IPRA Today

I hope this holiday season has treated you all well. The IPRA staff celebrated the season by having a little fun and recreation for our holiday party -- many thanks to Fox Valley SRA and IPRA "alumnus" Mike Selep, who hosted us for a few hours of kickball and woodworking with the participants and staff of the FVSRA "Stars" program. All of us from IPRA enjoyed this experience greatly. What a great volunteer opportunity it was for us!  

Now as the calendar changes over, it’s time to get moving on 2013 projects. First, the IPRA board will be having their annual retreat on January 10 in Joliet. This will include a challenge course facilitated by the University of St. Francis staff. Additionally, IPRA has selected a consultant to work with us in 2013 on our strategic plan. Her name is Ann Atkinson, CAE, and she is a nationally known association strategic planning expert from Georgia. She will be joining us for our retreat and we will begin to do some planning for our new strategic plan which will go into effect in January 2014.

Also in 2013, we would normally be participating in the BMW event. Unfortunately this year, they have hired their own staff to do the work that IPRA traditionally did for them. As a result, IPRA will not be involved with this event and will not be seeking volunteers for it. We hope that IPRA members will find other ways to volunteer with IPRA in lieu of participating in this event.

I would also like to share with you that IPRA’s board has approved our new affiliate agreement and it was distributed to our seven affiliate groups and one additional group who is considering becoming an affiliate. This document started out a year ago as a way to solve an insurance question at the conference. The document did not meet the needs of all parties. This fall, I met with people from the affiliate groups to learn more about them and learn about ways we can better work together to serve all our members and respective missions while maintaining our independence. The new document takes into account the ideas expressed in those meetings and attempts to create stronger partnerships and collaborations between our groups. The insurance question was solved with a short supplemental memorandum of understanding applying only to those groups that host events at the IAPD/IPRA conference.

Following the conference in January, I am greatly looking forward to a trip planned for the last week of February. I will be headed to IPRA’s southern Illinois region to meet with many of the members there throughout the week, concluding with the SIPRA meeting that Friday. The members in the region have been extremely welcoming and flexible in setting up a jam-packed schedule for the week. It’s a beautiful part of our state and I can’t wait to see more of our members there.

Speaking of making connections for our members across the state, I was pleased to see the Diversity Section has started allowing people to Skype into their section meetings to allow for greater accessibility across the state. I would encourage all sections and committees to make efforts to improve access to these meetings. It could be with Skype or a conference call. IPRA uses www.gotomeetings.com to set up free conference calls -- this website service is available to anyone to use to create calls and keep the costs down. It is one of my goals to ensure that more of our services in IPRA are available to members all over the state. If you have ideas to help us improve in this area, please let me know.

Another way we are creating access is through our 2013 Education Institute event next April. Our keynote speaker is nationally known park and recreation advocate and humanitarian, Ian Hill. Ian will be working with us to create live streaming opportunities to several locations across our state. You’ll receive more information about this in the coming months.

If you have questions about any of these items, please feel free to email me at debbie@ilipra.org. In the meantime, make sure you’re registered to attend the Soaring to New Heights conference -- you won’t want to miss it!

- Debbie Trueblood, Executive Director

 

Robert Parker, the father of six-year-old Emilie Parker who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, said his daughter’s heart was full of love and kindness and he made an emotional plea for that spirit to be the legacy of this tragedy. "Let it not turn into something that defines us but something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people," Parker said.  

I am sure many of you have heard about NBC News Anchor Ann Curry who urged Americans over national television and Twitter to do "26 Acts of Kindness" in memory of the victims. I am jumping on that bandwagon and asking you to join me in spreading acts of kindness in our daily lives. Simple things like holding the door open for someone, letting a person go in line ahead of you, or picking up an object someone has dropped can put a smile on a person’s face. Kindness does not have to come with an expense, but it does come with a reward.  

On a local level 2012 has been a very memorable year for me. Serving as IPRA Chairman has been a remarkable experience. I have had the opportunity to meet so many hard-working, dedicated professionals who continue to impress me with their passion for our profession. I want to thank the IPRA Board for their commitment and support throughout the year. I applaud their willingness to make themselves available for extra meetings and their dedication to make sure IPRA is headed in the right direction. Thank you to our IPRA staff and their professionalism and time commitment to the members. They have taken on many additional responsibilities in the past few years as we have reduced our staff from 13 full-time employees to four full-time and two part-time employees. Please let them know you appreciate their efforts.  

A big thank you to the Tinley Park-Park District Board of Commissioners for allowing me to be involved in IPRA at this level, and the staff for supporting me and filling in when necessary. Thank you to my wife Lynn and my children Tom and Kathy for their encouragement, support and acceptance of my hectic schedule this past year.  

As a member of IPRA I encourage you to be active in your organization. A wise man once said "Life is not about what you are getting. It’s about what you’re giving." While being involved in IPRA you will be giving of your time, but you will gain in friendships, knowledge and appreciation for your profession. We work in a profession that allows us to improve the quality of life in our communities. We make a difference.  

A few days after the Newtown tragedy Robert Parker issued another statement: "May we focus our energy on those who were taken from us and let their memories inspire us to do good. May we look for opportunities to give service and work toward bettering our communities. I feel that we can do these things, we will again feel empowered, and we will make a difference." Go do something nice for someone and have a happy New Year to all.

- John Curran, IPRA Chairman of the Board