Dear ,

Last week I had the opportunity to represent NYSRPS at the NRPA conference in New Orleans. This was a great chance to see the latest trends and network with excellent professionals from across the country. If you never have attended NRPA, I would encourage you to make an effort to attend at least one time in your career. You would not be disappointed.

One of the sessions I attended was "Local Government Officials Views of Park & Recreation Services."  This session featured research that has been conducted by Penn State professors that polled 810 elected officials from every state. The findings of the study were interesting and to a degree expected. The good news was that nearly all the officials who responded, thought Parks and Recreation provided benefits and were important to their communities. Hard to argue with this, right? Now the flip side.

When asked to respond to funding Parks and Recreation compared to other departments such as Police Departments and other government departments our field did not fare as well. The presenters of the study explained that the respondents felt that tax dollars were best served in the areas that involved public safety and anything that would promote economic development in their communities. As a result of this thought process, Parks and Recreation was ranked near the bottom of elected officials funding priorities. Ouch!

The results of this study have focused NRPA's efforts to promote the economic benefits that our field promotes. In many of our communities where dollars are harder to come by, we are challenged to find new ways to justify why our operations should be receiving a bigger piece of the budget dollars. I believe the findings of NRPA's study may be a way for us to convince elected officials of not only our benefits to residents, but also our financial impact on our communities as well. Think of things such as major athletic tournaments, special events, parks, sponsorship relationships and people who visit our many facilities. As a result of our offerings, our economic impact is huge although possibly more difficult to demonstrate. In my opinion, if elected officials want to see the economic benefits of our work, we should make efforts to showcase these things to them. Other government agencies are excellent at self-promotion and advocacy and I think we need to do the same. I believe the NRPA study has shown us what elected officials are looking for and we are doing what they want to see. Now, I think we need to show them and tell them. I hope you are willing to do this.

For more information see NRPA Study.

Keep making a difference!

Eric Bacon, MS, CPRE, CPRP
NYSRPS President