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**Michael Comer** · 02-24-2004, 12:55 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

You and your friend have a right to resent being ill treated by staff at public places. I would advise you to contact the director and express your dissatisfaction and give details as to why you are unhappy.

But, I also wonder if the short notice might have caused confusion among the staff. You say you first contacted them on Thursday to do an event that weekend. That is very short notice and I think you should have given them more time unless these are people you work with on a continual basis. I run a state historic site and I would not let anyone give me a 1 or 2 day notice and approve of them being on site doing an event. That is just too short a time span. There are things to be considered on the director's side too and I am surprised that you were approved to do your event on such short notice. But, like I said I do not know the relationship you have with this facility.

Before giving up on the facility I would have a conversation with the director of the place and come to an agreement about future events.

I also was surprised that you were pulling your water from a creek on-site. In these days and time, that's pretty risky. No telling what's in that water, especially if located near a populated area. For that matter, you can't trust rural sources anymore either. Did you boil it before drinking?

Just my thoughts for what they're worth.

**BHoover** · 02-24-2004, 01:13 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

Without knowing all the details, it's very hard to know exactly what happened, but I can offer some general advice.

Many small parks rely on volunteer staff, part-time staff, and less-than-well-trained staff because of ongoing budgetary constraints. It is usually counterproductive to address the issue directly with the staff in question. I would contact the person with whom you made the original arrangements and explain (very politely) what happened. Don't get angry, and don't accuse the staff of anything either. Explain that you are concerned about miscommunication and ask what you can do in the future to help expedite things.

**Spinster** · 02-24-2004, 02:47 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

Like all Alabama state parks, Blakely is seriously underfunded, and has been for some time. Vital staff members are being cut, and vital work undone ----I'm currently active in another Alabama site in which we volunteers are paying for the meals and the transport of the state prisoners who clean and mow, for that money has been cut out of the park budget. Its a pretty typical situation, and often leaves the staff hard pressed to accomplish basic tasks.

Both the Conferate Legion and the Alabama Division(umbrella organizations with members in the area) have done major programs at the Blakely site, including a large battle scenario last year. As with any such effort, sufficient preplanning is required, and good ideas may still go to smash. My understanding from those who organized the last major effort is that the Park is cooperative and helpful, given their budgetary constraints.

In dealing with any site, but especially those in my home state, I call, introduce myself, find out the right person to speak with, give a basic outline and follow up with a letter, often accompanied with pictures and references from other sites. Often there are required releases to be signed, not only the normal "hold harmless" but various non-discrimination forms. And finally, I get a letter back--even if its a copy of my proposal with the site directors approved signature on it.

As for the $3 admission--well, I wouldn't begrudge it--I pay more monthly dues to volunteer at another Alabama Park than it would cost me to get in for those days, and usually leave a sack of groceries to help feed the prisoners when I leave. I consider it one of those "hidden costs" for having cheap property taxes in my home state.

**SparksBird** · 02-24-2004, 03:17 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

I agree with Michael, as a living history site supervisor, and a park employee, I can see if from both angles. There are plusses and minuses to your predicament.
First, I would definitely air your comments in a polite way to the person that you talked to about making arrangements. A good relationship with the park will go a long way. There really isn't any excuse for a park employee to talk to either volunteers or the public in that way. I would simply explain your problem that you encountered and make your feelings known about doing more volunteer work for the park, whether it be maintenance or living history. This will help build up your relations.
However, looking at it from the other side, calling at such late notice to set up a living history is not good. This can cause problems for the site. Who knows, maybe some of them weren't even aware that you were going to be there. I would always make sure to give them plenty of notice.
Lastly, this is an excellent topic which came up several months ago at our MOMCC conference. We actually did a roundtable session on the relationship between reenactors and sites. It is essentially a give and take relationship. There are certain standards that reenactors must understand about park or living history site operations. On the other hands, sites need to learn how to work with reenactors and appreciate their efforts. So, Richard, as you can see, you have opened up a whole nother can of worms.lol

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
Carriage Hill Living History Farm

**Fod** · 02-24-2004, 04:06 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

"last thursday, i called blakeley state park here in alabama to set up a small living history for saturday, saturday night, and sunday. i spoke to the director personally. she was a little hesitant at first, but soon gave us the go-ahead..."

Perspective of an outsider looking in....

You called way too late...among other things, this means that no one had the opportunity to market your program, hence no increased park attendance. Any benefit to the public was incidental to a previously planned visit

You told her what you you wanted to do, then somehow convinced the director to let you do it....This probably means that you didn't ask what the interpretive plan/goals for the park were and discuss how your program would support them.

You were discharging weapons in a state park...You might have been breaking the law.

"...they do not have a living history program of any kind, and do not have any intentions of ever getting one..."

Do you think your efforts (and possible complaints) will really help get living history programs to the park or not?

If anything, you should probably apologize to the director and beg for a chance to do better.

My two cents

**tick bait** · 02-24-2004, 04:30 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

you all make a very good point. normally i would never do this on such short notice, so maybe that was a factor in the way that all of this went down. that being said, i really think that they are putting the historical aspect of the park on the back burner, so to speak. the reason that i say this is simple; even though the state parks are currently going through budget cuts, this particular one has a $350,000 a year budget still. o.k., with that in mind, they just built a brand new nature center complete with a taxidermist's heaven inside. this thing looks like a national park lodge, and the grass is knee high on the battlefield. not one structure on the townsite has been re-built, they do not have a museum of any kind, even though they have had several people offer to donate their collections, including myself. the park has the potential of having every period from the war of 1812 up to the civil war represented there, and it's just a shame in my eyes to see it forgot about and turned into a bird watching park. in fact, if it were not for the 21st. ala. inf., the earthworks would not have been restored. all of this was done with their volunteer labor from what i understand, and no recognition was ever given to them. they did not do it for the glory, but i still think that it was a bad move on the park's part.
just some more thoughts. pual, if you're reading this, i'm sure that you would agree.

thanks,
richard davis
1st. ala. u.s. arty.

**dirtnap** · 02-24-2004, 07:42 PM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

I was guy #2 this weekend, and agree that yes, indeed we should have given more notice. And an apology was given to the director when she was contacted. However, we did not ask for any special bonuses or assistance from the park or its personnel. Blakeley already provides for on site camping, we simply camped (with prior approval) on the battlefield in the federal works. Also, we drew water from the creek on our own accord, therefore park personnel would not be occupied by our water needs. In simple, no great feat of wonder was needed to facilitate us. A memo to the park personnel by the director would, I believe, have been sufficient to notify the staff. The ranger,Richard mentioned, already has a bad reputation amongst the living history community, of having a bad attitude. An attitude that reflects the park's opion toward living history organizations, essentially the park does not intend to develop a living history program. I have volunteered extensivly with Ft Morgan state historic site, and applied to Blakley for a living history position. At the interview the director never wanted to mention doing living history, only whether or not I understood that it got hot in the summer and if if I knew how to mow grass. Richard is absolutley correct in his assessment of the park's plans to turn a great historic site into a nature lover's amusement park. Further more, the number of visits by tourists to the park would be greatlty improved by changing the way roads are marked and a new site map. Richard did not tell you that the majority of the questions were "where are we on this map".
No one is seeking an apology for the unfortunate action of the ranger this weekend. Both the park and we are guilty in some way or another, needless to say the director will be contacted.

Paul Leonard
1st Alabama U.S. Artillery

**KarinTimour** · 02-25-2004, 07:07 AM

Re: please give me your opinion on...

[QUOTE=dirtnap] Blakeley already provides for on site camping, we simply camped (with prior approval) on the battlefield in the federal works. Also, we drew water from the creek on our own accord, therefore park personnel would not be occupied by our water needs......I have volunteered extensivly with Ft Morgan state historic site, and applied to Blakley for a living history position. At the interview the director never wanted to mention doing living history, only whether or not I understood that it got hot in the summer and if if I knew how to mow grass. Richard is absolutley correct in his assessment of the park's plans to turn a great historic site into a nature lover's amusement park. Further more, the number of visits by tourists to the park would be greatlty improved by changing the way roads are marked and a new site map. Richard did not tell you that the majority of the questions were "where are we on this map".

Dear Paul:

There are some important things in what you posted above:

1. I think both of you are making a good case that interpretation of the earthworks, etc. are being underutilized at the park. You've also mentioned above that the roads need to be better marked and a new site map drawn.

Why not bring this up with the director and see if she is interested in having volunteer labor organized by you do one or both of these? Perhaps there are others reading this post who are in the area and would be willing to help. I still remember being at Bentonville battlefield in North Carolina and realizing that all the step by step interpretive markers that I was using to work my way around the battlefield were erected as an Eagle Scout service project. Perhaps there are some Eagle Scouts in Alabama that would be willing to help with this project as well.

2. You mention that the park offers camping opportunities to the public. I'm assuming that there are water facilities at the modern camp ground? I'd recommend using it for your source of drinking water in the future, or bringing a couple gallons from home and stashing it in your car. There are a number of nasty intestinal parasites you can get from drinking water that is runoff from cattle farming, not to mention petroleum or pesticide contamination from fertilizer or pesticides used on farm land upstream. Sadly, over the past few decades, some of the fly by night operators who do asbestos removal or pick up hazardous waste think nothing of dumping it in what looks like them to be "abandoned" woods or waste land. There it can leach into the groundwater, or runoff can join streams.

In our time period, by drinking from streams, soldiers got disintery (sic) -- you can too, only now we call it giardia and shigilla.

3. You mention that you interviewed for a job at the park -- I'm assuming that either you are still waiting for the decision or got turned down this time. The relationship you build with the park now might mean that if a future opportunity comes along your application will be given more weight, or they may give you word of an opening coming up in a similar park in the area.

My thoughts, you may not agree, or there may be additional issues that I'm not considering,

Karin Timour

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