In 1965, Champaign schools and parks were trying to draft a joint agreement on use of facilities. Too many meetings were held. Too many drafts filled page after page. We were frustrated and getting nowhere fast.

That year, the Champaign school superintendent, Dr. E. H. "Gene" Mellon, attended the School Administrators Annual Convention in Denver. He heard a presentation on joint school-park agreements by a Denver school superintendent. The speaker said that after too many meetings, lost in details, the school and park districts were bogged down by such issues as who paid what, and he agonized over this for many days. One night the solution came to him. Eliminate money entirely. Neither the school district nor the park district would pay the other for indoor or outdoor facility use. Everything fell into place quickly.

The speaker further said that neither group would spend time trying to determine costs that were impossible to define. This would eliminate bookkeeping time, frustrated staff, piles of paper (copiers had not yet been invented), and would enable both staffs to concentrate on more productive efforts. He also said, "God only knows how much time both staffs would waste trying to prove one group owed the other a couple of hundred dollars at the end of the year."

The speaker summarized by stating that the secret to successful joint school-park agreements is not keeping score. This was initially difficult as Americans are competitive people. We are all brought up with many types of games, and for all of the games we are taught to keep score. Americans, too often, spend more time talking about the score than playing the game.

When Gene returned home, he contacted me and said he had a solution to our problem. He

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then reiterated what he had heard. We decided that the first step was to drop the current meetings and call a joint meeting of the school and park boards.

Both boards were enthusiastic after Gene told them what he had learned in Denver. They directed the two staffs to proceed. Since the staffs were told what the boards wanted, the joint agreement was completed in less than 30 days.

The school district and park district received many complements from residents. The media was enthralled and provided many stories and editorials about governments working together for the benefit of the taxpayers.

Gene was frequently asked to speak on our agreement. I remember Gene stating during his presentations, "We decided not to nickel and dime each other."

Did we live happily ever after? Yes, we did, except for a park district error about five years ago. The school district was experiencing some problems and had major board member and staff turnover. On the other hand, the park district had a senior board and the same director for many years. The park district let the meetings slip to every two years and, finally, to every three years. This was a major error.

The park district discovered members of the school staff were complaining to their board that the park district was taking advantage of the school district and felt they were being cheated. The park district quickly conducted an exhaustive review of the previous years' records. This was a major and time-consuming project. The park district discovered that each of the districts' facilities were used about 7,700 hours; the difference was only a few hundred hours. This information satisfied the school board. If annual meetings were held, this issue would have never been raised.

The school district and the park district, since 1965, have not had to build duplicate facilities, and existing facilities are fully used. The residents have benefited from this joint agreement, and they realize it.

Don Bresnan is a commissioner for the Champaign Park District.

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