Making digital dreams reality: what park and recreation departments nationwide are realizing about the digital revolution.

It wasn't too long ago when the traditional filing system for park and recreation departments was paper, pen and maybe a shoebox. But these days, most agencies have forsaken their antiquated ways in favor of a more contemporary and efficient way of doing business--the computer database.

Steve Lewis is all too familiar with the shoebox filing system. His agency kept its customer records on index cards in shoeboxes until 1996, when Fairfax County Park Authority in Virginia took the plunge and streamlined all of its point-of-sale systems. "We didn't have any kind of automated system to track customer usage," says Lewis, business office manager under the Park Authority's Park Services Division.

Arizona-based Meta Data Systems helped custom design an integrated database that would eventually add registration, reporting, accounting, touch-tone phone, pass sale membership and online registration modules to Lewis' system. "We've always been a pretty progressive agency," Lewis says. "It's just took us awhile to get going."

Information system technology does not have to cause a sudden dazed and confused reaction. Because of all the options available, research needs to be done about what type of services are important for your department.

In the case of Fairfax County, with a population of more than one million, a management inventory of nine recreation centers, six golf courses and 22,00O acres of park land, integration was the priority.

It took six years, but eventually all of the necessary databases were under one system. These "modules" are separate software systems with specific functions. A point-of sale module converts your computer system into a virtual cash register. A class registration module--one of the most frequently used amid park and recreation departments nationwide--takes the "shoebox" and transfers it into alphabetized computer files that can be cross-referenced, recorded and used for demographic data for presentations, brochures and grant proposals.

These benefits are certainly a welcome reward for Lisa Thomas Turpel, recreation division manager for Portland Parks and Recreation in Oregon.

Portland is another large park and recreation department that forced its residents to work twice as hard to use its services. "It was a system that was so un-customer oriented," Turpel says.

Before Portland went online in 1991 using ESCOM (now Class Software Solutions), every one of its 11 community centers, three art centers, 14 pools and 10,000 acres of park land were completely separate entities. If a mother of four wanted to sign up her children for various recreation classes, art classes and maybe an aerobics class for herself; she would have to contact every facility individually to make her reservations. And there would be no way to tell if these classes were full, or if she had a family discount--all of this was done manually by Portland's staff.

"It was frustrating for our staff," Turpel recalls. "We knew that within a very short period of time, people would say; 'aren't you computerized?'"

But getting the agency streamlined was not an easy transition, at least for the staff "I had people who just are it up and I had staff who were frightened of the box sitting on their desk," Turpel says. Her one regret for the department back in the early 1990s is that staff was not given enough training time with the new system. "We just sort of expected staff to take to it."

Another mistake Portland Parks and Recreation made was believing the new computer system would make the department more efficient. "Erroneously, we assumed that automating registration would just save us oodles of time," Turpel says. "In tact, it added another dimension."

When Portland automated, it never took the other options away from the community, such as mailing or calling in reservations. So in addition to providing technical support, staff also continued its regular duties of phone and data entry.

Eventually, both staff and the community began acclimating themselves to the new way of doing business, and there was an increase in revenue to accompany this transition, Turpel says. "lf you want customers, you gotta make them happy. And they want quick, efficient and easy."

Efficient Entry

Three Rivers Park District in Minnesota improved its customer service when it updated its cash receipt system two years ago with the help of Vermont Systems. The district encompasses facilities in six counties, spread over 50 square miles. More than two million visitors were recorded each year, but that was basically the extent of the district's customer record keeping.

"Our facilities grew over the years, as did the number of visitors," Technology Manager Dick Keifer says. "However, our computer systems, which consisted mostly of homegrown applications that dated back to the late '70s and early '80s, really weren't providing the level of customer service we wanted to provide. For example, we couldn't even complete credit card transactions on site."

Keller budgeted $500,000 for the project, and in March 2001 put together an aggressive nine-month rollout schedule. The district purchased five software modules, including specialized modules for golf course management, maintenance and Web-based order processing. Through the remainder of 2001, the district replaced its legacy systems, installing point-of-sale systems at 23 locations, and connecting 32 park locations with state-of-the-art features such as touch screens for data entry, programmable keyboards, and hand-held scanners for inventory control. T1 lines connect the district's facilities to a central server.

Installed about one year now, the Three Rivers District has seen great improvement in many areas, including customer service, account reconciliation, faster and more accurate transaction processing and the ability to put more effective recreation programs in place. "From a customer service standpoint we are now providing faster service, more accurate service, and levels of service we could never provide before," Keller said. "We definitely have many more satisfied customers, which is why we are here in the first place."

The system's database is just now getting populated to the point where trends can be analyzed--trends that will help the district better provide programs its constituency wants.

"We've already made some program changes due to the attendance data we are now able to gather," Keifer said. "We can track response to programs--what days of the week and what times work best for example. We can track hourly usage and monitor a person's use of the facilities to plan marketing programs around individual preferences. In the next two to three years, as the database grows, that information will be invaluable in our ability to provide the best customer programs and services."

Being able to record customer preferences, visitation trends and demographics is an invaluable resource, Plymouth Parks and Recreation in Massachusetts discovered recently.

In 2000, Plymouth converted an elementary school into a community center, complete with fitness facilities and pool. But there needed to be a way to monitor who was using the fitness and recreation side of the center, and who was attending the classes. So the agency invested in a membership module from Vermont Systems that records members into a computer system and gives them different colored wristbands depending on what part of the facility they are visiting each day. "It's really a magnificent tool that we couldn't do without," says Phil Brady, assistant parks and recreation director.

There are 20 different colors, of which one is chosen the night before. The wristbands are disposable, and do not seem to mind the residents who wear them to enter the facility, Brady says.

"The wrist band protects the public investment in the building," Brady says. "For us, with our building being scattered throughout, we really didn't have a choice. We sleep a little better at night knowing people have paid for going in."

For Westminster, Colo., automating the registration system helped the residents sleep better at night. Prior to automating in 1996, residents would camp outside the park and recreation department's offices from 2 to 3 a.m. on the night before registration opened.

Mike Hinrichs, a facility administrator for Westminster, says the previous system would not allow anyone new to register for classes, because it was always the same people who lined outside the offices in the middle of the night.

The computer system he purchased from Vermont Systems "leveled the playing field" for residents. Recently, his department has added an online registration tool to help its residents register at any time of the day or night. "The convenience factor for the citizens is a great benefit," Hinrichs says. "People who aren't moving in that direction are going to lose out to the people who are."

Online Revolution

The online registration module is becoming trendier as more park and recreation departments are easing into their automation transitions. This summer, Golden, Colo., park and recreation department will offer online registration for its classes, which include rock climbing, swimming activities and family dancing among many other services.

In 200l, Golden surveyed its citizens for input on what they wanted from their government. Regarding business interactions, 73 percent of the population said they wanted a more convenient way" to register for recreation classes and events. To satisfy this request, the park and recreation department implemented the software required for e-payment transactions and class registration, which was provided by Vermont Systems.

Offering an online activities catalog is becoming a fairly common feature of" park and recreation departments nationwide, but allowing payments is fairly unique. With gender specifications, age requirements and classes that require pre-requisites, remote registration can be a difficult function to offer. But, Golden's technology will allow the city to issue household numbers to active families and then set up a sign-in requiring a family member to enter his birthday. For example, if a 9-year-old boy decides he wants to take a rock-climbing course, the system will keep him from registering for Rock Jocks (for ages 12-18) because he is too young. Also, it will keep him from signing up for Climbing for Women because he is not the right gender. These precautionary measures limit the potential for error and help the online registry run smoothly and successfully.

Charged Environment

While so many options are available to any-sized park and recreation department, what happens when you don't have the option to automate?

The small town of Essex, Vt., discovered there is a way to integrate its facilities--even those that had no electricity.

The park and recreation department needed a new way of tracking the visitors of its Indian Brook Reservoir. The park rangers were used to putting stickers on visitors' cars, updating the stickers every year for security reasons. But the stickers were messy, the customers complained, and the registration process was time-consuming, forcing visitors to come into the station every year to renew their season pass.

The stickers lasted seven years until last season when the department switched to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) from Vermont Systems. The stickers arm practically erased from anyone's memory.

"We made the decision to automate to help reduce our costs and to make it easier for our customers to renew their passes," says Parks and Recreation Director Mark Berry.

Because the reservoir is a nature preserve, there was no way to bring cables into the ranger system for a computer set up. So Berry invested in a PDA, which is held by the park rangers and scans the bar codes of" laminated cards. The initial cost to print the cards was about $4,500, but compared to the annual cost of $1,200 for the stickers, the department should start saving money in another two and one-half years.

"For a lot of departments this would often be a good alternative to what they're doing now," Berry says. "Having a computer there just didn't work for us."

With so much information to sift through, have someone else do it for you! Here is a list of information database companies.

A.E. Klawitter

5005 Newport Drive, Ste. 510

Rolling Meadows, II 60008

Tel: [phone]EAK 

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.aekcomputers.com

Beta Data Systems

3137 East Greenlee Drive

Tucson, Ariz. 85716

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.betadata.net

Class Software Solutions, Ltd.

300-6400 Roberts Street

Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5G 4C9

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.classinfo.eom

Logical Solutions, Inc.

7904 Anselm Road

Elkins Park, Pa 19027

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: info@logical-solutions.c cm

URL: www.logical-solutions.com

RMS Technology, Inc.

2185 Alpine Way 

Bellingham, Wa 98226

Tel: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.parksandrec.erg

Recware, part of the Active Network

937 Enterprise Drive

Sacramento, Ca 95825

Tel: 888-RECWARE

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.recware.com

SRI Strategic Resources

4720 Kingsway, Ste 1920

Burnaby, British Columbia,

Canada V5H 4N2

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.i-bookit-com

TMA Systems

5100 E. Skelly Drive, Ste. 900

Tulsa, Ok 74135

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail [e-mail]

URL: www.tmasystems.com

Tele-Works Inc.

Tech Village Center

210 Prices Fork Rd., Suite C

Blacksburg, VA 24060

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: twin [e-mail]

URL: www.tele-works.com

Trims Software International, Inc.

9976 North 91st Ave., Ste 102-143

Peoria, Az 85345

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.trims.com

Vermont Systems

12 Market Place

Essex Junction, VT 05452

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

URL: www.vermontsystems.com

Maya Avrasin is Parks & Recreation's associate editor: She can De realized at [e-mail].