The future: propelling NRPA into the future of fitness.

Taken from the marketing term "positioning," repositioning suggests the adjustment or fine tuning of one's position. In 1982, marketers Trout and Reis defined positioning as the "battle for consumers" minds." Most of us are aware of positioning without even being consciously attuned to it. We know that Hertz is #1, that Avis tries harder and that Burger King lets us have it our way. Each of these is a position that the companies' marketers have chosen to impress upon the minds of consumers.

Positions change over time in response to the ever-changing world in which we live. You may remember that Club Med once owned the market position and reputation for the hedonistic single lifestyle. If you've followed Club Med over the years, you know that they have evolved into a family resort with the addition of kids' camps and senior weeks. Their market position is far different than that of a few years ago and even includes advertising slogans touting the resort as, "the antidote to civilization" and "life the way you want it."

As the American consciousness becomes more aware of the benefits of fitness and wellness, the parks and recreation field is presented with the perfect opportunity to reposition its market. With more and more evidence pointing to the need for Americans to adopt active and healthy lifestyles, our services become more integral. Parks and recreation facilities and services are ideal outlets for active, healthy lifestyles. If we take that market position and expand on it, while modifying our program offerings, we can reposition parks and recreation to become America's first lifestyle choice.

As an offshoot of Vision 2000, Reposition 2000 will assist parks and recreation professionals and agencies to transform their leisure delivery systems. Repositioning will bring them closer to the future by sharpening an agency's mission and services so that they are seen as a catalyst for health and wellness.

The ultimate goal is for the community to see the agency not only as a leisure service provider, but as a partner in collaboration with both individuals and groups to bring active, healthy lifestyles to the forefront of the public eye. Both the Active Living/ Healthy Lifestyles mentality and program, should become an automatic part of Americans' ongoing lives. As we implement this program, the image of parks and recreation agencies will evolve from resource acquisition, development and application into that of caretakers for total life enrichment.

As we begin to reposition we must remind ourselves of who we are, what we do and why we do it. With the foundations of our purpose firmly set, we can build and expand without losing sight of our original goals and objectives. We are simply selecting an emerging overall aim for our industry, while preserving the tenets on which it was founded.

In order for us to carry out a successful repositioning effort, we must realize that we are not merely changing the programs and services that we provide, but we are changing the very way in which we deliver these services. We are also about to change the manner in which each system shares the message of these services with their various publics. We must retool our mission, programs, facilities, and services around the repositioning aim.

Why Now?

For a while we have been seeing the signs that public parks and recreation needs to adapt to the changes of the new world. Many of these signs relate to the way in which our world has changed. We have experienced great shifts in economic forces, demographic shifts within our population, and huge leaps and bounds in the technological world, just to name a few. All of these changes effect us in our personal, financial and professionals lives. We must understand and anticipate change in order to capitalize on it, rather than being caught behind it trying to catch up. On the brink of the twenty-first century, we need to make the most of these changing forces and ride the tide of the future into a new frontier.

How to Make it Happen

To make the repositioning process less complicated and, therefore, less frightening, we have divided it into six steps as shown in Table 1 above.

TABLE 1. THE SIX "D"s OF REPOSITIONING:
* DECIDE THAT repositioning is vital for the future.
* DOCUMENT the benefits that are most important to your community and
constituents.
* DEFINE exactly which position you want to take
* DIFFERENTIATE your programs, parks, facilities, and services from
your competitors.
* DESIGN and create programs or services that incorporate your new
position.
* DELIVER what you promised and continually reinvent ways to
reinforce your role as central to the well being of the community.

Why Active Living/Healthy

Lifestyles?

The question then becomes, "what new position should we pursue?" When thinking in terms of change and what aspects of American life are changing, the Active Living/Healthy Lifestyles program becomes a logical choice.

Health and fitness have always been important to Americans and they are becoming even more important as national agendas, such as health care, come to the forefront. Many Americans are making hobbies out of fitness activities like mountain biking, hiking, climbing, inline skating, and the like. We are a population on the move and we are constantly looking for new ways of creating fun, healthful activities. But despite these changes among a portion of the population, the majority of Americans remain overweight, sedentary, and medically at risk. The Surgeon General's office is currently working on a report, to be released in the spring of 1996, that details this startling fact.

Once the report is released, the importance and benefits of exercise and fitness will be brought to the public's attention. If parks and recreation has already repositioned itself as a healthy outlet for active, fun lifestyles, we will have anticipated change and evolved into a positive market position.

The Surgeon General's report is a tangible way of grasping the public's attention and showing them that our facilities and services are available and ready to serve the needs of the community. The report will then serve as a springboard for the entire parks and recreation industry.

Repositioning 2000 will completely transforms parks and recreation.

From: Fun and Games  To: Beyond Fun and Games

The traditional fun and games activities are important, as are the long-standing contributions we've made to children's activities and youth sports, but parks and recreation is far more than that. We need to reinforce the value of fun and games while declaring our role in the health and well being of individuals, families and communities.

From: Provider To: Partner

We have long been a provider of various direct programs and services. However, as the variety of indiviudal needs grows and as our resources become more precious, we need to lead the way. We can do this by enhancing our partnership with other service providers to make \more things happen for more people.

From: Full Service To: Facilitator

Programs, facilities and services for everyone ... that's parks and recreation. We cannot continue to be all things to all people. It's time to rethink this approach and seize the opportunity to help people seek their own leisure freedom. We can provide leadership, guidance, skill development, and opportunity, thus facilitating the public's quest for quality of life.

From: Activity Centered To: Benefit Based

For years, we've been activity centered - we've offered youth soccer, adult aerobics, softball fields, and senior centers. It's time reinforce in the minds of our customers and our nonusers that we are all of those things, but that, through these activities, we contribute to healthy bodies, confident kids, and a more connected community.

From: Performing Functions To: Transforming Lives

We perform whole host of functions from trimming trees to senior lunch programs. While we may continue to perform a variety of different functions, we need to identify the overall aim of those functions - to transform the lives of the people we serve.

From: A Nicety  To: A Valued Commodity

Parks and recreation services are nice to have around, but we need to become more that just that. We are a valued commodity. Our presence creates and contributes to quality of life factors on personal, social, environmental, and economic levels.