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What Is A National Park "Cooperating Association"?
The next time you go into a national park visitor center to buy a map, look at the person at the register. She or he won't be wearing the green and gray of a national park uniform; rather an employee of a cooperating association will be taking your money. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains Association, a membership organization, runs the visitor center bookstores and does a lot more."Cooperating Associations" were formed by the National Park Service and first run by government employees. But the government was not prepared to develop and provide educational content. From the first, visitors in national parks had questions such as, "What is that flower that I saw on the trail?" In 1923, the Yosemite Association was established as the nation's first cooperating association with the National Park Service. In the 1970s, associations broke away from the government. Now government employees cannot serve on association boards.
I've just been voted onto the board of the GSMA and I'm getting a first-hand look at how the association runs. Like all Cooperating Associations, GMSA is non-profit 501C3 organization, with an official agreement with the NPS to provide books, maps, and other educational materials on the Smokies and sell them in visitor centers. We work closely with the park and there's a great trust level between us - the GSMA office is across a small courtyard from the park headquarters.
However, part of the trust and great working relationship comes from the fact that we can't tell the Smokies staff how to run their national park. We're not an advocacy group and don't take positions on park issues as an association.
more at: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com...res-answer5318
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