FOTSP Coalition

Friends of Tennessee Parks Coalition

The date for the 2011 Annual Conference are October 21-23. The conference will be at Paris Landing State Park. Mark your calendars now for this educational and entertaining event...

Here is the official logo of the friends of Tennessee State Parks Coalition. The 3 stars represent the 3 areas of the state....East...Middle...West Tennessee. The trees and water designations represent the features of our State Parks. The rays emanating from these symbols represent the outreach the Coalition is offering to all of our parks statewide. We will have patches available soon.

The Bylaws and Mission Statement have been written and approved and we are well on the way to getting the Annual Conference set up. The dates will be October 21-23 at Paris Landing State Park on Kentucky Lake. Our next Board Meeting is scheduled for May 14 at the Doubletree Downtown in Nashville.

We had a very productive meeting of the Officers and Board of Directors in Nashville on February 17, 2011. We are rapidly bringing the Coalition on-line and plan to be up and running full speed by the Annual Conference in October.

At this meeting we reviewed and approved a logo for the Coalition, worked out a Mission Statement and appointed a Planning Committee for the upcoming Annual Conference. Work has begun on the bylaws and we are exploring what non-profit designation will best suit our purposes. We want to leave lobbying options open so we will be able to approach the legislature to influence the outcome of proposals that would harm...or help our State Parks. We have a website that is currently being constructed and hopefully that will be up and running soon.

We had one board member resign due to work and school scheduling. Phyllis Osborne from Bledsoe Creek Sate Park was appointed to fill the vacancy.

We need a nomination committee to prepare a slate of candidates for the upcoming Annual Conference. The present serving officers and board members were approved by the general membership at the last Annual Conference for 1 year to get the Coalition organized and the necessary documents and official processes completed. We plan to have all that done by October.

The Board has decided to have face-to-face meetings on a quarterly basis. We approved an e-mail voting venue for interim decisions and are looking into the feasibility and availability of conference calling. As soon as we can get the website up we will post the minutes from our meetings on-line. Anyone is free to attend the meetings in a non-voting capacity.

As usual, the Downtown Doubletree Hotel was magnanimous in their hospitality and service. We are so fortunate to have a corporate sponsor willing to provide for our needs. The meeting facility was superb and the hotel furnished coffee tea, etc. for the meeting and lunch for the attendees.

The Friends of Tennessee State Parks general membership voted unanimously to form a coalition of the Friends Groups statewide at the 7th Annual Conference on October 9, 2010. Provisional officers were elected to serve one year with elections to be held at the next Conference. A nominating committee will be selected to present a slate of candidates. The provisional officers are...

President...Fount Bertram, Edgar Evins State Park

Vice President...Del Truitt, Cumberland Trail State Park

Secretary-Treasurer...Lana Rossi, Cordell Hull Birthplace State Historical Park

Membership...Roland Creekmore, Fall Creek Falls State Park

Board members to date are...

Scott May, T.O. Fuller State Park

Carey Sanders, Big Cypress Tree State Park

Ric Finch, Burgess Falls State Park

Lana Baker Rossi has volunteered to create a website and will be webmaster for the site. The URL is www.friendsoftennesseestateparks.org We are in he process of putting together mission statements, bylaws and procedural protocols. Check back often to follow our progress...

Send mail to fwbertram@dtccom.net with questions or comments about this web site.