Make Your Own Interpretive Plan
Make Your Own Interpretive Plan
March 10, 2016 by Taylor Studios
So you’ve just finished construction on your brand new visitor center. Maybe you’re opening another park within your district. Perhaps you have an exhibit in need of a facelift. You’re excited about all the possibilities! It’s only natural to reach for the Pantone color swatches, or hop online and order 20 touch-screen monitors.
But it’s important to have a plan. All of these elements may be exciting, but if they’re not supporting your goals… what’s the point? An interpretive plan will ensure that all the components of your project have a purpose, and work together to tell your story. This installment in our “DIY” series will help you start crafting your own interpretive plan.
I like to think of an interpretive plan as a cookie cutter. Let’s say you’re holding a bake sale for your local Turkey Vulture Defense League. You know that there are lots of unique aspects of turkey vultures, so you make several types of cookies: chocolate chip, sugar, and ginger snaps.
However, you want all of these diverse flavors to work together to convey your message of turkey vulture awareness. So you use a vulture-shaped cookie cutter on all the different cookies, bringing cohesion to your project.
An interpretive plan does the exact same thing for the many unique aspects of your agency. It provides a framework to unite diverse elements around one central message.
It’s tempting to open up a clean Word document and jump right in to writing your plan. Before you reach for the thesaurus, though, take a few steps to set yourself up for success.
You’ve got your planning team, your goals and objectives, and your resources. Time to start making a plan!