16 April 2007

Articles for this issue

1. What Is Glimpse?
2. America the Beautiful Interagency Age & Disability Discount Passes -- Impacts of the New National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Program
3. Corps Fee Revenue Return Information
4. Calendar of Events

What Is Glimpse?

The NRM Gateway Glimpse is an occasional alert about new information on the Gateway. This initial mailing is to members of the NRM community whose email addresses are in the NRM Smartbook, the OPM Smartbook, and the Park Ranger Smartbook currently under development. If you know someone who would want a copy but did not receive it, please forward to them the accompanying email message or the Glimpse link. Individuals may subscribe or unsubscribe to the Glimpse at any time by visiting the Gateway.

America the Beautiful Interagency Age & Disability Discount Passes -- Impacts of the New National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Program

The NRM Gateway now includes important information about Federal Interagency Recreation Passes that should be reviewed by all Corps personnel - especially Park Rangers -- who interact with Corps visitors, as well as those who have business relationships with Corps recreation programs (e.g. volunteers, lessees, concessionaires, local communities, partners, etc.). The America the Beautiful Interagency Age & Disability Discount Passes -- Impacts of the New National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Program Gateway page is an internal Corps webpage. Public information on the passes has been posted on the Corps Lakes Gateway Visitors page.

The new Federal Interagency Pass Program has created a lot of questions and concerns related to how it affects and applies to Corps programs. We have tried to provide enough information on the Gateway pages, as well as links to the other agencies, to help our field personnel deal with customer questions, and in some cases, complaints.

Another important purpose of the webpages is to ensure accurate and consistent information for the public. I am confident that our employees will handle any customer dissatisfaction and confusion over the passes in the most professional manner.

Internal Information

• The "America the Beautiful Interagency Age & Disability Discount Passes -- Impacts of the New National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Program" page is now live.
  Two additional ways to locate this page:
  
  • On the Gateway as a button off the main Recreation Use Fees page
  • Under the Index/Search" tab as "America the Beautiful Interagency Age & Disability Discount Passes"
• An overview of the program and related issues can be found at the FAQ page.
• A Tools page provides items to be used to inform the public and congressional interests about the program. Of particular interest on that page are:
  • Chart - summarizes recreation fee discount passes that the Corps of Engineers is authorized to issue/sell/accept
  • Ranger Talking Points - gives you the information you need to answer questions about the program.

Public Information
The Corps Lakes Gateway Visitors page contains the ALERT PAGE for the public.

We will be evaluating the webpages and links on a regular basis. If there are any changes in the pass programs or updates for personnel we will be sure to provide them.

I would like to thank all NRM personnel for your patience and input during the implementation of the new pass program and helping us to design the webpages to be responsive to your needs.

Corps Fee Revenue Return Information

Please give special attention to Item 13 in the Ranger Talking Points. Everyone should be aware that now our fee collections go into the US Treasury and although there are some offsets, for all practical purposes currently do NOT come back to the project where they are collected.

Calendar of Events

Please update the Gateway Calendar of Events with upcoming meetings, conferences and other events of national and regional significance by completing the on-line submission form. An updated calendar of events assists helps other meeting planners to avoid conflicting meeting dates and to explore opportunities for including other activities such as training in conjunction with previously scheduled events.

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