Current Position: Park Managers at Elmore State Park
How long have you been with Vermont State Parks and in what capacity?
I have worked with Vermont Forest, Parks, and Recreation for four months as the park manager at Elmore State Park.
How did you become involved in working as a Park Manager?
I became involved in this position through an Americorps Program with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. I was interested in managing a park because of the beautiful location, the diversity of work, and the interaction with staff and the public.
Describe a typical day at your job.
(If there is no such thing as a typical day, then please tell us about your primary responsibilities and duties.)
My primary responsibilities are to run all aspects of the state park and to supervise two assistants and seven crew members. Running this state park includes the following duties: grounds work (mowing, cleaning sites and bathrooms, raking, pruning, etc.), contact station work (admitting day use visitors, making camping reservations, answering questions about the park and surrounding area, daily accounting), boat house work (running the concession stand, renting boats, playing with kids on the beach), nightly rounds to enforce park rules and help campers, and visitor programming such as Saturday night campfire.
How many hours a week do you work in this position?
60 hours/week.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?
Working outdoors in a beautiful natural setting and helping the public enjoy their visit to the park.
What do you find to be the greatest challenges of your job?
The long days. Nightly rounds don’t end until 10:00 pm at the earliest. Enforcing quiet hours can be tricky at times because people often come to the park to have a party and they do not respond well to the idea that they need to be quiet at 10:00pm.
What kind of training/schooling is required in your position?
I think having a bachelor's degree in an environmental or recreation management field makes you more able to successfully perform the job, but I don’t think it should be required. Training for computer use (reservation software), equipment use and upkeep (mowers, weedwackers, etc.), and staff management is useful. Having good organizational skills is a must too.
Is there any kind of training or general experience that you wish you had before taking your job?
It would have been helpful to have more training on how to operate a credit card machine and weekly accounting procedures.
What are a few of the projects that you've been working on recently that have been the most interesting?
Pruning trees in the day-use area and the campsite loops, painting signs and picnic tables, stacking wood, picking apples, building a boat rack.
If someone were interested in working as a Park Manager, what advice could you give them?
If someone was interested in working as a park manager I would tell them to be prepared for long work hours (you are always at work if you are at the park). I would advise them to hire staff that like to work hard and perform monotonous tasks such as cleaning bathrooms. I would also tell them that running a park is all about customer service, so be prepared to deal with customers that are hard to please. Prioritize the work that needs to be accomplished so that the work load doesn’t get overwhelming. There is always something that needs to be done, but some things can wait until later.
Please share any further thoughts you may have about working in the state park system:
I think working at a state park is a great job. I would like to see more full-time, permanent park manager positions. I think this would increase the performance of the park and create a better relationship with the local community.
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