Recreational management is the department responsible for delivering recreational and fitness programs within the community across various settings. They are the people that know the parks and facilities inside and out and work tirelessly to place budgets and work on new projects. Knowing all that is great, but as with most things in 2021, utilizing software can provide data beyond human recognition; this data can be used to inform decisions and offer a better service. Throughout this article, we will explore how certain data can inform your department’s decisions.
Why is Parks and Recreation Important?
The Parks and Recreation department is vital for nurturing a good quality of life within communities. If your city has qualities that you enjoy, like a beautiful park, then you need to be thankful for your local department for ensuring it is maintained. Further, if you partake in popular recreational activities for very little money, remember that the subsidizing comes from your local parks and recreational department.
Facility Usage
With your chosen top-of-the-range recreation management software, you can get a lot of data coming your way, including really lesser-known data like self storage unit use. For example, you might know that your community requires more parking facilities, but you have to be able to prove it when you write your grant funding request. By measuring facility usage and including quantitative data in your proposal you stand a much better chance of achieving.
Understanding Your Citizens
To give the best service possible to your community, you need to know who they are. With recreation management software you can find data that will give you the necessary insights. For instance, your data can show you their demographics, behaviors, preferences, and interests. Having insights into these areas will help your department analyze trends and use them to inform future steps for improvement.
Example time – your data might tell you that there is an increase in students in the area, which would prompt you to fund some community activities that they can get involved with – without the data, you won’t be able to stay ahead of the trend.
Knowing your citizens will help you better understand your demographic and allow you to support educational authorities in making areas that will make family-heavy areas safer.
Where Is Data Taken From?
Reputable management software won’t only draw data from the census, it will also access revenue reports, facility reservations, and membership reports – these are figures that can be accessed through the local department.
Further, you could create partnerships with neighboring cities to exchange data. Regional datasets that can inform your department include demographic trends, available schooling, and community service needs.
By accessing all of this data, you will easily be able to collate findings into reports that you can make available for public viewing. As your community is full of people who benefit from your decisions, allowing them full data transparency will drive the department and public relationship forwards. If you aren’t using recreation management software already, it’s about time you did.
