National Park Service Grant for Visitor Services Project Continuation

Through a Task Agreement against the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Cooperative Agreement, the National Park Service (NPS) and University of Idaho will continue in a cooperative effort to work on the Visitor Services Project with the University’s Park Studies Unit.

STATEMENT OF JOINT OBJECTIVES/PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

The overall goal of the project is to continue the work of the Visitor Services Project and Visitor Survey Card projects that is part to the continuing cooperative effort between the National Park Service (NPS) and University of Idaho to conduct visitor studies in units of the National Park System.

RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT

University of Idaho agrees to:

– Undertake the Visitor Services Project (VSP) and conduct related survey research, including evaluating methodologies to improve response rates and representation of visitor groups, and evaluating improved measures of satisfaction.

– Conduct Visitor Satisfaction Survey (VSS) for Fiscal Year 2013 and approximately 7-16 in-depth visitor surveys.

– Maintain an archive of the Park Studies Unit (PSU) questionnaires and data.

– Comply with all Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements pertaining to social science research in conducting the VSP.

– Provide for hiring additional PSU personnel and training as needed. Encourage appropriate faculty, staff and student cooperation as necessary to support this research effort.

– Preserve data through transferring hard and electronic copy information associated with all current and historic program files to the Social Science Branch and Federal Archives.

– Clearly acknowledge the NPS in all written materials developed or derived from this task agreement.

– Participate with the NPS in a 60-day wrap-up period following the due date of the last project product.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE INVOLVEMENT

National Park Service agrees to:

– Assign a NPS Technical Director to provide substantial involvement in direction of the PSU and to provide technical consultation and guidance to employees hired by the University of Idaho to work on the PSU.

– Coordinate the process of identifying and approving units of the National Park System in which PSU projects are to be conducted.

– Allow the VSP studies to be conducted in appropriate units of the National Park System.

– Acknowledge the University of Idaho in all reports, manuscripts or other professional presentations developed or derived from this task agreement.

– Participate with the UI in a 60-day wrap-up period following the due date of the last project product.

NPS did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria:

Continuation – The activity to be funded is necessary to the satisfactory completion of, or is a continuation of an activity presently being funded, and for which competition would have a significant adverse effect on the continuity or completion of the activity; and

Unique Qualifications – The applicant is uniquely qualified to perform the activity based upon a variety of demonstrable factors such as location, property ownership, voluntary support capacity, cost-sharing ability if applicable, technical expertise, or other such unique qualifications.

Since 1982, the University of Idaho’s Park Studies Unit has cooperated with the National Park Service (NPS) in producing Visitor Services Project (VSP) studies. This cooperation has resulted in 255 studies in 179 parks. University of Idaho has developed a publicly available web site and database to house this data on University of Idaho servers. The University of Idaho has a strong and relevant academic program, a good track record in conducting VSP and Visitor Survey Card (VSC) studies, and has the personnel who perform the work already in place.