September 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 104

M e mb e rship

Through the Eyes of our Members
Highlights from the 2011 NRPA Member Survey

he 2011 NRPA Membership Survey undertook to gather and
quantify the characteristics and opinions of the association's
current members and non-members-questioning them about
the issues they face, their perspective on the industry as a whole,
and the benefits and services NRPA provides. The study aimed to
gather results useful to NRPA for shaping future strategy and guiding decision-making.

102 Parks & Recreation

SEPTEMBER 2011

■■ Over

45 percent of the agency professional respondents are from an agency/
department serving a jurisdiction with a
population density classified as suburban.
■■ About 35 percent of the agency professional respondents serve an urban
population.
■■ The majority of respondents represented
agencies that were:
■■ both parks and recreation.
■■ serving populations between 10,000
and 250,000.
■■ with operating budgets between $1
and $10 million.
■■ Over 70 percent of the agency professional respondents are from an agency that has a governing board-and, of
those, 45 percent are appointed and 55
percent are elected.
■■ About 36 percent of agency professional respondents report that their agency

has a separate fundraising organization.
■■ Over 65 percent reported recovering less

than 40 percent of their operating budget
through fees and charges.
■■ Just under half of the agency professionals indicated their cost recovery target
percentage increased over the last two
fiscal years. (Of those who reported increases, about 36 percent indicated increases between 1 and 5 percent-and
43 percent said those increases fell between 6 and 10 percent.)
■■ Nearly 64 percent of agency professionals
responding anticipate reductions in their
agency budget from FY2011 to FY2012.
■■ Over 30 percent of agency-employed
respondents believe their agency will
continue to be impacted by the economic
downturn to 2015 or beyond.

AntonovRoman/ shutterstock

The survey, conducted by Industry
Insights, Inc., an independent research
and consulting firm, was sent in May via
email to approximately 23,000 individuals from NRPA's database. A total of 2,235
responses were received-a percentage
that offers a statistical " confidence level "
of 95 percent that individual responses
to questions fall within a +/-1.97 percent
margin of error. The majority of respondents (1,543) were current NRPA members, while 536 were former members. A
small minority (156) reported never having held an NRPA membership.
The executive summary of the survey includes key details about members
and (for 73 percent of respondents) the
agencies they represent. Below are some
highlights from the " Agency Professional
Information " and " Agency Information "
sections of the summary:
■■ The majority of survey respondents are
at the level of middle management or
executive management. Of those who
are not at the executive management
level, nearly 60 percent aspire to hold
an agency director position during their
career. In addition, over three-fourths
are willing to relocate to obtain a director position.
■■ Over 60 percent of agency professional
respondents are from an agency/department serving a municipal jurisdiction.

Over 65 percent of
member survey
respondents reported
recovering less than
40 percent of their
operating budget
through fees
and charges.

www.NRPA .ORG

September 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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