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Welcome to Parks Forum

Parks Forum is the peak body for park management organisations, with members across Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and the USA.
Our vision is for a strong and vibrant parks industry recognised and supported by the whole community. In these pages, you will find a wide range of products and services designed to support and promote effective management of parks whether they are smaller urban parks, regional parks or wilderness and protected areas.
Our parks are the storehouses of our future.
For more about Parks Forum, click here.

Peer Review

The Peer Review Program is offered to member agencies to enhance management effectiveness.
A team of parks leaders works with the agency to review an aspect of the agency, or the whole agency, within seven categories of business excellence. The investigation identifies key strengths and opportunities for improvement.
A report including the peer assessment, recommended actions and an indication of the current standard of business excellence is provided to the host agency.
For further information click here.

Networks

Parks Forum supports a series of networks through which our members interact to work on projects, produce products and create workshops and seminars.
These networks include our Standing Committees which provide leadership of projects, the the Parks Volunteer Network, Young Leaders Committee, Regional parks managers’ networks, Indigenous Working Group and the International Urban Parks and Green Space alliance.
For more information about our networks click here.

Benchmarking

The Parks Forum biennial benchmarking survey examines performance at the organisational level using a range of cultural, economic, environmental, management and social measures. We conduct a biennial survey to report on the condition of the participating parks and protected areas against measures for planning, policy, resourcing and implementation of park management programs.
To find out more about benchmarking, click here .

Biennial Conference

22 - 24 May 2012 - Adelaide
We are delighted to announce our biennial conference, will be held in Adelaide from 22 - 24 May 2012, co-hosted with the Department of Natural Resources, SA. The conference will bring together parks leaders from across Australia, New Zealand, as well as around the world, to discuss critical emerging issues in parks management and leadership. For more details, click here.

Resource Database

Parks Forum provides access to a dedicated resource database, containing documents relating to all aspects of park management. Many of these documents have been shared by our members, in the interests of supporting collaboration for higher quality park management. The site can be searched via the menu or using a key word search. Many of these files are available to the general public, but others are only accessible to members.
For more information about the database, click here.

Staff Exchange

Bringing in fresh ideas, skills and resources when they are needed most, recruiting, retention, motivating, up skilling and rewarding staff are challenges we in the parks industry face. Staff exchanges between park agencies provide a valuable tool that can assist us to meet these challenges and develop our workforce. We provide a range of tools and information to assist agencies and staff to undertake different types of exchanges. Case studies provide practical insight as to how exchanges have worked. For more information click here.

Standing Committees

Parks Forum Standing Committees provide project leadership and support to all of the activities we undertake.
The Chair of each Standing Committee reports to the Parks Forum Board on progress toward strategic objectives, and each committee supports the staff to ensure the delivery of projects by providing advice, expertise and direct input.
The committees provide an opportunity for staff of member agencies to become directly involved in our activities.
For further information about standing committees, click here.

Every 2 months Parks Forum produces an industry newsletter, The Forum, to keep anyone who is interested up-to-date with parks industry events, projects, programs, and information.
The newsletter is an open publication, distributed freely to everyone with an interest in park management.
It includes industry news, agency profiles, information on upcoming events, and reports on significant activities affecting the industry.

To view our newsletter, or to subscribe, click here.