Trailblazers: stirring the pot: John McGovern likes a little controversy, as long as it means making progress on accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

Name:           John McGovern

Title:          Executive Director, Northern Suburban Special
                Recreation Association

Member since:   1973

John McGovern has nearly 30 years of experience in parks and recreation. He earned a law degree while working in recreation, and has published several handbooks on the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. McGovern was inducted into the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in 2000, and received the Illinois Park and Recreation Association Professional Recognition Award the following year. McGovern has also represented NRPA on every federal advisory committee regarding recreation and the ADA.

Last year, he chaired an NRPA task force that produced comments that were included in the Department of Justice's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANRPM) public comment period for revision regulation of the ADA. Within NRPA, McGovern is affectionately described as an "ant hill poker," by those who know him, for stirring the fire under issues relating to accessibility. "I think a lot of my colleagues give me tasks because they know I will irritate people in the process of doing my job," McGovern says, adding, "A little controversy is very good in the process of finding a common ground."

Most Proud Moment: When he chaired the Access Board's Recreation Access Advisory Committee in 1993. The committee was comprised of people from park and recreation associations and manufacturers, to entertainment moguls from Universal Studios and Disney. "It probably was the first time that a group that diverse had been gathered on any subject, so it was neat that it was regarding recreation and people with disabilities." Their final report, completed in 1994, paved the way for the current revised work the DOI is doing on ANPRM for the ADA.

Words of Wisdom: It just takes time. "It's just so different today than it was 10 years ago. It's something that I think public park and recreation agencies like to hear that this just doesn't happen overnight, it does take some time." McGovern also suggests that people experiment with their accessibility standards. "Try to exceed the minimum and comply with ADA in a different way or try a different surface that you haven't tried before. And it's only by doing things like that that we're going to be able to gather information and be able to say, 'hey this really works and this doesn't work.'"

Favorite quote: "Just do it." Nike slogan (1989)

Future of Parks and Recreation: "This is a great time for parks and recreation. There are many, many opportunities for us to really take the lead in serving a changing demographic. People are getting older, and more and more people are surviving traumatic occurrences with disabilities or acquiring disabilities as they age, and those people do not want the traditional type of retirement or senior citizen services that a lot of us are accustomed to."