Thanks for joining us this morning / afternoon for the Gold Medal Q&A. Get your questions ready!

This session is being recorded.

Thoughts on the use of bullet points in your responses?

Is it better to pick fewer projects and be more detailed or cover more projects?

I also wanted to know if it was okay to use bullet points on question 6, 7, and 8 where the word count is only 120

Can you explain the change in questions for 2021?

How much weight is given to the essay questions versus other criteria? We are hung up on the rewording of some of this year's questions specifically Cite 3 examples of internally-focused initiatives, … and the next one, which is externally focused... what is the difference?

What advice can you give for questions 2 and 3 as we work to deliver what the Judges are looking for.

The last question was changed from challenges your community faces to challenges your agency faces. Should that be focused differently?

Do judges look at hyperlinks if they're included in the application? Do they help/hurt?

How often does the Questionnaire change significantly? Because we are also starting to work on our re-accreditation, and it is very hard to really focus on both under current conditions.

We’ve all been impacted by Covid 19 and have responded in similar and innovative ways – virtual programming, outdoor space providing relief as people work from home, serving as testing or vaccination sites, etc. How should our Covid response, which is (hopefully) a one-off, be addressed versus our ongoing strategic direction and programs? (As an aside, it would have been interesting to have included a specific Covid question this year).

Can an organization win this award the first time they apply? How often has this happened? Is extra weight given to past finalists who apply again?

Rylin - we won it the first time we applied (DE State Parks)

in 2016

Does our statistical info also need to be entered in the NRPA's Park Metrics feature?

Can you please repeat where we can find the judging criteria and other related info?

How long before you find out you have advanced to a finalist stage? How long will you have to make the video?

Is there a cutoff date on when we should stop using examples? Can things be used from this spring- for instance, the winter storm where a lot of agencies were called upon to help their community.

How is the statistical data weighted or used in the judging process?

2021 is the first time the questions have been modified in several years; we will utilize feedback from the judges and agencies who completed the application to adjust accordingly for 2022.

Is it preferable to use statistic/data from NRPA Park Metrics?

Our accreditation site visit is next week and we've just completed a first draft of the GM award application - I can attest: a LOT of concurrent work, but all of the work we put into updating accreditation really helped clarify/define answers in our award.

If an agency is selected as the Grand Plaque recipient, they are ineligible to apply for 5 years.

When mentioning Covid things in our responses, how worried should we be about the politics surrounding it? If our organization fought to stay open and we talk about that will it hurt us if the judges are coming from closed down communities.

Can you talk a little bit about the two 3 page executive summary requirements for an agency's master plan and strategic plan, is this just taking the actual summaries (they may be longer than 3 pages) and uploading them? Because there are specific questions the application is asking for "Within this overview, it is suggested the overview include major goals of the plan; current progress towards reaching those goals; and future plans to complete the plan." What if your master plan is from 2015?

Judging Criteria: https://aapra.org/Portals/0/GoldMedalProgram/2021%20Gold%20Medal%20Judging%20Criteria%20Final.pdf?ver=-7v-oQMLXyK5yRU9j52VeQ%3d%3d

Is it okay to reference several plans that make up a "master plan" without actually calling it a "master plan"? We have a strategic plan which talks about how we implement several different "master plan" type plans but no one master plan

Do you provide feedback on non-finalist entries?

Would it be appropriate to substitute the annual report for the program guide? We no longer do a program guide or catalog.

If you are a repeat finalist that was just a finalist last year, do you suggest making a totally new video after the notifications in May? Or would our old video work with minor edits?

Your advice on storytelling makes me wonder if "how you say it" is as important as what you say. Would that be correct? We might need to pivot from "just the facts" to a more holistic approach.

To determine how to focus revision efforts, is the following the priority list for our application? It seems like it would be first, the 9 essay questions because they are scored, second, the exec summary because of the story it tells, and then third the statistical info?

In your opinion, what gave your agency's application that WOW factor?

For the website links, you ask for a program brochure (which is normally printed), we have a pdf version of our brochure, but our events are most up to date on our event listing page. What do you prefer?

Disregard question above^

If we scored well on a particular question last year, is it OK to reuse those responses for this year's application?

Thank you so much for all your responses!

https://aapra.org/National-Gold-Medal-Award

THANK YOU!! Very helpful.

Thank you!

Thanks so much everyone!

Thanks all!

Thank you so much!