Methodology
Link to my survey: ODNR State Park Managers Survey
For my survey my first approach was to recruit state park managers with the help of the sustainability coordinator from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. She sent me all 63 park managers emails. I initially planned on having the basis of my survey questions based around awareness of land acknowledgement. After meeting with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources team I found out that this was too controversial of a topic to ask ODNR state park mangers, so I changed gears to still gather information that would be valuable in my area of interest. I changed my questions to frame them in a way that would ask about the aspects of Ohio Parks and Watercraft mission statement, history of the land, and the insight they had on the stakeholders at the State Parks. With this approach I was still able to receive valuable information that can help lead my project moving forward.
Analysis
Of the 63 ODNR state park managers I sent the survey to 39 participated. Approx. 69%.
Some conclusions I found interesting are the following. Park managers are more confident in their knowledge of post-colonial history than pre-colonial history. I had the hypothesis that older managers would know more about history, that is 100% true although only 2 park managers participated from the oldest age range. 100% of park managers agreed customer service is the most significant of the mission statement values, and boating is the least. What I did want to touch on was the values that followed boating as least significant was education and outdoor recreation. I’m interested to see how this all can be applied to my design process the remaining duration of the project
