January 6, 2012
Request for Partnership Success Stories
As a result of the updates completed by the Partnership Advisory Committee to the NRM Gateway Partnership pages, we have identified pages where we are lacking in good examples of agreements and success stories. Similar to a request sent out in 2003 that initially helped create the Partnership Success Stories webpage (http://corpslakes.usace.army.mil/partners/action.cfm), we have developed a simple Word document format to submit more recent successes. Please see the attached Word document template and sample article to help develop your own story.

If there is a Challenge Partnership Agreement, Cooperative Agreement, Economy Act Agreement, or local MOU/MOA associated with the partnership, please submit the agreement document along with the Success Story article. We will post these on the appropriate NRM Gateway pages to help create a larger database of examples that can be used by others. In addition to sharing stories on the Gateway, we will also work with the HQ PAO to include some of the best examples in the Engineer Update. As an added incentive to submit stories, we will be awarding bonus points on next year's Handshake applications to projects that submit the best examples.

Success stories/agreement files needed:
(Each has the associated Gateway page listed with it so you can see what is currently online. Partners with no Gateway examples do not have a link listed. These have a higher priority need for examples.)

1. Grants applied for and won. (Please include winning grant application. See http://corpslakes.usace.army.mil/partners/grants-success.cfm for examples.)
2. Economy Act Agreements
3. Health/Medical partnerships
4. Water Safety partnerships
5. Military partnerships
6. American Chestnut Foundation
7. Boy Scouts
8. Leave No Trace
9. Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
10. Paralyzed Veterans of America
11. U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
12. United States Geological Survey (USGS)
13. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
14. The Nature Conservancy

Please send your articles/agreements to me by March 2. While there is no actual 'hard' deadline for this action, we are attempting to get as many examples as possible to improve our Partnership pages during the slower recreation season. We will continue to accept success stories throughout the year via the Partnership Success Stories webpage or sent directly to me or any of the PAC team members.

We appreciate your assistance with making the Gateway an even better resource for everyone. These success stories really showcase some of the incredible work that our natural resources staff and partners are conducting at the ground level. This helps meet Goal 4, Objective 2 of the Recreation Strategic Plan to communicate the roles of park rangers and the NRM workforce both internally and externally.

Thank you,
Heather Burke

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