Gender identity issues are an emerging and significant area throughout the U.S., including in the legal and practical administration of parks and recreation departments. The purposes of this workshop is to educate participants on the vocabulary and issues raised by gender identity, and to facilitate a discussion as to how departments might resolve those issues.

A challenge for any Parks and Recreation Professional is to stay on top of the latest trends in programming.  Once members of the community get word of a program or activity that they think is interesting, they will often look to your agency to see whether or not is is provided.

This program will detail all the basics of soil science that a sports field manager needs to know for both growing healthy turf AND managing the best skin area possible.  Dr. Goatley will detail the basic sciences of soil physical and chemical properties in managing your soil and Mr. Rodgers shares his knowledge in constructed soils and soil modification, in addition to skin area management based on his years of experience as a Certified Sports Field Manager, managing and consulting on the turf, soil and dirt across a broad spectrum of sports fields from park & rec to major league baseball.

Fun team-building should be an intentional goal every time your group gets together.  Group games can be simply recreational in order to fill time, OR games can re-create your group.  Adults can find new ways to solve problems, and children and youth can develop trust and leadership.  This workshop will instantly add several excellent and easy "no-props" and "low-props" games to your bag of tricks for working with groups of any and all ages.  Instruction and printed directions will be provided, plus we'll play each game together, so come ready to move, smile and laugh.

In many agencies, customer service is often 'good enough for government'. Discover secrets to build your Disney-like brand by building a culture of customer service excellence. Learn from case studies that show best practices and the evolution of building an award-winning brand that customers and the community want to associate with.

This session will focus on how to undertake a Planning process that serves as a realistic road map for the future while also establishing a foundation for agency accreditation. The Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA) accredits park and recreation agencies for excellence in operation and service. Currently less than 200 of the several thousand agencies nationally are CAPRA accredited - making it a prestigious accolade to enhance the agency's credibility and justify additional funding and resource allocation.