Even with their help and the continued support of the Superintendent, our all day priorities setting session failed to yield the determination of Park operational priorities. In fact the Management “Team’s” only act as a team was to intentionally railroad the entire process. Ast Tuesday’s session was worse then trying to get a bunch of headless chickens to sit still – no one wanted to pay attention, participate constructively or do anything but complain about the process or their pretend lack of understanding (they’ve known about the process for over 6 months, have asked myself, my boss and the superintendent about it numerous times – only an idiot or a faker would not understand at this point).
By the end of the 8 hour day and despite the facilitator’s help, the Management Team decided that 95% of the 120+ action items identified during the first 5 weeks of the internship were critically important for the Park to accomplish within the next 5 years – a task impossible given resource restrictions. By failing to offer any guidance, the Management “Team” wasted an entire day of 12 people’s time at a cost to the Park Service of well over $5,000. I know this may seem like a pittance to the gov’s trillion dollar stimulus plans, but it really irked me. The BP is driven by the Park for the Park, yet several members of the “Team” are so against it because it may hurt their ability to expand their division.
The result, our plan is kind of stalled as we figure out another way to determine what the Park’s operational priorities are. While the BP contains more then the priorities related sections, these priorities are really its core – without them, it’s just outside recommendations and analysis of their current operations, certainly not worth the $25,000+ the Park Service is paying for the plan.
Despite this week’s cruddiness, I have been going on my regular adventures. Last Saturday, I took a solo hike to Andersen Falls – which I dubbed Annebelle Falls, in honor of her birthday on Saturday.
As you can see, it was lush, watery and full of flowery goodness. I even had the opportunity to fill my waterbottle from a small natural spring – mmm was it good water. Afterwards I went for a chilling swim in the nearby Rogue River (the water temp was still in the 40’s so I mostly skipped rocks and dangled my feet).
This weekend I also took my first full drive around Rim of the Lake – it was at sunset.
Additionally, because of the darkness of the Park, I had the opportunity to watch the space shuttle pass overhead on Monday night and witness a beautiful starry night over the lake.
See all of the photos from my trip to Annebelle Falls, my Rim drive or my space station/starry night.
