Dr. Ted Flickinger IAPD Executive Director When five or seven individuals come together in the board room as board members for a park or forest preserve board, ideally they become one forward-thinking unit with their sights set on the betterment of the community through parks, recreation and conservation.

What makes a great board? Leadership, trust, communication, teamwork, vision.

When five or seven individuals come together in the board room as commissioners for a park district or forest preserve, ideally they become one forward-thinking unit with their sights set on the betterment of the community through parks, recreation and conservation.

It's not easy to achieve this ideal. Each member of the board comes to the table with his or her own past, profession, experiences, and wishes for the district.

In past issues of the magazine, I've invited board members to share their success stories of working together to get the job done. What follows is a letter written to me by Vicki Carney, commissioner for the Prospect Heights Park District.

Carney has served on the board for nearly seven years. She describes the park district as "small" (EAV $2.25 million with about 75 acres, 7 facilities and 16 park sites) and struggling with the effects of a small tax base, little open land and a diverse population of 15,000 residents.

She writes: "I can think of several specific examples of ways that our board has worked together. The first example is of gigantic proportion in terms of size and opportunity for our park district."

Acquisition and Referendum
A few years ago, our executive director reported to the board that he had learned about the possibility of a nearby golf course becoming available for purchase in the near future, located within our park district.

Meetings were quickly called to gather the facts and determine what course of action the board should take. Several legal steps needed to be taken to avoid having the property purchased by another municipality. We needed to act quickly, with decisiveness and with no room for second-guessing or looking backward.

The board arrived at a unanimous consensus to try to purchase the golf course. In large part, this decision was made much easier by a great deal of forward-thinking on the part of the board of commissioners who had served the community before my days on the board.

"We needed to act quickly, with decisiveness and with no room for second-guessing or looking backward." — Vicki Carney, commissioner for the Prospect Heights Park District

The purchase of a golf course had been a part of our master plan for many years, so we had direction when this opportunity became available.

We then moved to the next aspect of the project, the funding. Since the potential acquisition would more than double the assets of the park district, it was a sizeable purchase. We determined that we would have to approach the taxpayers to have them approve an additional tax levy in order to go forward with the financing of the project.

Having no hands-on experience with a referendum, the majority of the board attended a workshop on how to put together a successful referendum. We all walked away

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with numerous ideas and methods on positioning the park district for a successful referendum in November of 1998. In a period when few tax increases were approved, the referendum passed and the park district purchased the property in January of 1999.

And then our work really began! We had decisions to make on management, employees, fees, capital expenditures, and the list continues on and on.

Park Redevelopment Project

In the past two years, we have had the opportunity to solicit and receive funds from the state of Illinois for the redevelopment of a park site. This was a controversial issue for many citizens because it involved making improvements to an area known for its natural surroundings. We held numerous park district meetings where citizens voice their concerns, likes and dislikes.

We were able to successfully pull together, fund, develop and then promote our new park. It has been a wonderful improvement to our inventory of park property.

No More Nonresident Fees

The board recently authorized a "first" in Illinois: a cooperative agreement with two surrounding park districts whereby residents can use many of each of the three park district facilities at resident or near-resident rates. This truly is a win-win situation for the park districts and the residents.

At the idea's inception, when the executive director and staff presented the idea to the board, it was met with an overwhelmingly affirmative response.

These ongoing examples have been the result of our board working together. We each bring to the table and offer a different set of skills— some management, some financial, some construction, legal, human resources and education. We each evaluate the decisions with our own skill-set and ask questions as needed to perform our own due diligence on decisions. At the time of voting on these very large, very daring decisions, we each voted to go forward for the good of the park district. Bottom line, why does our board work?

• We are blessed with strong board leadership and a strong vision for the future of our park district. The decisions we make today will have lasting effects on the future of our residents.

• "We respect fellow board members, their abilities and ideas, and we communicate with each other frequently about park district issues.

• We have a spirit of cooperation and a willingness to put aside personal agendas we may have for the overall good of the park district.

• We are willing to put the needs of the park district and residents first.

Serving on the board of commissioners for the Prospect Heights Park District has been one of the most rewarding things in which I have every participated. We are a great team!

May/June 2002    7