May 22, 2023
USACE Recreation Program Inclusion in SORP Organizational Membership
All, we at HQUSACE have some very exciting news to share. This opportunity was discussed
recently with the Recreation Leadership Advisory Team (RLAT), who agreed this was a great
opportunity to pursue. Please ensure this message makes it out to our Natural Resources
Management (NRM) Staff far and wide:
USACE was recently approached by the Society of
Outdoor Recreation Professionals about potential inclusion in a new Federal Agency
membership initiative to help ensure our NRM professionals in the field have the skills and
resources necessary to manage and provide safe, high-quality and inclusive outdoor recreation
opportunities. Now the Corps can join other federal land management agencies in obtaining a
variety of online resources, trainings and information sharing.
About SORP: The Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals (SORP) provides
leadership for the outdoor recreation profession through skill development, networking, and
technical guidance.
Under this new membership structure, agency recreation employees can:
- Participate in virtual and in-person training and workshops, networking, and collaboration
such as webinars, communities of practice, and gatherings or events about relevant and timely
outdoor recreation topics such as DEIA, destination stewardship, climate change and outdoor
recreation, public health, community engagement, and visitor use management.
- Agency employees will receive the member rate for any fee-based training or events.
Please help by further sharing and disseminating SORP information across the agency
through your internal networks. The goal is to ensure recreation employees are aware of this
membership and their ability to access the trainings and resources that SORP provides. We also
welcome ideas and contributors to future SORP presentations and professional development
opportunities for others.
HQUSACE was able to secure a limited amount of funding to enroll 500 NRM professionals
in this organizational membership. So the first 500 to sign up are in!! As noted above, the
membership gives you discounts to both online and in person training resources, but the cost of
registration for those fee based events must be borne by the home district/project, and of
course, all conference policy rules apply.
So, if you or your staff members are interested in this opportunity, please fill out this Form (USACE email will log you in) we will use to consolidate the member
requests for our new friends at SORP. Once you are approved, they will send you an email with
instructions on how to register and sign into the site.
Again, this is a first of its kind opportunity with this Professional Organization and we are
extremely excited to be a part of it. I hope you all will support and continue to foster an
atmosphere of learning and growth for our field staff to give the resources to keep USACE the #1
federal provider of water based outdoor recreation!!
Please contact myself, Ashleigh Boss or Heather Burke with questions regarding this
opportunity.
Ryan Hartwig
National Recreation Program Manager
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