Factor in the AGE WAVE

BY DR. TERRY G. SCHWARTZ, CLP

In July of 1990, the Futurist featured an article entitled "Nine Forces Reshaping America," which discussed nine "change drivers" identified by the United Way of America's Strategic Institute. The change drivers were representative of the Institute's best collective judgment of the key developments likely to occur during this decade.

The elements of change were grouped into categories such as the maturation of society, the mosaic nature of society, the redefinition of individual and societal roles, the information-based economy, globalization, personal and environmental health, restructuring family and home, and a rebirth of social activism.

In retrospect, these nine change drivers are no surprise to us eight years later. They continue to be major influences. Each has a direct correlation to what we do in the park and recreation profession as practitioners, educators and students now and into the next century.

Our maturing society appears to be the change driver with the most significant role in shaping the future of the profession. It affects how the service is delivered and who is delivering it.

How we deliver the service

The park and recreation profession has experienced terrific change in the last three decades. This change is due to sudden economic growth in urban communities, an emerging youth culture, optimism, better access to transportation, easy credit, the search for the authentic, and the orientation to the present rather than the future (Goodale and Godby, 1988). Subsequently, extensive physical assets have been developed for our communities such as golf courses, tennis facilities, food entertainment, comprehensive recreation centers, environmental centers, and vast aquatic centers.

The menagerie of facilities is a direct result of individual community interest in the expansion of leisure opportunities. In most cases, the development was approved through referenda. In others, facilities were developed through creative financing such as installment contracts.

By and large, these decisions were made by the baby boomer generation (people born in the United States from 1946 to 1964). Facility use is dominated by the "boomers" and their offspring. In many cases the boomer generation and their families will enjoy these leisure experiences for a long time.

Managers of tomorrow, however, will need to be concerned about the time when the interest Wanes. Once the boomer generation outlives these facilities, who and what source of funding will be there to replace them?

The legacy has been set. The castles of our time have been and are being built. The challenge to manage this legacy is left to those who follow.

The problem is not one of poor decision making, but is attributed to generational concerns and influences. The baby boomers are the dominant generation of this century and the next. Society will be influenced by this dominance until it literally dies away. These influences have long-term implications that are problematic for future public park and recreation managers.

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SPECIAL FOCUS

Schools help illustrate the looming problem

By looking at the influence of the boomers as they affect the public school system, we discover an excellent model for the future of parks and recreation.

Some 40 years ago, schools experienced significant growth to accommodate the increased wave of new students. This growth was influenced by the parents of the growing baby boom population. Once the facilities were constructed, they nicely served society for three decades.

As the dominant generation began to leave the system, the need for these facilities changed. School populations began to shrink, schools started consolidating and buildings were sold to park systems, the private sector or were destroyed.

Thirty-five years later, administrators are finding it difficult to replace or restore these capital assets. The challenges are posed by taxpayer unwillingness to restore the facilities built in the '50s and '60s. The prominent challenge is the lack of interest by the taxpayer to fund referenda for improvements. School administrators are challenged to find creative resources to manage schools and finance improvements. Legislators are looking at alternatives to homeowner taxes to fund these initiatives.

Perhaps schools are having difficulty selling the importance of community reinvestment. The taxpayer from the dominant generation is having difficulty justifying reinvestment in a facility that their children no longer need. Thus, educational systems will continue to experience this unwillingness among taxpayers to fund the renovation of capital assets as the dominate generation continues to age.

The park and recreation profession is threatened by the same experience. As society ages, the challenge of future managers will be to rebuild and restore today's castles.

While the "New Old" (as Ken Dychtwald, author of the Age Wave, has labeled people who are in early stages of retirement) might be more willing to pay, the challenge for the future is how the capital asset built in the '80s and '90s will be restored in 2010. Will there be taxpayer support and a willing buyer in the future? Will our castles become dinosaurs?

Who delivers the service

Our aging population will change who delivers the service due to a potentially large exodus of practicing professionals and educators in the next five to ten years.

The park and recreation profession is rich with baby boomers at all levels of administration. New legislation allowing early retirement among these managers will enhance the potential for this change.

With this shift comes the problem of managerial influence. Baby boomers have influenced the professional park and recreation culture through their managerial perspective, values, policy development on the local level and legislation. These influences will continue as boomers mature.

The generation is well documented for its share of positive influences on society. These successes might be considered a burden by representatives of other generations, however. Strauss and Howe (1988, p. 301) describe boomers as "a generation seeing their mission not as constructing a society, but of justifying, purifying, even sanctifying it."

Most boomers care as little for the opinions of their "13er" juniors (referring to the 13th generation since the Revolutionary War) as they ever cared for the opinions of their elders (Strauss and Howe, 1988, p. 313).

The managers of the future will be required to follow the legends and system builders of today through pressures such as continued service delivery, work ethic, creative planning and longevity of quality. Managers of tomorrow will be confronted with the notion of having to do "it" the way it used to be done. The only difference is, the dominant generation won't be present to support their agenda. The boomers might indeed usurp their efforts.

Perhaps the next generation of managers will want to shed the burden left by the dominant generation, rather than be mentored by them. According to Howe & Strauss, boomers are beginning to police politically correct behavior, pass 'anti-ugly zoning ordinances, ban obscene music, and promote chastity; stances that, two decades ago, boomers would have considered fascist (1988, p. 313).

The next generation of managers will have new views they will want to explore and implement due to a new set of problems such as organization funding, an aging population and a related new wave of empowered consumers representing the generations following the dominant generation. The new views might meet resistance by the older consumer or the influence of the previous administrator because of the legacy previously established by the dominant generation. Yet, the new generation of managers may not have the boomer lobby to implement their ideas. The dilemma will further exacerbate the problems faced by new managers.

The new generation of managers might need some room to operate and develop a philosophical and managerial ethic to address this agenda of new challenges.

Economic restructuring

Economic restructuring will require the manager of leisure services to alter the way services are created and delivered. These challenges will be as diverse, but one characteristic that will remain constant: conservative communities will remain conservative and non-conservative communities will use less conventional, yet creative, methods to find resolutions to problems.

42 / Illinois Parks and Recreation

FACTOR IN THE AGE WAVE

As our society ages, the dependence on tax funds as a primary source of revenue to support goods and services will require an adjustment in our thinking. The taxpayer may be less likely to support these initiatives. While there are some success stories, the trend is to not support these initiatives. The reality is that the aging society, as the dominant generation, might reduce the probability for successful referenda in the future.

In order to maintain the current pace of providing quality and diversified services, it will be important to intensify efforts to identify new revenue streams to support these desired levels of service. The revenue streams will not be tied to taxes and, in most cases, will require a strategic partner to deliver the service.

Non-conservative organizations will resort to collaborative relationships with organizations having similar missions and customer bases, creating revenue streams to balance tax-reductionist activity. This is currently happening in Illinois park and recreation systems through fitness centers, multiuse recreation centers, golf courses and driving ranges (indoor and outdoor), indoor athletic facilities, performance centers, and food and beverage operations. In the future, this partnership activity will occur in aquatic centers, marinas, maintenance operations, accounting and management systems.

In these instances, the park and recreation services will appear to be the same in structure and the delivery of service. Upon closer examination, due to the influence of people who are trained in the private sector, there will be differences in finance, policy decisions, management philosophy, skills of the staff, and the manner in which employees are hired.

Conservative organizations will be less conducive to new conventions of finding resolutions to problems and will continue efforts to solve problems from within, using traditional means and resources. Examples of these organizations are small communities within an urban setting and rural communities having little access to financial and likely partnership resources. A dramatic difference in operational efficiency will be necessary for these organizations.

The reduction in the size of the budget will be cause for major changes in the approach to providing services. If enterprise funds exist, the dependence of these funds to support other services will be necessary. This may cause resentment among the user of the enterprise. The tax base may begin to fall due to older adult migration. The public who is willing to buy and use the service may be reduced which reduces the revenues to support the costs for providing the service. Managers will need to make calculated decisions regarding core and non-core services. The core services will gain the subsidy while the non-core service will operate without subsidy.

These organizations may revert services to those recognized in the early stages of the recreation movement of the late '60s. That will depend on individual organization interpretation of what a core and non-core service might be.

Another model might emerge resulting from the conservative approach to service delivery. It is not a new model. This model existed in the '70s when schools and park systems recognized mutual values and utilized capital assets for the benefit of the public. The new model might be called the "Community-School Movement," "The Community-Business Movement," or the "Community-Health Movement."

There are many possibilities. However, the movement to the model will only occur when the egos, organizational prejudices and the desire to engage in community building are embraced by the stakeholders for the benefit of the user.

Concluding thoughts

Although these concepts may seem somewhat radical, a time will come when boomer managers will need to step aside and allow a new generation of managers operate in the system of tomorrow.

The post-boomer manager is destined to struggle in understanding the large population of boomers who have the time and the money to influence the leisure marketplace.

DR. TERRY G. SCHWARTZ, CLP
is assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration at Western Illinois University. He is a baby boomer with more than 25 years experience as a park and recreation practitioner in Illinois. He can be reached at tg_schwartz@ccmail.wiu.edu.

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