Encouragment, Patience, and Skills

To the Resources and Public Programs Division,

I want to take the time to thank the individuals in this section for welcoming me to Arizona State Parks and embracing my doe eyed self! I have truly learned the principals of communication and team building within this section. You have all helped me in unique ways grasp some understanding of what it means to be a public servant. I am truly impressed with the amount of relentless efforts to serve the public this department displays. 

Since January, I think the section has taken several baby steps forward. Although the climb has not always been as beautiful as the North side of Tonto Bridge, we have progressed incrementally. Not only are we learning how are individual roles as a section works together, we are learning how each individual works best which i think is imperative to a efficient section. 

I look forward to continuing to grow together. I know the skills I need to work on to improve the section as a whole and I am determined to set some goals for myself in this accord. I am also excited to see us grow as a section. 

Thank you again, for the encouragement, patience, and knowledge I have received from you all. 

Sincerely,

Brianne Fisher

Ever Evolving - Going Beyond the Goals

Before I begin this posts let's take look back to my goals stated on the first blog post:

1.) Understanding what the differences will be when using the sustainable management framework for a government entity compared to a private entity.
2.) Understand why and what makes it so challenging for government agencies to be proactive and taking action on tomorrow.
3.) My final goal is to enjoy this process. Although frustration, fear, anxiety, angst and who knows what else will occur, I will remind myself I am doing this for ME.

I think one of my biggest take aways from this internship in addition to reflecting on my goals, is that everything is a process rather then achieving end results.

These first 2 of these goals correlated really well with my Senior Capstone Project which I did on the agency I did my internship with. Although I do not have a concrete understanding of these topics, I have abstract comprehension of reasons why these are. I would like to further my education and knowledge and actually test some hypothesis I have. These are great things to keep in mind while I continue my work in public administration. I've learned a lot simply by being exposed to the day to day tasks as well as being involved with some disruptive changes.

My third goal took me a little while to adopt but I do think I have gotten better at taking a step back to enjoy the ride. Sometimes I am so future oriented on "what's next" I do not stop to enjoy what I am learning right now and reflecting on it. This became very important for me to do to keep the stress levels down. I wish I would have done it sooner!

State's Shitty Strength

The strength of Arizona State Parks is their ability to adjust to circumstances. Although shitty how they accumulated this strength, if a private agency experienced the sudden changes that the public sector did they would be completely irrelevant. They do this through teamwork. The agency has been through a lot in recent years with the extreme hit to the state budget and almost having to close multiple parks. The agency staff got nearly cut in half. During this time, staff took on various roles, learned new skills, and still served the public. This "scrambling" that the agency experienced ultimately makes them more resilient. At a macro level, they know how to deal with being understaffed and under budgeted. At a micro level, if an employee is not in or experiences an accident, another staff member may be able to complete their necessary work. Shared responsibility and understanding of peers work is also beneficial for collaboration.

With the change of Executive Director and Governor I believe that ASP has experienced a bit more tightening up of communication and an increase in bureaucracy. For instance, the agendas I create now have to be reviewed by 4 (sometimes 5) people. I understand that the Governor wants more state control, which is completely understandable considering Arizona state agencies seem to be lacking in efficiency. However, what could be improved is the communication on the direction the agency is heading.

Another important change I would make would be to increase the efforts in protecting the natural areas. Since there has been financial burdens, much of the agencies attention has been focused on recreation in the parks to increase revenues and visitation. Now that some of these crisis is over, it is time to refocus the agencies efforts on the natural areas. They can explore new markets by focusing on conservation and sustainability. In order for ASP to have a sustainable growth trajectory they must explore fringe stakeholders and truly listen to the needs and wants of the public they are not currently serving.

Group Projects - Am I Crazy?

I think everyone in this class can agree that ASU classes are heavily group project based. I believe I member one of my Professors informing the class that this order in increased projects has come from President Crow himself.  Although all students seem to groan and roll their eyes when they see a group project on the syllabus, I believe it is time to raise our hands in defeat.

Now, these project based classes pose another challenge. Projects are being conducted less thorough then Mr. Crow might have intended. A semester is not long enough to truly conduct thorough research, analyze the data collected, synthesis, and offer meaningful recommendations. I feel like the part missing in all of these is the very beginning of collecting data and analyzing it myself. I have obviously researched issues/challenges, analyzed, and come up with my own solutions.

I think the type of group projects and benefits students gain from them would be better met if projects were a year long. This would also provide students some type of EXPERIENCE to place on their resume. A reoccurring trend for students entering into the workforce complain that they get turned down due to a lock of experience. Having a year long project would provide students actual experience and possibly a network of references from working with the same stakeholders for a year.

President Crow most definitely had good intuitions for the increase in group collaboration on projects. However, this initiative is currently teaching students how to work on GoogleDocs and find shortcuts. Personally, I would love to have a class that was a year long and worked with the same group of students and stakeholders on a common goal. This would allow for a more thorough project with actual learned collaboration, data collection, and analysis.

Maybe I'm crazy? Does anyone else feel like this would be more beneficial?

The Pressure of Public Play

Today I listened to a really great podcast on NPR's TED Radio Hour. The show is called "Press Play" and is comprised of five other TED talks including Jeff Mogil's How Can Playing A Game Make You More Empathetic, Charlie Todd's Who's That Guy Riding The Subway In His Underwear, Stuart Brown's How Does Play Shape Our Development, Isabel Behncke's What Can Bonobos Teach Us About Play?, and lastly Jane McGonigal's How Can Video Games Improve Our Real Lives.

The majority of the show discussed how all different forms of play can make humans smarter, saner and ultimately more collaborative. Being a public service and public policy major we have learned that services and policy formulation is relying more and more on various stakeholders collaborating towards one mission. The process of governing is requiring more collaboration between different levels of agencies and sectors. How come there is no intersection of play and work?

From what I can tell working at ASP for my internship, I do not know when there would be time to play. First of all, there would probably have to be a study and cost benefits analysis of why the employees should participate in play. Then, some type of framework or detailed plan that articulates exactly what will be happening and what the predicted outcomes are. That indeed would take time, but simply conducting in play makes individuals more collaborative because they instantly feel empathy once engaged in play.

For Foraging

I am doing a research project on edible forests on public lands. The research has been very interesting and has sparked an especially strong interest of mine, foraging. Foraging is being able to know where to look in nature to gather edible plants/herbs. When conducting my research, I found there was very little established action in this area. In other states there are organizations or clubs that will meet up and scavenge for the day.

I did find one resource located in the Arizona Superstition Mountains. Patrick Bigfoot (not sure if that his real name or not) offers classes, newsletters, and even sing along at Reevis Mountain School. His teachings and walk about teach individuals how to be self-reliant on nature. Not only is this really impressive but extremely sustainable. If anything were to happen to the United States food system the foragers would be the only survivors! It really would be a wonderful tool to know. It is officially on my bucket list to attend!

The Web of Urban Governance

Arizona State Parks displays urban governance by engaging with many different organizations at various levels in order to accomplish common goals. For instance, we work with Federal agencies like Bureau of Land Management on land use issues. Currently, there is collaboration on managing pack goats and there interactions with Big Horn sheep on public lands. Along with that, ASP's mission is met with the help of local governments. Not only do we work with city's park and recreation departments but we work with the cities that host our parks. Since most State parks are in rural communities it is very important to establish relationships with the locals. At the same time, ASP rely's on various trail, off-highway vehicles, Audubon, conservation, etc. organizations. These organizations are specialized in various aspects and are helpful in gaining expert information for research.