Oh, hi there.

picture from icanhascheezburger.com

You haven’t been getting my blog posts?  Really?  They must have gotten lost in the mail.  Now that we’ve cleared that up…

The Internet has a lot of adorable quirks, like its penchant for making cats famous and its insatiable bloodlust for pop stars.  Each holiday season, the Internet gets around to its annual barrage of lists.  The best and worst of the weirdest and most obscure—the Internet ranks and files them all for our merriment.  You know who loves lists?  Everyone.   You know who loves unjustified blanket statements? I do.
Without further ado, I proudly present my list of Top 10 Park Moments of 2010, which like year-end Oscar buzz, will almost certainly prove to be misguided and negligible.

Top 10 Park Moments of 2009, which will be revealed periodically to build suspense.

10. New Recruits
New Staff and Bumper Crop of Baby Bison

The largest urban park of its kind has been operating with a pretty small staff for the past few years.  In 2009, we added six new employees and 11  baby bison.  Conglamo, here we come!   Every now and then I get a question about what it takes to run Shelby Farms Park.  I usually respond by miming my fingers snapping and indicating people running off to do stuff.  But we all know that’s a lie.

Here’s a bit about what we do here at the next great park of the 21st century.

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy is a 501-c-3 nonprofit, and we run the Park as a public-private partnership.  Don’t fall asleep; I heard there’s a potato reference at the end of this paragraph.  Shelby County Government owns the land and we manage the Park.  We’re responsible for the daily operations and grounds management of the largest park in the country and its natural resources.  As a nonprofit, it's our job to raise critical funds for operations, run a membership program, run a volunteer program, use public relations and communications to spread the word about the Park, manage facilities rentals, put on major events and much more.  And we’re running an ambitious capital campaign to fund a visionary Master Plan that will allow the Park to reach its full potential as the next great park of the 21st century while planning important groundbreakings and natural resource management programs.

Oh, and we’ll be running the Shelby Farms Greenline—a seven mile paved trail that will run on a former rail bed from Midtown Memphis to Shelby Farms Park.   No small potatoes.  Meet the team!

Old Crew
Rick Masson, Executive Director
Laura Adams, Deputy Director
Robert Mayer, Director of Park Operations
Kate Phillips, Reception and Facilities Manager
Brian Wylie, Lead Ranger
Sandee  Daniels, Volunteer Coordinator
John Prescott, Ranger
Brandy, Hardaway, Executive Assistant
Benn Holden, Ranger
Jay Holden, Ranger
And me, Manager of Communications

2009 Newbies
Sheri Monroe, Events and Membership Manager
Drew Balton, Horticulturist Ranger
Matt Pressley, Ranger
Tina Sullivan, Development Associate
Nannette Gills, Members and Events Coordinator
Alan Tabb, Ranger
Mike Byson
Atticus
Sparticus
Bosco
Buckley
Rufus
Cocoa
Rushmore, et al.

The last few names were clearly for buffalo and not staff.  We held a buffalo naming competition  in summer ’09 and got a ton of submissions.  The names you see were the winners.  Congrats!  You can adopt a buffalo to help support the herd.  Instructions are here.  I give them as wedding gifts, which people find charming.

So there you have it!  My #10 moment wasn't a moment at all, but rather a series of moments. But #9 is a moment if I ever saw one!

See you back here soon.*

*Soon.  I swear.