January 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 36

Introduction
The Community Value of Parks

F

OR PARKS TO HAVE A COMMUNITY VALUE they must beneﬁt users and

non-users alike. A quote from John Crompton, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Texas
A&M University, succinctly summarizes this concept: " If the paramount needs
of a majority of residents are not met, the ﬁeld does not deserve their support.
Such widespread community support will be based primarily on the off-site beneﬁts
that accrue to nonusers rather than on the on-site beneﬁts that accrue to users. "
Among the many responsibilities of professional
park and recreation leaders is the need to continually examine and communicate the value of the parks
system to their community. NRPA's PRORAGIS
database is a tool that is designed and administered
to assist in that effort. Since its inception, NRPA has
invested signiﬁcantly in improving PRORAGIS and
expanding its capabilities to serve the parks and
recreation community. Most recently, we added the
Eco-Beneﬁt Calculator in 2012, a tool that adds yet
another dimension in presenting the community
value of local park systems. Its release comes after a
three-year data collection effort, which we are now
using to develop an initial trend analysis.
This 2013 Report marks the ﬁrst year that
PRORAGIS can be used to establish industry trends.
Three years of data are required and we now have
well over 1,000 proﬁles distributed across the 2010
to 2012 reporting years. Thus this report focuses on

the signiﬁcant trends affecting your operations and
management. These trends are national in nature
and may not be reﬂected in your location, but they
can still give you insight to the state of the industry.
The system, which relies on agencies to supply
their own data through a survey, is still in its early
stages, but it offers an informative look at the functions, structures, and budgets of more than 300
agencies of various sizes, types, and regions.

How to Use and Read This Report
The information in this report should be used as a
tool for informed decision-making rather than as
an almanac of absolute standards. It is designed to
help you better evaluate your agency and its offerings. This report is derived from the database as of
November 30, 2012, and data can and does change
throughout the year. The NRPA online database
platform, available 24/7, allows member users to

Jurisdiction Operating Budget

FIGURE 1
Thousands
$140,000
$120,000

$114,722

■ 2010
■ 2012

$100,000

$83,403

$80,000
$60,000
$40,000
$23,138

$20,000
$0

2

$5,007

$6,100

Lower Quartile

2013 PARKS and RECREATION SPECIAL REPORT

$29,955

Median

Upper Quartile

www.nrpa.org

January 2013 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2013 - Parks & Recreation

January 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 1
January 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 2
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