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        April 16, 2001

Nassau County Parks and Preserves Summit
A collaborative effort to create a volunteer-powered network
to assist in maintaining and enhancing the county's parks and preserves

Goal

To organize and coordinate all financial and human resources available throughout Nassau County in a cohesive effort to maintain, improve and enhance the county's parks and preserves. The purpose of the summit will be to advise all individuals and organizations of the overall goal and create an overall plan for implementation. Each group is encouraged to provide information that is pertinent to their region, including available resources, funding sources, experience and capabilities.

The summit will offer an opportunity to undertake a coordinated effort to identify the needs in a particular area and to discuss the best way to pique interest, raise funds, and utilize resources.

Leadership

The effort should come under the leadership of the Parks Commissioner or a representative of the Parks Department in conjunction with the Summit Coordinator.

Resources
  • The resources of the Parks Department will be augmented by various volunteer programs, groups, committees, etc.
  • The Parks Commissioner and Summit Coordinator, through deputies and volunteer leaders, will create a registry to identify all volunteer organizations that provide services for parks and preserves throughout the County.
  • Nassau County will be split into regions and the parks and preserves in each region will be identified.
  • Through a volunteer coordinator(s), volunteer groups will be assigned to regions by location. For example, Friends of Wantagh Park or the Wantagh Park Adopt-a-Park program will be assigned to the region, which will encompass Wantagh Park.
  • Once resources available to each region are identified, the membership, expertise and capability of each of the volunteer organizations must be catalogued on the registry.
  • By contacting the leader of the volunteer groups, the volunteer coordinators, by region, will inventory the approximate man hours and capabilities available to that region.
  • The volunteer coordinators, with Parks Department maintenance personnel, will identify and record on the registry the maintenance, repair and other services required in each region.
  • A weekly, monthly and seasonal schedule will be prepared and placed on the registry, which outlines the work required.
  • Work will be assigned and recorded on the registry on a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal basis to volunteer personnel.
  • Throughout the process, the need for additional park personnel, and the type of personnel should be registered and provided to the Parks Department.
Supplies

Park's purchasing department will ensure adequate supplies are provided to maintenance and volunteer personnel. Volunteer coordinators should keep a schedule, which outlines what supplies are needed, when they are available, and where they are needed.

Fund raising
  • The Park's Commissioner will provide oversight of a fund raising coordinator.
  • The fund raising coordinator will have regional coordinators who identify private and charitable sources of funds in each of the regions of the County by park.
  • The fund raising coordinators will identify what type of private funding exists and inform those private funding sources of the projects that are necessary, the projects that are ongoing, and the projects that will be undertaken within the County. For example, the Tackapausha Museum project requires funding. Once various funding sources are identified, they should be informed of sponsorship opportunities at Tackapausha. If there is interest, the fund raising coordinators will then follow up.
  • Park personnel and/or volunteers will maintain contact with private funding sources through phone calls and letters (e-mail).
  • The fund raising coordinator will have regional coordinators with a list of all private funding sources in their region. Volunteers and park personnel will be in constant contact with those private funding sources to inform them of the projects that are ongoing and those, which are planned.

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