January 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 67

web-based GIS functionality that can be
used easily to conduct spatial analysis
and obtain mapping data for planning
and management.
PRORAGIS, then, is the only searchable online park agency database with
web-based, GIS mapping capability-
and its power lies in its ability to use
variables from the operating data or
other data sources to enhance your capabilities to plan and manage your department. What's more, it is free to NRPA
members.

How can PRORAGIS Help Me?
PRORAGIS offers a wide range of practical applications for your agency.
■■ Benchmarking (Peer Reviews):
Whether you want to compare facilities,
parks, programs, staffing levels, or budgets, the key to benchmarking is to find
truly similar departments for comparison.
A wide variety of variables is included for
the jurisdictions in the profile-allowing an
agency to find those similar operations. If
you already know which departments are

considered comparable by your elected officials or management, you can ask them to
complete a profile so that you can all help
one another.
■■ Budget Justification: Data such as cost
per capita, full-time-equivalents (FTEs) per
unit, cost per acre, cost per visitor, cost per
square feet of facility (or facility itself), number of athletic fields per population, as well
as a variety of other data points, are accessible through PRORAGIS.
■■ Best Practices: You have 16 acres of
parkland per maintenance FTE. You notice that another jurisdiction has 10 acres of
parkland per maintenance FTE, and they are
spending less per acre than you are. How
do they do it? Call them up and ask. When
you know what your numbers are, you can
search the database for other departments
that are apparently doing it better than you.
■■ Master planning: In the process of
master planning, knowing the distribution
of facilities in relationship to populations
and demographic variables is invaluable.
PRORAGIS offers a variety of spatial analysis options that can help with your planning

efforts and make your recommendations
more understandable and compelling to
decision-makers.
■■ Feasibility Studies: We have all heard
that the key to successful enterprise is " Location! Location! Location! " Yet how often
do we find excellent facilities in poor locations-just because the agency already
owned the land? PRORAGIS can vastly improve your knowledge of the potential for
any given site location.
■■ Market Research: PROR AGIS can
help you understand who the users within
the trade area of the facility are-and how
to reach them and involve them in your
programs.
■■ Revenue Enhancement: While proper facility location and market research
can certainly contribute to the enhancement of revenues, PRORAGIS has a couple
of capabilities that can assist even further.
PRORAGIS allows you to identify positiverevenue-producing programs presented
by other departments.
■■ Events Promotion: Finally, PRORAGIS
can take a limited profile list of special events

Circle 36 on product information form on page 87

www.NRPA .ORG

JANUARY 2011

Parks & Recreation 65

January 2011 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2011 - Parks & Recreation