When you think of City Parks, what comes to mind?

I imagine you don't think of 29,000 acres and 5,000 individual properties in a single City Park System. That is how much property New York city Parks is responsible for.

In an environment that makes me think of skyscrapers and concrete, NYC Parks account for 14% of the city. Managing that much property surrounded by so many people is no easy task.

Sarah Aucoin, Director of Urban Rangers with NYC Parks

Sarah Aucoin is the Director of Urban Rangers for NYC Parks. She is responsible for the team of rangers who patrol and protect the 29,000 acres of parks throughout the city.

In this episode of the Park Leaders Show, Sarah Aucoin discusses how she keeps her team unified with the challenge of having a big team spread out.

Sarah also discusses how NYC Parks connects parks to citizens to foster an interest in nature. Urban parks and green space are important to generate interest in nature that will translate to care for bigger parks. Quite often, a connection to local parks leads to a connection in state and national parks.

Sarah will give you new ideas on how to connect people who don't usually visit parks to build a connection to nature.

You can find the Park Leaders Show on iTunes and Stitcher Radio.

December 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of John Muir. Muir passed away on December 24th, 1914. His last fight was to save the Hetch Hetchy valley. If you are not familiar with John Muir and the Hetch Hetchy Valley, I am going to spoil the story for you. The valley is under water. Flooded behind a dam to create a water reservoir for San Francisco.

The Hetch Hetchy was reported to be as beautiful as Yosemite Valley. When speaking of Hetch Hetchy, John Muir said it was “a grand landscape garden. One of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”

Now, a century after the death of Jon Muir, the fight for Hetch Hetchy is going to come alive again. Robert Hanna is going to pick up the torch Muir carried to save the valley. Hanna reminds me of the water behind the dam. He is gentle, but can apply so much pressure he can move a mountain.

Robert Hanna has shown once before what can happen when he applies pressure. California was going to solve budget problems by closing 70 state parks. Hanna stepped in and became a key figure in keeping the parks open. Just like water, Hanna can shape an outcome with a constant drip, or an all out flood.

It was Hanna’s work with keeping state parks open that caught my attention. But after talking with him, I know his fight to reclaim Hetch Hetchy is going to be a great story.

In itself, the fight for the valley is a good cause. But now, 100 years after the death of John Muir, the charge is being led by Robert Hanna, who is the great great grandson of John Muir.

Robert Hanna founded a clothing company, Range of Light, based on the principles of John Muir.

As a leader you have a responsibility to continue to get better. There is one area in particular though, where I think you need to improve and you may not have considered it.

If you are a leader, you need to write great email.

Email? Isn’t Park Leaders about parks?

Yes, of course Park Leaders is about parks, but it is also about leadership. And if you are going to be a leader and have an impact, you need to get better at email. In fact, you need to write great email.

Once you write great email, you are going to notice you are getting more done. You are going to notice you are getting better responses to the emails you send. And you are going to notice you do not need to spend as much time with email.

It is easier than you think to write great email. You can write great email by focusing on three areas: Subject Line, Opening Sentence, and White Space.

Subject Line: Consider the subject line as important as a headline for a newspaper. Inboxes get filled up quick. The first thing someone does when they open their email is to scan the subject lines of all the email. You need to use a subject line that gets attention.

I’m not saying use a crazy subject line, like I found a live Muskrat in the Bathtub, unless it is true. Use a subject line that gives useful information to the reader. Don’t use in a generic fill in the blank subject line like “Hey” or “Monday”. If you are sending an email about an upcoming meeting, don’t just make the subject line “Meeting”. Include useful information right in the subject line. An example would be “What you need to know about our 2:30 meeting”. This subject line lets the reader know the information in the email is useful and timely. They will open this email.

Opening Sentence: People skim email. When someone opens your email they quickly browse through it trying to pick out why you sent the email. Are you telling them something they need to know? Are you asking them for something? People want to know right away, so do them a favor and put it right up front.

An email consists of two parts, the Ask and the Information. Or it could be the Response and the Information. Usually, people front load an email with information and stick the Ask at the end. If you are asking something, ask in the first sentence.

By putting the Ask up front, and the information second, the reader will know what to do with the information. If I know what you are asking, I will know if the information is applicable. If I don’t know what you are asking, I will have to reread the email after I find out what you are asking. There could even be times when the information is not needed, or it can be saved to reference at a later time. Even when the information is needed at the time, it is useful to read it in the context of the ask.

White Space: The more white you see in your email, the better. Remember I mentioned people scan email. You know they are going to skim, so make it easier for them. When you include white space, eyes can quickly move from one sentence to the next. Information can be plucked out quickly. It is easier to read and reread email with white space.

Select nearly any article or blogpost on the internet and you will see how the author used white space. I am sure you receive email that has big blob of text. A whole bunch of words in a single paragraph. If you are like me, you move on and save that email for later. Or you never read it. Using white space will help your emails get read.

Work on these three steps, and you will soon be writing great email.

If you are going to be in a leadership position, writing great email is important.

If you apply what you read here show you can write great email. But if you want to go deeper and learn in better detail, with examples and exercises, you will find the Park Leaders Guide to Effective Email to be a tremendous help.

The guide does not only cover the three elements of a great email, but there are also examples of great email and awful email, with a breakdown of what made it great or bad. There is also a section full of tips for great email. There is a section on using email to become more productive. There is a section on using email as a tool for team work. And there is a section about when you should not send an email. Understanding when not to use email could be one of the most important aspects of email.

I promise you will get a lot out of the Park Leaders Guide to Effective Email. You can find out more about the guide here.

Have you heard anyone suggest our country should bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps?

I have. And I agree, it would be a good thing for our country. But the Conservation Corps never went away. It just looks different.

Mary Ellen Sprenkel, President and CEO of The Corps Network, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss the work of the Corps Programs. The Corps Network is the national voice and advocate for the Corps Programs across the country.

In this episode, Mary Ellen explains the important work done by Corps Programs and the impact they have on youth. She also discusses the benefit of the projects done by the Corps.

The Corps Network is the tie that holds the Corps Programs together from all the states together. The organization provides training, communication, and centralized leadership. They also offer an annual conference in Washington D.C. You can learn more about the conference here.

If you are interested in the work of the original Civilian Conservation Corps, former Park Leaders Show guest, Jack Hart, wrote a book about the CCC in Washington State. Two Hands and a Shovel examines how the CCC built Deception Pass State Park.

Park signs are an important piece of park management. Typically, a visitor interacts with signs more often than they do with park staff. The words on signs create an identity for the park.

How many parks take the time to review signs to consider the identity they create through signs?

For this episode, Mike Kim joins the Park Leaders Show to review park signs to talk about how to create great park signs. Mike Kim is a marketing consultant, professional copywriter, and brand strategist. He is also a Chief Marketing Officer for a multi-million dollar private company in the New York City area.

In most parks, consideration is given to placement of signs and amount of signs, but how often do we consider the words we put on signs? Mike reviews three park signs and discuses, from a marketing perspective, the impact and perception of each signs. Along the way, he offers advice on how to create great signs.

After reviewing park signs, we move to discuss other writing that can impact a park visitor. Mike also offers tips on writing better event flyers and park brochures.

With an event flyer, you should use a nice photograph and a catching headline. This will capture attention and get the reader to pick up your flyer and read the content. The rest of the text should use descriptive words to draw the read in.

Brochures can help visitors get more out of their experience at your park. Don't use a brochure to give facts and information. Tell a story, paint a picture, and let the visitor know what kind of experience they will have at the park.

Mike Kim reminds us that everything we say (including signs), and everything we do, is our brand.

Below are the three signs reviewed in this episode of the Park Leaders Show. All three signs are from different parks in different states.

This sign is an entrance sign to a State Park:

This sign is at the entrance to a park campground:

 This sign is on a large information board at a trail head:

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