Carlisle, Robert James

"Strangely enough, I was in Europe in the winter of 1972, returning to McMaster where I had a job in the spring and summer working for a prof. When I returned at the end of April, I went to his office whereupon he told me that I didn't have a job, since he didn't have any grant money. So, I, a graduate in geomorphology, a geomorphologist as it were, wandered out into the hall, dazed, confused and wondered what in the world I was going to do. Across the hall, immediately across from the prof's door, was a bulletin board. On it was a poster advertising a job with the title "Geomorphologists Wanted!". Hey, I thought, that is me. It had a number of the Ministry of Natural Resources in Toronto. Next to the board was a pay phone. I called. The guy said can you come to Toronto for an interview that afternoon. I did. I had an interview that afternoon. At the end of the interview the guy "George Something" said "I can't say much, wink wink, but it looks pretty good. Then the next morning he called and said could I come in, I had the job. That next afternoon I went to Toronto again thinking that I would negotiate a salary. How niave I was. I was going to hold out for $100.00 per week. I still recall to this day the guy saying that you couldn't negotiate {feeling a downer}, and the salary was $152.50 per week {elation!}. I was officially an "environmental inventory guy". I was to do one place, Prince Edward County, for the summer, with a couple of biologists. I ended up doing 5 places. I got the offer to become the Chief Park Interpreter at Pinery, or a planner for Wasaga Beach. I chose the "contract" job at Wasaga, because it was more interesting. If I had chosen Pinery my life would have been a lot different. After a couple of years at Wasaga I became a contract planner for Algonquin Region of the Ontario MNR, working on what was then Blackstone Harbour Park Reserve, but is now called Rattlesnake Provincial Park. I did that for about 18 months. One day in 1975 I got a call from Merv Syroteuk of the Cornwall office for an interview as an interpretive planner {natural}. I did an interview where we started at 1:00 and after about a half an hour Merv and I just sort of started to talk about interpretation. We talked until about 4:00 whereupon I read a note he passed to the personnel guy which said [upside down reading on my part] "hire him!". At that point I figured that I had a pretty good shot at the job. I was offered a one year term. I turned it down, having almost that in Huntsville. I was then offered a two year stint and accepted that. Soon after I became indeterminate.

In 1979 I won the Senior Specialist for Interpretation job, which had a bilingual requirement. So, in the fall of 1979 and spring of 1980 I learned French, a great gift which I still value. This job changed over time. I spent time as a natural senior specialist and historical as well, acting for people who left. I was part of the team which created VAMP [Visitor Activities Management Process] and taught it at 8 or 10 courses. I was a key guy in the set up and early planning of Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park [really a National Marine Conservation Area].

In 1991 I did a 7 month stint at the National Office where I worked with staff in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. I learned that I did not want to work at that level. In the mid 1990's I was moved to the Ecosystem Management Section as the Communications guy, during a time of great cutbacks.

In 1996 I ran a workshop for Heritage Presenters and helped establish the Heritage Presentation and External Relations Board. This board provides leadership for practitioners in Parks Canada. I am the secretariat of the group. Recently I have been part of a process of evaluating heritage presentation programs which we are calling the "Balanced Scorecard". I am helping three parks with their planning and am a driver of what we are calling the "Toronto Education/Outreach Program", an outreach through the formal education market program. I have stayed at the old "regional" level (of Parks Canada), but have had a wide variety of experiences. I did management planning and media stuff and workshops and facilitation and many other things. I believe that everybody is good at some things and enjoys some things. I believe that my contribution is best at the consultation and support level, and I know it and am good at it."