Meet Terry Vines
Director of Membership Operations
During a visit to Zion National Park in Utah several years ago, Terry Vines, director of membership operations, remembers looking at the IMAX Theater and fully appreciating the work NPCA does to protect the parks.
NPCA had opposed construction of the theater, saying that it would detract from Zion's spectacular scenery.
"You can write about it, read about it, and fundraise around it, but actually seeing what the campaign was up against gave me all the more reason to understand why we do the things we do," says Terry. "It was hideous."
When Terry first started at NPCA 23 years ago, two women entered membership information by manual typewriter onto index cards. "They even wrote some of the members' comments on those cards, so you felt as though you knew them."
Terry was hired to bring NPCA's membership department and its 40,000 members into the computer age. Today, Terry works with a database of more than 300,000 members that, in some ways, will take NPCA back to that more intimate time. Team ApproachTM allows the organization to keep better track of requests for address changes, preferred methods of communication, and specific member interests.
One of the biggest challenges facing NPCA, Terry says, is continuing to find ways to protect the parks while maintaining a solid member base.
"People want to use and enjoy the parks," Terry says. "We have to strike the balance of not opposing the use in general, but protecting the parks from those uses we believe to be inappropriate in a national park."
