This week is the five year anniversary of our nonprofit corporate formation in the State of California, as ARPPS was officially certified by the Secretary of State on September 4, 2003; a fitting time to reflect a moment on our roots.
First, why our name; American River Parkway Preservation Society.
Our mission fills that out by stating: Preserve, Protect, and Strengthen the American River Parkway, Our Community’s Natural Heart.
It was always understood by us that:
• Preserve means to ensure that the natural environment be preserved for human recreation and education, congruent with the founding principles of the Parkway.
• Protect means to ensure that the recreational and educational assets of the Parkway be adequately maintained for human use.
• Strengthen means to continually add to the Parkway by acquisition of Parkway adjacent land when it becomes available, and enhancing the recreational and educational assets of the Parkway on a continual basis.
We felt then as we do now, that none of these goals can be reached under the current funding or management strategy and we have continually called for a better way.
You can read about our ideas in a summary form on our website news page in two postings; on funding read the January 18, 2008 Press Release, American River Parkway Funding, and for management read the November 24, 2006 Guest Editorial, The American River Parkway: The Case for Management by a Nonprofit Organization.
For more details you can read our strategy, also posted on our website, with follow ups on our strategy included in our annual organizational reports, also posted on our website.
We’ll look at other founding issues for the rest of this week.
