NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Friday, February 23, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

The National Park Service Morning Report will be changing its format and
contents in order to better serve you, the employees of the National Park
Service.  These changes will go into effect on Leap Day, February 29, 1996.

Today's Morning Report is given over to a presentation of those changes and
includes specifics on how your park or office can contribute.  But it also
contains information meant to answer questions which have arisen over recent
years about the mission, history, contents, and distribution of the Morning
Report.  

MISSION

The mission of the Morning Report - past, present and future - is to impart
clear, concise and relevant operational information of Servicewide interest and
consequence on a timely and regular basis to all interested employees within
the NPS and kindred bureaus.  

HISTORY

Over the nine years of its existence, the Morning Report (MR) has grown from a
small, weekly internal communications vehicle for the Washington and regional
ranger activities offices to an extended daily "journal" covering a wide
variety of information pertaining to the NPS and read by people throughout both
the Service and other agencies and organizations.  

The Morning Report was created in 1986 as a means for communicating timely
information among the Ranger Activities Division in Washington and its
counterparts in the ten regional offices.  It initially ran on the old Boeing
computer that was housed in the Service's offices on L Street.  

At the same time, Ranger Activities was in the process of revitalizing a
moribund incident reporting system, prompted in large part by confusion and
poor communications on several significant incidents.  Under the new system,
major incidents were reported by phone to Ranger Activities, typed up, and
disseminated to the Directorate.  

In 1987, two developments occurred which vaulted the Morning Report toward its
current status as a Servicewide communications vehicle - the Service's adoption
of CompuServe as a telecommunications system and Ranger Activities' decision to
"recycle" incoming incident reports to the field, where they would be of most
interest and use.  A Morning Report network was created which included all park
and regional chief rangers; the report itself was modified to include incident
reports received during the previous 24 hours.

Since then, the Morning Report has grown in both scope of contents and breadth
of dissemination.  

Fire reporting was added in 1987 and greatly expanded during the extraordinary
fire seasons in 1988 and subsequent years.  Weekly updates on Congressional
hearings and legislation were added in the early 90s through the support of the
Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs.  A calendar of upcoming
training and meetings of Servicewide interest and consequence was added at
about the same time.  Efforts to include daily resource management reports were
begun in the 80s and persist, though with only partial success.  The
"Observations" section was begun last summer.

All but the last of these additions were directly endorsed and their use
promoted in a memorandum from Deputy Director John Reynolds which was
disseminated Servicewide in January, 1994.  Since many of you did not see that
memo, the revised standards for the Morning Report will incorporate both the
particulars of that document and some new additions.

The transition to cc:Mail greatly expanded the Morning Report's readership, as
it now became available to the large number of individual users hooked directly
into the new telecommunications system.  The primary audience grew from the
core protection ranger readership to include employees in other NPS disciplines
in both the field and central offices and readers in other agencies,
particularly the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service.  It is also
read in many offices of the Department of Interior.

IMPACTS

Information contained in the Morning Report has had manifold and consequential
impacts in many arenas.  Incident summaries have been utilized to show the
scope and nature of ranger work and thereby directly support the rationale for
Ranger Futures upgrades and 6(c) retirement benefits; they've also been
utilized to successfully justify requests for storm impact, ARPA, drug
interdiction and other types of funding.  Awareness of and attendance at
meetings and training courses have both increased due to the biweekly calendar. 
Operational notes have provided the field with timely information on everything
from the status of appropriations legislation to public health advisories to
details on government closures; parks and offices that have run requests for
information in that section consistently report that the subsequent replies
have been significant and of considerable use.

The Morning Report, in short, has proven to be a versatile and effective tool
for relaying important information widely throughout the field in a timely
manner and on a regular basis.  Similar reporting in other operational areas
will help sustain the continuing efforts to make the Morning Report an even
more effective instrument for transmitting consequential information to all NPS
areas, and will increase the understanding of other aspects of park operations
by both employees of the National Park Service and by readers in the community
outside the Service.

CURRENT CONTENTS

The Morning Report now contains the following sections:

o Incident Reports - The brief history of the evolution of the Morning
Report presented above answers in part a common question: Why does it
report so much 'gloom and doom'?  The answer is simple: The MR was
originally created to serve the protection ranger community.  Although it
has since expanded its purpose (and will do so again in coming weeks),
incident reporting - in accord with formally transmitted Servicewide
incident reporting standards - will remain a principal purpose of the MR. 
Our goal is to provide a single incident reporting system which:

* relieves parks of most of their reporting obligations;
* disseminates the reports to interested parties in parks, central
offices, and Washington; 
* edifies readers on the realities of work within national parks; and
* provides useful operational information, including insights on
causes of accidents, advisories on criminal activities that may
affect more than one park, and tips on new law enforcement and
emergency services practices and procedures.

o Fire Reports - Although fire reports - or, more correctly, incident
management reports - are available to the fire community directly from
the interagency center in Boise, they are summarized and repeated in the
MR in order to provide everyone in the NPS with a synopsis of the current
fire situation - with particular attention to fires in NPS areas.  Fire
reports generally appear between May and September.

o Resource Management Reports - While resource management activities don't
always lend themselves to brief, timely summations, as do other types of
incidents, they nonetheless can be reported, at least partly, as "works
in progress."  Criteria were established in Deputy Director Reynold's
memo.  The Morning Report seeks reports on: 

* The completion of notable resource management projects or the
attainment of significant benchmarks in such projects.
* New threatened and endangered species listings, significant changes
in status to listed species, or new threats to listed species.
* Any significant lawsuit pertaining to park natural or cultural
resources.
* Any newly discovered threat to park resources.
* Reintroduction of a species to a park.
* Any resource management action or action affecting park resources
which is inherently controversial.

o Congressional Reports - As noted above, the Morning Report carries the
weekly summaries of Congressional hearings, bills, and other related
actions prepared by the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs
(except when Congress is adjourned).

o Calendar - The calendar section appears in the Morning Report every other
Monday.  The goal is to provide parks and offices with advance
notification of meetings and courses with Servicewide interest and
consequence.  ANY park or office may submit an entry meeting the criteria
of Servicewide interest and consequence.  This section will be further
modified to make it more useful (see below).

o Operational Notes - This section will be expanded and upgraded (see
below).

o Memoranda - The section was added to provide brief summaries of important
memoranda which have been issued from WASO to the field.  As we all know,
memoranda, directives, guidelines and other instructional material often
do not get to their intended audiences.  Announcements of the issuance of
such documents, however, make it possible for field areas to seek them
out. 

o Cross-Reference - The section, which appears monthly, was created to
refer readers to other bulletin boards and electronic and hard copy
newsletters that are issued throughout the NPS in order to maximize
information dissemination to program specialists.  ANY park or office may
submit an entry.

NEW/REVISED ADDITIONS

The National Park Service has many communities of interest and now has many
useful and effective forums for communicating to and within them.  It also has
the Director's bulletin board, which is utilized to relay official news from
the Director's office, and "The Electric Courier", which is the Service's in-
house employee newsletter.  The Morning Report is not intended to supplant
those, but to augment them by providing specific operational information of
direct use and consequence to the field.  

It is abundantly evident that future years will be difficult and will require
sustained, effective communications in all areas of operations.  The Morning
Report is the most appropriate vehicle currently available for such
communications.  The Associate Director for Park Operations and Education has
concurred with this conclusion and mandated the expansion of the Morning Report
to further improve operational communications within the NPS.  We will
accordingly be adding or upgrading the following sections:

o Operational Notes - The Morning Report is actively seeking brief
summaries of important, practical operational information which need to
be conveyed to the field or FROM parks to other field areas.  The key
phrase is "operational information," which includes:

* Programmatic information in all operations areas, from IPM to fees,
from visitor education to uniforms, from maintenance management to
concession contracting.
* Resource information - educational material, equipment, contacts,
etc. - of value to the field.
* Management information, such as details of appropriations or other
consequential legislation, policy calls, and decisions on
operational procedures.

 All divisions under the Associate Director for Operations and Education
are expected to provide such information on a regular basis.

o Memoranda - This section, which has been in the MR for several years but
only partially utilized, will now be employed regularly to provide brief
summaries of important memoranda which have been issued from WASO to the
field.  As we all know, memoranda, directives, guidelines and other
instructional material often do not get to their intended audiences. 
Announcements of the issuance of such documents, however, will make it
possible for field areas to seek them out.  Entries will consist of
INFORMATIONAL summaries (or, occasionally, full copies) of memoranda -
NOT official transmissions.  Formal transmissions will continue to be
made through the normal chain of command and standard routing procedures.

o Incident Reports - In order to improve dissemination of information
regarding events OF ALL TYPES in the parks, the memorandum issued to the
field on incident reporting this year contained a new criteria (2.19),
which mandates the reporting of "any event in a park which requires
significant mobilization of resources, attracts substantial media
attention, and/or has particular relevance to the National Park System or
Service or its cultural, historical and natural assets."  The objective
is to now include ALL events of Servicewide interest and significance,
including notable and noteworthy special events, dedications, anniversary
celebrations, and dignitary visits.

o Calendar - Because of the wealth of useful calendar entries being
submitted to the MR, it will now be divided into two sections -
"Training" and "Meetings and Conferences" - which will appear on
alternating Mondays.

o The Exchange - This section will include:

* Requests from the field for information from other offices and
areas needed to resolve problems.
* Summaries of solutions which have been found to common problems
which need to be shared with other areas in the System.

Suggestions for improving the efficiency and usefulness of these and other
sections are solicited.

SUBMISSIONS

The MR has proven to be a useful communications tool because it is CONCISE,
TIMELY and RELEVANT to many employees.  It is imperative that we retain those
attributes.  Therefore:

o Submissions must be brief and informative.  In cases where it's necessary
for the field to have access to additional information or the full text
of documents, a reference should be added which tells people where to go
to get same.
o Information must be of Servicewide consequence, value, significance
and/or interest.
o Information must be timely in order to assure maximum utility and
effectiveness to the field.

The editor reserves the right to revise entries for concision, grammar, and
syntax.  

A FINAL COMMENT

The Morning Report is the product of the employees of the National Park
Service.  Your conscientious, timely and accurate reporting of incidents and
continuing submission of other important information have been the key elements
in making the MR a useful communications vehicle.  You are, in the jargon of
the hour, and in the truest sense of the word, "shareholders."  

Through your collective efforts, you have added dimension and consequence to
the Morning Report.  As so many of you have said in notes to this office, the
Morning Report has now become a unifying force within the National Park
Service.

We are now entering turbulent waters.  If we're going to stay afloat and on
course, it will be necessary for us to simultaneously row, steer and bail. 
Effective use of the Morning Report can make that process easier and sustain
you and the other members of the crew in your common struggle.

                           *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please address requests for
the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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