Management of Interpretive Sites: Developing Sustainable Operations Through Effective Leadership

by Tim Merriman, Lisa Brochu

New and experienced managers looking for advice and ideas will find InterpPress's Management of Interpretive Sites: Developing Sustainable Operations Through Effective Leadership helpful in developing managerial and leadership skills. Whether you need to write personnel policies, develop a business plan, conduct meetings, or use interpretive efforts to convince visitors to become stewards of your resource, this book contains specific suggestions based upon the authors' combined 60 years of experience in running not-for-profit, governmental, and for-profit organizations.

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Writing has always been a strong interest for me but time and the maturity to write well has come later in life. Lisa Brochu and I work together, write as a team and were married in 2008. Since 2002, we have written four non-fiction books in the area of heritage interpretation and one work of fiction, The Leopard Tree.

In the 1970's I published several children's plays in Scott Foresman readers. I wrote my first novel then and queried diverse publishers, building my file of rejection letters. Somewhere around 24 or so I quit sending the queries. I really plunged deeper into my work then. I was an environmental educator at Southern Illinois University's Touch of Nature. Then I was a park ranger/interpreter at Giant City State Park in Makanda, Illinois. Next I was Director of a nature center in Pueblo, Colorado for a dozen years and then Science Director for Bat Conservation International and later served as Research Manager for Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky.I served as the Executive Director of National of Association for Interpretation in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 1995 to 2012.

Lisa and I now consult as Heartfelt Associates with parks, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, historic sites and communities on heritage interpretation. We have traveled 23 countries since 1995 in this work.

We personally donate to several E. African charities assisting communities with HIV, malaria and hunger. We also advocate for organizations protecting wildlife, especially elephants and mountain gorillas.

Having grown up in Vandalia, Illinois, I went to college nearby in Carbondale, Illinois, at Southern Illinois University earning a B.S. in zoology, teaching certificate, M.A. in botany and Ph.D. in speech/communitcations.