Case for Support

Purpose: Some people get comfortable doing things the same old way, year after year. In its effort to help Rocky Mountain National Park educationally, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association always looks back, gleaning lessons from the past, but it also tries to keep a keen eye on the future. Programs that focus on education for young people must adapt to change. The marketplace of ideas shifts swiftly with each generation.  What worked educationally in 1950 most likely is regarded as an amusing anecdote today. What we plan for the year 2015 may be outmoded only a few years later.  We must plan now for a constant renewal of our educational initiatives. It is the nature of coming generations to always look ahead, not just behind. Change means testing the waters, trying something new.

History: The Rocky Mountain Nature Association was created to address the educational needs of park visitors. As demographics changed, so did the target of Nature Association efforts. In the 1930s and 40s, well-educated adults were considered the primary audience. By the 1980s and 90s, the focus shifted to address needs of visitors who spoke a variety of languages (Spanish, German, Japanese, and French), explored a variety of interests (wildlife watching, hiking, specialized seminars, historical preservation), or had specialized needs (visitors with limited time or children and their families traveling Trail Ridge Road or visiting the park for the first time).

Necessity: Since the dynamics of education never stagnate, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association must plan to innovate. Few nonprofit organizations fund their planning or creative process, with those expectations merely added to the regular workload. Rarely do research and development funds appear in operational budgets. Money is always too tight to attempt something new. But maintaining relevance demands that innovation, planning, and the development of new programs should be funded on an annual basis. A failure to plan rarely results in success. A failure to innovate will leave the park's educational programs lagging far behind the coming generation.

Annual Need:  To stay abreast of the educational trends and to develop new products or programs for young people, $30,000 each year should be allocated to research and development. Out of such funding should flow the creative ideas appealing to the Next Generation. A decade ago the park's Junior Ranger program was only an experiment, a trial program that succeeded. The Nature Association must be a leader in this creative arena, as the children might say, and not just playing copycat or catch up.

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