know

February 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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