Phillips

I do not perceive that we as Presidents, come into office to implement one person's program, but to continue to build upon the base of our predecessors.

Yes, we are different as individuals, with our own tone, tempo, pace and style, but we accept the responsibility of carrying on the purpose and the charge of the association as responsibly as we can.

Influences

In retrospect, many of us have been influenced by the turmoil, the strife and the hope of the decade in which we went to school. I was influenced by the 60's to strive to make a difference. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to our souls about the way things should be, versus the way things are. Jack Kennedy reminded us that it is not what we receive, but what we give and what we are that is important.

Messages

Those messages, while received by my head, did not strike my heart before I began working in the field. I began to understand that if I applied myself, that I could make a difference, or as Thoreau put it, could "affect the quality of the day."

I really believe that is what being in the park and recreation movement is all about and what specifically IPRA is about. We strive to make a difference to affect the quality of the day. We strive to shape our communities and our job settings to be better places, in which to live and to work. We are the stewards of our communities' natural resources and to a large extent, their human resources.

Change

George Will, a political commentator I enjoy, earlier this month wrote about the continuing evolution process and the perpetual incompleteness of man and nature.

IPRA is also incomplete and continues to evolve, perhaps symbolically reflected annually in the passing of the gavel and in the induction of a new Board.

If we accept that we can make a difference, which is the message I carry to you today, we are charged with being architects for change within our profession; within our professional associations and within our communities or job settings. We are charged with trying to see things a new way so that the unrealized potential of our movement comes closer within our reach.

Opportunities and Challenges

We, the membership of the IPRA have some tremendous opportunities and challenges we will face together this next year. Decisions to be made by you this year will be the foundation upon which the future direction of this association will be built.

Membership Services Versus Available Resources

In our individual positions, we must daily come to grips with the demand or desire of our constituents for services, and balance what can be provided to the fiscal resources they make available.

IPRA can be no different.

Based on a multiple year budget projection, the association's unobligated cash reserves generated in the early days of the Great America project will be exhausted by Fiscal Year 1984-85. In spite of a budget reduced to its barest scope, but seeking to maintain the current level of services, expenses are budgeted to exceed revenues by approximately $15,000 in Fiscal Year 1982-83.

The Membership Services Committee, with this fact in mind, will be asking us to prioritize the services presently or potentially available through IPRA, in order to come to grips with a decision about the service reductions that will be necessary if additional operational revenues are not to be made available, or to obtain from the membership, a clear mandate that dues need to be raised to maintain, or even expand upon, the current level of services.

Planning

In 1980, IPRA sponsored a Delphi planning effort that took the six premises of IPRA, developed fifty goals and a multitude of objectives.

This year each Committee, each Section, and each Affiliate, plus the Board and the staff are being charged with the responsibility of updating the 1980 Delphi plan and of prioritizing and costing out three (3) years of objectives.

The result will hopefully be a costed out three year Resource Allocation Plan that will go into effect in 1983-84. This Resource Allocation Plan must allocate our association's limited resources to the top priority services identified by the membership.

Professional Direction

We will have several opportunities in the next several months to discuss and review the merits of the proposed certification program versus our current registration program. This will be a significant decision for us.

Effective Utilization of Existing Human and Fiscal Resources

As a fifteen hundred member association, our key resource is the involvement of our membership in the Sections, the Affiliates, the Committees and the Board. The voluntary contribution of our time and our talents to our leisure movement is our association's greatest strength.

It is imperative this year to become design engineers if you will, to insure that each organized segment of our

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Illinois Parks and Recreation 6 January/February 1983

movement clearly understands its role and function.

Communication, coordination and cooperation will be the by-words.

Relationships

Due to limited familiarity with our peers that work in different regions of the state, or in different job settings, it is an often felt but a seldom expressed perception, that some members are more equal than others.

If we are to break down those barriers, the newly organized Council of Affiliates and Council of Sections composed of the current and future elected leadership of the Affiliates and the Sections, plus the Executive Board and the Executive Director of the state association must open the dialogue.

If the Illinois park and recreation movement is to ever truly be strong, a "we" attitude must exist rather than a "them-us" feeling.

Frankly, I do not know how to achieve this unity of purpose other than encouraging and initiating open and frank communication. This dialogue has been initiated.

Legislative/Public Awareness Effort

Our two state associations take great pride and place a high priority in aggressively and effectively representing the parks and recreation movement in Springfield and more recently, in Washington, D.C.

We are nationally recognized for our commitment to a strong legislative effort, yet today we face challenges like abolishment of the multiplier and a real, or a perceived to be real, feeling by taxpayers that enough is enough, or even less is best.

Certainly our ability to be effective rests with an understanding within our communities of the value of our services and rests on our ability to communicate that to our constituents and our legislators.

Conclusion

It is a privilege to be a part of the most dynamic state-wide park and recreation movement in America.

It is an opportunity to be continually re-energized by the thoughts and deeds of one's peers.

This profession gives us so much more than just a paycheck. It gives us the opportunity to affect the quality of the day, and gives us a pride and fellowship that is unique.

Our involvement in the Affiliates, the Sections, the Committees and Board is an opportunity to reinvest some of ourselves back into a profession that gives a damn and makes a difference.

Speaking from experience, should you be willing to make a commitment, you can make a difference.

Membership alone is not enough . . . your involvement in your movement is essential if we are to unite and be truly strong.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 8 January/February 1983