IPRA Today

The state conference is just around the corner.  Be sure to submit your conference registration to get the early discount and book your hotel room while there is still space.

Elections too are almost here!  The ballot will be emailed out for voting between November 1 and November 8.  All IPRA members vote for all positions.  That means that all members vote for the Chicago Metro seat and the Southern Rep seat on the IPRA board and that all members vote for all the section board seats.  There are many candidates looking for your support.  Be sure to vote. For those few members who do not have email addresses on record, we will be mailing them paper ballots.  All members have a voice.  Be sure to use yours!

The budget for IPRA for 2013 is in the works.  The IPRA Finance Committee has approved the draft as a recommendation to the board.  The board will discuss it at their next meeting.  The draft includes many ways to continue to serve the IPRA members well, including improved customer service, educational programs, and regional outreach.

The Foundation is working on a year-end donation campaign.  Watch your mailboxes for a hardcopy letter seeking support for our foundation funds. The endowment created from donations to purchase our previous building has been entirely restored and is protected within the foundation.  Now we want to build it so that we can protect the principal and, using only the interest, create programs to support our members and provide scholarship opportunities.

The All Section Awards Luncheon is coming up on November 9 at Chevy Chase in Wheeling.  This is a new program where section award winners will be recognized in front of their peers from all sections. Registration is open on the website.  It's $25 and includes lunch.  We hope many people will come out and support our award winners.  Dress is business attire.

The 2013 Education Calendar is underway.  We are planning to continue to build on IPRA’s robust educational programming including section education, workshops, webinars, PDS, CPRP prep courses, continuance of our successful Leadership Academy and some new programs.  If you have ideas that you would like to share with us to enhance our educational program, please email me at debbie@ilipra.org.

And last but not least, it is annual membership renewal time!  There are many reasons why it is important to renew your dues -- the conference registration discount, Leadership Academy discount, educational registration discounts, section involvement, committee involvement, networking opportunities, opportunities to compete for awards and recognition, the magazine, the job board, and many others. This year, we are making it easier for you to renew. 

There is a discount of $15 if you renew before December 15.  Additionally, we are trying online renewals, and if you renew online by December 15, you will also be entered into a raffle to win a free I-Pad.  (It is the member’s name in the raffle, not the person who submits membership dues for the agency). 

As online renewal is new for us this year, we are offering three ways to renew: 1) on paper, in the way that you are accustomed; 2) online renewal for an individual member using a credit card; and 3) online renewal for a group of people at an agency using a credit card.  We will be sending out instructions to make it easy for you.  Additionally, we have posted a video to our website with step-by-step instructions. I encourage everyone to try our new online program -- just be sure that the individual member does not duplicate dues renewal if someone else is renewing for the individual as part of a group.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the NRPA Conference in Anaheim. Many members came out to the IPRA social and enjoyed this opportunity to network together in the beautiful California weather. Now we are back in Illinois, where the fall weather reminds us to act fast on so many things before 2012 comes to a close.

-Debbie Trueblood, Executive Director

At the annual NRPA Congress in Anaheim, the Gold Medal Awards are presented in five population categories as part of the opening general session. This year for the first time the Armed Forces Division has its own category. The National Gold Medal Award is presented for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. The four finalists in each class are announced and the winner is presented with a Gold Medal plaque.

It is truly an honor to be selected as a final four candidate and I want to congratulate Waukegan Park District and St. Charles Park District for making it to the final four in their respective divisions. I also want to congratulate Rockford Park District for winning Class II and Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois for being the first Gold Medal winner of the Armed Forces Division. Gold Medal finalists put a lot of time and effort into their proposals, highlighting their excellence in the field of park and recreation management. These are agencies that strive to be successful. They emulate what it means to keep reaching, to extend themselves and take chances. That’s what it takes to be successful. It may not be possible for every agency to apply for the Gold Medal Award, but we can always keep reaching to improve and be successful.

Park Districts and Recreation Departments are faced with difficult economic times and are forced to be more creative and more cost-conscious in planning and implementing their operations. This past year I challenged my full-time staff of 29 to save $1,000 each by reducing expenses, negotiating agreements, and evaluating methods to save money on existing operations. This is not reducing services, just reducing expenses. It is a team goal of saving $29,000. This idea was generated through the actions of one of our office staff, Donna Ray Gasiorowski.

Donna Ray is responsible for purchasing our office supplies. She negotiates each purchase. She will ask the question, "How can I get a bigger discount?" Sometimes it might be as simple as increasing the amount that is being purchased or the sales rep will tell her to wait until next month and that product will go on sale. She also clips coupons from the Sunday ads as our supplier will honor any competing sales coupon. Donna Ray also gets prizes from the various suppliers that we give away during our annual employee appreciation night. Her extra effort provides thousands of dollars in annual savings.

With our team goal of achieving $29,000 in savings, we are just under $20,000 with a few months to go in our fiscal year. The staff has come up with some creative cost-saving ideas, but the best part is it has prompted sharing of ideas that might help another department save money in a similar manner. In the scope of our entire budget, this is a small amount, but it demonstrates that everyone can contribute an idea to save money when that idea is implemented and they can see results that benefit the park district. It is a great team-building project.

Today it is important that you develop a culture in which the employee wants to go the extra mile, wants to excel, and can see the results of their efforts. They feel part of a successful team. Challenge your employees to succeed. It doesn’t have to be financial. It can be a certain number of new programs or it could be a method to complete a task more efficiently. Employees want to be challenged, and it develops better interaction among staff. The ultimate beneficiary of these efforts are the citizens we serve.

-John Curran, IPRA Chairman