What's New

Most Critical Emerging Trends of Recent Times:
Less Working Hours and New Era of Thrift plus insight into federal spending patterns, reliable and relevant data on older Americans, and the power of play and neighborhoods. Click here to learn more.

Conference Handouts Now Available on CPRS Web Site
If you attended one of the over 130 educational sessions at the 2008 conference and did not get the handouts, you may find presentations and handouts of speakers who have shared their work with CPRS. Visit the following link to see the nearly100 documents available www.cprs.org/conference-handouts2008.htm

What Will America Look Like by 2050     
How Do Americans Live, Work, and Play Today     
Whose Keeping Track of Kids       
What are the New Patterns of Immigration.
All of these answers and more in March 2008 trendSCAN

Park & Recreation Videos Available On YouTube
As introduced at the Pacific Southwest Training Conference, CPRS has recently prepared videos which describe various ways in which parks and recreation are essential to communities. The first of these videos follows. We ask that you cut and paste the message (in red below) and email it to your email lists.  By doing so, you can help fellow park and recreation professionals spread the word about different ways in which parks and recreation are essential to communities.  The kinds of people who might be interested in the message include: friends, co-workers, public officials (city council members, county supervisors, state legislators, congressional representatives), local media and park users.

This message from the California Park & Recreation Society (CPRS) provides interesting insight into how park and recreation programs can give hope and direction to inner-city youth.  Please pass it on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC02m7D4Cvc

NRPA Creates Resources To Communicate With Legislators
The NRPA Public Policy Staff created Issue Briefing Papers in order to educate and prepare advocates for parks and recreation to communicate with legislators on the top issue priorities. Click here to view the papers.

Improve Your Agency's Effectiveness & Value
Charged with providing high quality recreation services and experiences, an increasing number of park and recreation agencies across the country are applying for the Agency Accreditation Program through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA). Applying for agency accreditation will take your organization through a thorough anaylsis of every phase of your operation. The 155 standards representative elements of effective and efficient parks and recreation operations.  The City of Stockton Parks and Recreation Department is California's sole nationally accredited park and recreation agency. To learn more about the Stocketon experience, read "Fun to be First," which appears in the Summer 2007 issue of California Parks and Recreation (click here). Pamela Sloan, CRPR, states, "Now, several months after receiving the accreditation, staff hold strong to provide quality programs, parklands, events, and facilities to the community. The original sense of fear has dissipated and transformed into perservance, dedication, quality and pride as a park and recreation professional."  Pamela further states "...Although the process was intense and time consuming, the outcome far outweighs any uncertainties that lingered in the beginning."  For more information, visit the National Recreation and Park Association, Accreditation and Certification programs (click here), or contact James O'Connor, Accreditation Manager, 800/626-6772, joconnor@nrpa.org

Healthy Kids Summit Materials On CPRS Web Site
Materials from the Healthy Kids Summit are now available on the CPRS Web site. Click here to access the list of materials.

See How Your City Compares To Others
Through an annual survey, the  Trust for Public Land's Center for City Park Excellence maintains the nation's most complete database of park facts for the largest 60 U.S. cities. With the help of CCPE data, you can see how your city compares to others. (Cities are divided into different population density classes in some of the reports.  The Center has national data on acres of parkland per 1,000 residents; ball diamonds per 10,000 residents; dog parks per 100,000 residents; recreation centers per 20,000 residents, and others. A report is available here that shows the densities and explains the classifications.

Funding for Physically Active Recreation
An important mission of park and recreation agencies is the commitment to creating healthy communities. Resources are not always available to do all the things communities need. CPRS created a document for the CA Roundtable on Recreation & Tourism conference containing a variety of funding sources for park and recreation agencies. Click here to download the packet.

Signs of the Times: Looking At Data To Determine Trends  
The end of any calendar year is a good time to pull together small and seemingly unrelated data and observations and step back and review what this information might have to say about a “BIGGER” picture and potential impacts upon parks and recreation. Click here for more.

CPRS Legislative Committee Meeting
The next Conference Call will be May 12, 2008, 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Dial-in Number: 712/432-3900. Participant Access Code is: 3766298. If you prefer, you may also continue to gather at the 11 or so call sites that we have set up as well.
Click here to download the Agenda
Click here to download the Legislative Watch List
Click here to download the Legislative Committee Calendar
Click here to download the Legislative Committee Meeting Schedule.

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