Enter: city-wide recreational services.

A new family moves to your city. Upon arriving in town they are interested in what type of recreational opportunities exist. The husband and wife want to learn about the adult leagues, health clubs and community centers that are available to them. They also want to learn what types of youth programs are offered in your city and how soon they can get their children enrolled. Moving to a new town is difficult for the children and the parents would like to enroll them into new activities to ease the adjustment process. The oldest daughter will be attending the local university and wants information on intramurals and/or public recreation programs for her.

A corporation is considering locating in your general area. While gathering information about housing, school and business districts, the management wants a complete list of recreational agencies available to new, as well as transferring, employees and their families.

If these scenarios sound familiar to you and if your recreation and parks department receives similar inquiries, then maybe you should consider developing a computerized directory of city-wide recreational opportunities. Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department in Cape Girardeau, Missouri did.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri, located along the Mississippi River, is a growing city. It is the largest eastern city between Memphis, 170 miles south, and St. Louis, 115 miles north. The Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department provides programming not only for the city's 35,000 people, but also for the smaller communities in the surrounding rural area, encompassing approximately an additional 45,000 people and more than doubling the potential population to be served.

The Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Advisory Board requested the parks and recreation department to undertake the following responsibilities:

* Review and evaluate all present city recreational programs for youth and adults, including programs offered, participation, facilities and equipment used, staff and training requirements. Specifically evaluate each and every program offered, asking the following questions: Is it needed? Can it be improved? Are enough people getting access to the program? Are additional resources (equipment, staff, facilities) needed to make this program work better?

* Develop new program approaches for the city recreational program. In particular, develop a new and improved summer and fall program, specifically aimed at increasing participation and reaching out to more types of people in the city.

* Evaluate changes in program offerings and participation over the last five years. Also evaluate what age groups, economic groups, geographic groups and so forth are being served by current programs. Identify groups that are not currently being adequately served by city recreational programs.

* Develop a list of unmet needs for recreation in Cape Girardeau and the kind of staffing, equipment, vehicles, and facilities necessary to meet those needs. Project these needs over the next ten years to whatever extent is possible.

* As part of this process, review other recreational programs being offered in the city by other organizations. This will help avoid duplication and establish priorities for city resources.

In order to accomplish the overall goal of improving the Parks and Recreation Department's services, the two recreation coordinators hand picked a diverse group of 13 individuals who represented various segments of the city's population. They comprised a subcommittee to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to help meet the above objectives as specified by the board. The subcommittee was known as the City Recreation Advisory Committee.

The first meeting served as orientation and members discussed and approved a structure for achieving the desired objectives. The recreation coordinators accepted the task of further developing the structure to make it more functional. The next two meetings were used to define the parameters of the project. Members categorized pertinent data to be gathered by age groups, sponsoring organizations, facilities, activities/leagues/special events, seasons and times offered and costs to the participants. After devising these categories, they developed the process for collecting data, assigning specific organizations to committee members to survey by any methods they chose--getting the information was the important thing.

During the fourth weekly meeting the committee incorporated an expansion of the initial task into its overall responsibilities. After discussing the progress of data collection, members suggested an addition to the other types of organizations included in the survey. Figure 1 depicts examples of the wide range of organizations whose information would be included in a computer program for an eventual "recreation services directory." The Parks and Recreation Department could use the directory to determine the extent of the recreational services being offered to the public. This decision, in turn, would simplify fulfillment of the task given to them by the advisory board.

The next meeting was rather exciting--committee members saw some of their actual gathered information printed out in a few sample reports. A committee member who had computerized the data explained the variety of ways by which the data could be extracted from the computer and how the department could use that information. Then, to begin evaluating the data to determine what programs were lacking for what age groups, the committee divided into small groups, each handling a previously defined age group: zero to five years, pre-school; six to 12 years old, youth; 13 to 19 years old, teenagers; 20 to 62 years old, adults; and 63 and over, seniors.

The succeeding three meetings were devoted to assessing the data revealed in the various computer reports in order to make recommendations in relation to the objectives set forth by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. The computer recreation database was developed with a goal--provide a quick and easy way for the Parks and Recreation Department to produce a list of available recreational activities in the city. The committee identified the necessary data to be stored in this database and the criteria to be used when retrieving it.

The database contains an entry for every recreational activity that is occurring in the city. Entries are made up of an activity, facility, description, age/therapeutic group, seasons, sponsor, contact, contact phone, league, indoor/outdoor identifier, special event identifier, session beginning/ending dates, times, cost to the participants and miscellaneous notes.

We created codes for activities, facilities, age groups, seasons and sponsors. Instead of typing out the description when entering the data, we type a code. This coding scheme is essential to providing reports. For example, the activity code AERO would be keyed for every aerobics-related entry. When someone requests a printed report, it can be limited to aerobics-related activities based on the AERO code. In the same manner, , we can limit reports to specific facilities, age groups, seasons, sponsors, events (indoor and outdoor), special event (yes or no), or any combination of these codes.

During the final meeting, the committee discussed plans for updating the computer database semiannually by sending a drop/add card to each organization and contacting new organizations offering recreational activities/special events/facilities to the public.

It was thrilling to see the way the committee members developed the plans for the task at hand and how our discussions regarding the advisory board's objectives evolved to encompass much more than had originally been requested. The committee felt that by taking the task one level higher, we could make much greater use of the data collected.

The computerized recreation database's numerous benefits include:

* Expanding the Parks and Recreation Department's service by providing immediate access to all recreational activities in the city, establishing the department as a resource center.

* Furnishing an easy form of evaluation so that the recreational needs of the people are readily apparent.

* Providing an overview of city-wide recreational services which prevents duplication of activities and diversifies the department's programming.

* Providing better organization, therefore enhancing the department's public image.

In addition, other city organizations can share in the benefits realized by this project. For example, the Chamber of Commerce could use the data to show prospective corporative management exactly what recreational programs and facilities the city has to offer to their employees and their families. The tourism bureau might use the special events listing to entice travelers to the city on those occasions.

Further, newly arrived families in the area can call a given telephone number and, by punching in certain code numbers as per audio-taped instructions, could find out, for example, what recreational activities are available for family members of any age, at what time, where they are provided, who sponsors them and how much they cost. It is exciting to think of all the possibilities that this computerized program could have--does it sound right for you?