CONSERVANCY COMMONS

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month celebrates and honors the past, present, and future contributions of AAPI people and communities. The Bay Area is rich with history, from the Presidio to Angel Island and elsewhere.

Park factoid: Angel Island is considered within the legislated boundary of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area but it is not managed by the National Park Service.

20 years of awesome: On Thursday, May 6 will be the anniversary of the revitalization of Crissy Field. On May 6, 2001, the Parks Conservancy and National Park Service celebrated the project’s completion with a grand opening event attended by 75,000 community members.

This was truly a defining moment in our organization’s history. It took incredible creativity, passion and hard work by our staff and NPS partners, the support of thousands of community volunteers and donors, and the incredible generosity of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and Colleen and Robert Haas.

To commemorate the 20th, we created an anniversary webpage to feature new pages and pull together all Crissy Field-related stories.

Please see the new organization chart on the Organizational Realignment page on Sharepoint that maps the structural changes and accompanying Q&As. Starting July 1, 2021, we will realign into two major groups that will continuously be working together to implement our mission and support the partners and people we serve.

Chris recently shared more details about our Conservancy 2.0 realignment.  A new organizational structure and new approaches to how we work together will bring Conservancy 2.0 to life. Please see the new organization chart that maps the structural changes and accompanying Q&As. 

Starting 7/1, we will realign into two major groups that will continuously be working together to implement our mission and support the partners and people we serve.

Warming Hut is now open 9 – 5 Thursday through Monday; closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Kudos all of you who have worked so hard to prepare it to welcome the public once again!

Lands End Lookout is open for indoor service now! Hours are 9 – 5, Friday – Monday; closed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Please stop by and say "hello." Parks Conservancy staff receive a 25% discount on all purchases, including drinks and snacks.

Our Board of Trustees unanimously supports the restoration of our hours and pay rate to pre-COVID levels, which was effective Friday, 4/16. You will see an increase (back to your previous salary) reflected in your 5/10 paycheck onward. Please note, if you accepted a modification to your position that resulted in a reduction of hours, this restoration does not apply. Salary and hour restorations only apply to employees who experienced a reduction of hours and pay last year due to COVID.

Yammer is a space to share content, ask questions, and connect with colleagues from across the organization. And there are plenty of new and improved Yammer "communities" for you to follow, from Yammer 101, with tips on using the internal social media platform, to the Park Knitting Circle, for folks who love to knit or just enjoy seeing other people's work.

PLEASE NOTE: In order to see posts on these Communities, you need to "follow" them.

As we prepare for organizational changes aligned to strategic sprint results, many of you are interested in the status of Conservancy 2.0. In the link below is “Conservancy 2.0 Focus Areas,” for your review – a road map for our next chapter. The document outlines key focus areas and summarizes how we will deliver on our future work, including what we will keep/amplify, adapt/refine, divest/discontinue and create/test.

From the Safety Team: Here are some things we can do to manage our stress response during these times, especially as we enter more phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pace of reopening quickens around us.

Celebrate Mom this Mother's Day with one of our specially curated park items. Parks Conservancy staff receive a 25% discount on all purchases, including drinks and snacks. For the online orders, use code EE25 and your @parksconservancy.org email at checkout.

The City Nature Challenge (4/30-5/9) is a yearly community science event to see which urban area in the world can turn out the greatest number of naturalists, make the most observations of nature, and find the most species. The park lands that we work on are a large part of the SF Bay Area region team!

Thurs., 5/6 from 5-6 PM: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation event will highlight historical immigration through Angel Island, the monumental effort to preserve and protect the site, and the importance of remembering the site’s significance in American and AAPI history.

Saturday, 5/8 from 11 AM-12:30 PM: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH), the National Park Service (NPS), and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) will host a panel discussion about current federal efforts addressing racism and health inequities.

Weds., 5/12 from 11 AM-Noon: NPS is hosting a session that continues the conversation begun in the July 2020 webinar “Sharing Untold Stories: How to Integrate them Into Your Park’s Narratives” by looking at how visitor expectations come into play when park interpretation goes beyond the traditionally dominant narratives.

Thurs., 5/13 from 4-5:30 PM:
Ramadan Eid is soon approaching, and our Muslim friends across the world will be celebrating Eid. While we can’t be together in the parks this year, we invite you for a small virtual gathering and celebration with a book reading of Fatima’s Great Outdoors written by Ambreen Tariq, founder of @BrownPeopleCamping on Instagram. This is a family-friendly program and will be interactive, so come prepared to share your fabulous and fun camping stories!

Weds., 5/19 3 - 4 PM: Our partners at San Francisco Public Library hosts NPS park rangers to reflect on their experiences as Asian and Pacific Islander, Americans and Park Rangers.

Bystander Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian/American Harassment (Public Training) 5/14 9:00 AM, 5/20 2 PM, 5/21 9AM, 5/24 1:00 PM

5/6, San Francisco Coyotes

5/7 1pm and 5/8 11am  SF Parks Alliance's Public Space Summit

5/11 3pm, Open House Stewardship and Belonging (as part of the TOGETHER Spring Summit)

5/12 2PM, Bystander Intervention 2.0: Conflict De-Escalation Training

5/12 4PM, Gardening for Water, Fire, and Habitat

5/13 12PM, Lunch & Learn: Spring Wildflower Tour

5/21 7PM, Wild & Scenic Film Festival

5/25 1PM, Pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains

5/26 2PM, Film Screening and Discussion: American Revolutionary (Conservancy DEI Committee event)

6/3 7:30PM, Native Bees are Picky, What you Plant Matters with Sam Droge

(under an hour):

Story Map: Redwood Creek and Muir Beach (30 min) 

Asian Americans Part 1 of 5: BREAKING GROUND (50 min)

What it takes to be racially literate (15 min) 

Having connectivity issues while in a Teams meeting? You can turn off your video as well as the video for everyone in your meeting using the "Turn Off Incoming Video" feature.

Have a submission for the Conservancy Commons? Send content and images to commons@parksconservancy.org by Friday at 10am to be included in next week's newsletter.

Share your favorite Park Pics on Yammer by logging in with your work email and password.