May 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 16

W E A R E P A R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N

CAPRA Can Take an Agency
from Good to Great
By Stacey Dicke, CPRP

ity of New Braunfels Parks and Recreation serves a city with a
population of about 85,000. The department has 84 full-time
employees, 110 part-time employees and an additional 180 seasonal staff. The city has a little more than 700 acres of parkland,
one 18-hole golf course, one 74,000-square-foot recreation center, three
outdoor pools and two historic cemeteries. The civic/convention center is
also a part of the department.

City of New Braunfels Parks and Recreation
initiated completion of all 151 CAPRA
standards.

Parks & Recreation

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS

I began my journey with
NRPA's Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies
(CAPRA) in 2010 when I attended a
CAPRA visitor training at the NRPA
Annual Conference in Minneapolis. I
left intrigued by the process and wondering if this would be something I
would want to pursue back home.
My first visit to Grove City, Ohio,
did not disappoint. The city's parks
and recreation director, Kim Conrad, and her crew were gracious
hosts and gave me an incredible firsttime visitor experience. I worked
with a team, led by parks and recreation director of St. Helena, California, Andre Pichly, that was patient,

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motivating and set me on the course
for visitor success. I followed up that
experience with visits for the next
several years, even serving as a lead
in Garner, North Carolina.
One of the things I loved best
about serving on a visitation team
was the amazing people I met. I
have made not just professional
contacts, but also lasting friendships. I loved taking a deep dive
into some of the best agencies in
the country, expanded my thought
processes regarding agency makeup and protocols and brought
home creative programs, ideas for
innovative parks and facilities, and
best practices for our profession.
I soon knew I wanted to pursue
accreditation for my own department. I began by sharing my experiences with our staff when returning
home from a visit. This insight of
best practices began to pique curiosity within our staff. When our state
association held a CAPRA training
at our annual conference, I signed
up all our staff to attend. This was
a great way to have their questions
answered and for them to talk with
other agencies pursuing accreditation. It offered a chance to not only
discuss the process, but also discov-

er the reasons why these agencies
were interested in CAPRA. It gave
us a better understanding that the
journey was not about checking another box or receiving acclamations,
but rather about taking a department from good to great, and from
doing our job well to defining and
documenting our roles.
We started our journey by assessing each standard for compliance.
This gave us a clear picture of the
work ahead of us. We set an annual goal for each manager to complete a portion of the standards.
This seemed like a comfortable way
to allow staff to " dip their toes " in
the waters of CAPRA. After two
years of this practice, we initiated
completion of all 151 standards. We
organized a smartsheet to track our
progress and gave regular updates on
completion rates to the organization.
In April 2019, we were fortunate
to bring a CAPRA training on-site
and included all managers, supervisors and coordinators. We officially
submitted our paperwork to NRPA
in July 2019 and, at this writing, are
scheduled for our site visit this upcoming June 2020. Due to a rapidly
changing environment as a result of
COVID-19, our visit will likely be
different than we expected, but we
are ready. We are proud of the work
we have done, the improvements we
have made and the course we have
set for the future.
Stacey Dicke, CPRP, is Director of Parks
and Recreation at City of New Braunfels,
Texas (sdicke@nbtexas.org).

May 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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