December 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 71

What Land is Included?
Should we inventory only the lands
that are recognized as parks and open
spaces? Or should we inventory even tiny
parcels of land (e.g., median strips and
parking lot areas) for which our agency is
responsible?

5

everything your agency manages or maintains
should be included.
the cost of maintaining the small parcels is incredibly expensive compared to their acreage. i [bill
beckner] once conducted a maintenance analysis
of an agency that had 2,000 acres being mowed
by three equally-sized mowing crews. two of these
crews mowed 1,931 acres. the third mowed 69
acres in over 130 park sites. We ask you to indicate the amount of land that your agency manages or maintains so as to allow for a more accurate
comparison of how maintenance resources are
distributed.

Quality Control
Since PRORAGIS is user-driven, how
do I know there is someone on the other
end making sure the data is accurate? I
don't, for example, want to compare my
costs to other agencies that do not make a
distinction between maintaining
developed and undeveloped land.

vOLu Nte e R SP OtLiG ht

Sid Stevenson

6

since pRoRAGis is user-driven, we are inherently dependent on the persons submitting their data
accurately. We are continually striving to make the
form as straightforward as possible. Additionally,
we provide explanations throughout the form to
help agencies complete their profiles in a consistent
manner. on the reporting side, pRoRAGis offers
side-by-side reporting that allows users to review
the data for each agency to which they are comparing themselves. users therefore have the option of
excluding anyone they feel is not an appropriate
benchmarking " fit. "
industry insights, the firm responsible for
maintaining the database, also periodically reviews all of the data in the system for inconsistencies, irregularities, and errors. When necessary,
industry insights will reach out to participating
agencies for clarification on questionable items.
For more member questions-and the
pRoRAGis team's answers-visit www.nrpa.
org/proragis.
-Maureen Hannan

" You become a true professional
when you start giving back "

K

A n s A s s tAt e u n i V e R s i t Y
professor sid stevenson
shared his time and expertise with nRpA-and with the entire
parks and recreation field-when he
compiled a complete data set of public lands and facilities for the state of
kansas and entered it into the national
pRoRAGis database. stevenson, who
has been a parks and recreation educator for 29 years, believes in the high
value of universally accessible park information-both for public enjoyment
of resources and for park planning
and benchmarking purposes. in addition to his contributions to pRoRAGis,
stevenson has developed RecFinder,
an online interactive recreation database. We asked him to comment on
the nature, rewards, and challenges of
his volunteer work for nRpA.

1. PRORAGIS is probably the
most important new product and

member benefit NRPA has
initiated in the last few years.
What led you to spearhead the
campaign to get 100 percent
Kansas participation in
completing the PRORAGIS
information?
the Gis component of pRoRAGis
does indeed offer substantial benefits to park and recreation agencies,
health care providers, and the general
public by providing accurate and standardized data that aids, among other
things, in planning for and ultimately
supplying needed experiences in more
optimal proximity to clients.
With these same benefits in mind,
we had started compiling our statewide geo-database of parks, facilities,
and trails as part of the last kansas'
state comprehensive outdoor Recreation plan (scoRp). our initial compilation had taken several years and
thousands of hours. hundreds of park

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& Recreation

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December 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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