Phase II as my boss and one and only co-worker Chris Elbich calls it includes benchmarking National Parks interpretive programs through various metrics. The metrics we are using for this benchmarking process of include volunteer hours, donations, website traffic, social media traffic, and law enforcement incidents.
We are taking a sample of parks that fall within the top 20%, bottom 20%, and middle 10% within these five categories collectively. With this evaluation, we hope to discover if the presence (or absence) and quality of the interpretive programs parks have contributed to their successes. These discoveries could lead to establishing best practices as a guide for interpretive planners creating interpretive programs.
The National Park Service has never benchmarked its various interpretive programs before. Chris and I are the first to attempt this. We hope that we can establish trends and develop an audience that becomes inspired to inquire and benchmark further.
Agency: National Park Service
Program: Harpers Ferry Center Program
Location: Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services
