Cooperating Associations: “The Bookstore People”

Abstract

Like friends groups, cooperating associations play an essential role in assisting the National Park Service (NPS) and in helping the agency fulfill its mission. As noted previously, they have an entirely different legal basis for their operation, and for the most part have been in existence longer than most friends groups. However, there have been no known studies (outside of the NPS) that detail their operations, nor the challenges they pose for the Park Service. Nonetheless, it is possible to provide a rather detailed perspective on their operations for several reasons. First, there are fewer of them, and their numbers tend to be more stable over time than the ever-changing lists of friends groups with the attendant confusion over who is or who is not a friend. Second, because cooperating associations generate sufficient revenue to require filing IRS forms 990 or 990 EZ, records of their finances are publicly accessible. Third, unlike friends groups that participate in dozens of different kinds of projects and activities that support national park units, cooperating associations’ main functions are educational in nature, centered on the operation of bookstores and the sale of interpretive materials. This makes it easier to compare apples to apples when analyzing how they work. Lastly, cooperating associations have a strong ally organization, the Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL), that serves as a sort of trade association to promote their interests, and provides more up-to-date information than the NPS makes available for friends groups.