Special Focus

Park districts are much more technologically savvy than they were five years ago, and their use of technology will continue to increase. In an effort to understand where technology has been making the biggest impacts in the daily lives of park district personnel, an informal survey was sent to more than 100 park district staff, including executive directors, finance directors, information systems people, and board members. Here's what we learned.

Affects of Current Technology

The registration office changed significantly by the addition of technology over the last five years. Change began when the registration process was automated, and manual systems were eliminated. With an automated system, everything can be done more quickly. With most systems, once a resident is in the system, registering them for another class is quick and easy. Often the registration office is able to see the available spots in a class and inform the resident that they are in the class or need to find an alternate since the desired class is full.

Along with automated systems comes better financial information concerning the resident. Registration office staff instantly can know if the resident's account is current or past due. Reporting also is improved. A class list can be generated giving up-to-the minute information about the number of participants registered for a class. As more staff have access to personal computers, program supervisors are able to access information without having to go through the registration office. Now, Web-based registration is growing in popularity, allowing residents to access park district program information 24 hours a day, whenever it is convenient for them.

Web-based registration is growing in popularity, allowing residents to access park district program information 24 hours a day/whenever it is convenient for them.

Another area significantly changed by improvements in technology is promotions and publicity. As the cost of personal computers, high quality printers, and software drops, more park districts are able to bring in-house many design and layout tasks. There are many easy-to-use, feature-rich graphic and publishing software packages to choose from. The old process of creating a brochure involving typing, typesetters, getting proofs, reviewing, finalizing layouts, and sending it to a printer is a thing of the past. So now the process of layout and design is performed by an in-house staff member, finalized, and sent to the printer.

With the right software and printer, a copy of the brochure can be generated and printed in-house. Additionally, more copiers are being attached to computer networks, so a flyer can be created on the computer, and then sent to the copier to be duplicated quickly and efficiently.

Inter-office communication also has been improved by technology. With an increasing number of personal computers available at park districts, it is possible for nearly every staff member to have a computer on their desk connected to a local area network (LAN). Internal e-mail provides a good means of communication between staff members. Using Microsoft Exchange and other e-mail systems, users can share documents, view other staff members' calendars, and pass

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important communications around the office quickly and easily. Additionally, the e-mail server can be connected to an Internet connection providing staff the ability to communicate with others via Internet mail. Board members can stay better connected with the activities at the park district and receiving important information by Internet mail.

While not as prevalent, other areas where technology is being used to improve things at park districts are the accounting and finance departments. While these departments typically are automated much sooner than other areas in the park district, they use new technologies to improve efficiency. Online banking, for example, is a new technology being used by finance departments. Payroll time management also has improved due to new technology in the last five years. Other areas checked in the survey include computer-controlled heating and cooling systems, irrigation systems, golf operations, Internet purchasing, and better report generation.

New technology can positively affect staff as well. Increased productivity is the number one listed item in the survey. Staff also has quicker access to information concerning activities at the park district and, with the information in a centralized database, the information is usually more accurate and timely. Since much of the data is stored on a centralized server, the backup and recovery of information is much faster.

There are a few negatives to increased technology in park districts as well. One area involves staff training. As technology is added to the job requirements of park district personnel, additional training is required to prepare staff to utilize the technology available. The constant need to upgrade computers also has a negative impact on staff. Reliability of the computer systems is viewed as having a negative impact on the staff.

When this trend to automate registration offices began, the thought of having a computer to track registration was a luxury. Now a computer on everyone's desk almost is a given, and computers have moved from being a luxury item to being a necessary tool to get the job done. As computers become more prevalent and expected, "downtime" becomes very difficult to deal with. Many users today are so dependent on their computers that they cannot perform their jobs if the computer they use, or the LAN they are on, is not functioning.

Similarly, residents are affected by technology improvements in both positive and negative ways. Residents benefit from Web-based (or online) registration, since those systems are available 24 hours a day and they can register at their convenience. Residents also benefit from a faster registration process and better customer service. However, they also suffer some of the negative issues such as downtime. Residents also can be affected by the loss of the personal touch that a park staff member provides.

Impact of New Technology

Park districts and forest preserve districts are not going to stand still when it comes to technology. In a continued effort to provide staff and residents with the best services available, agencies will continue to embrace technology advances in a effort to provide cost-effective solutions to meet park district needs. Over the next five years there are several areas in which technology will improve the day-to-day activities at park districts.

Park districts will expand their use of the Web to address needs of the residents. Online registration increasingly is more common as a convenient and fast registration tool. Eventually, park district Web sites will allow residents not only the ability to get into classes, but also to change classes, drop classes, request refunds, and to manage their accounts online.

As computer processor speeds continue to get faster, the life of a computer will grow longer. For a long time, the computer industry counted on people upgrading computers every three years. Three years ago, the top-of-the-line processor-was an Intel Pentium II running at 400 megahertz placed in a computer priced at about $1,500. Today's processors are four times faster (1.7 gigahertz or 1700 megahertz) with a street price of about $1,000. This is an incredible amount of power for most users, and the computer will stay much longer on the desktop.

Hardware performance is running ahead of the demands made by software. Things such as auto correct, underlining misspelled words, and managing very large spreadsheets of data used to be too demanding for the processor to keep up with, and still provide the user with system performance that was acceptable. Today's personal computer is able to perform many tasks, and the system performance isn't impacted at all. It will be some time before software makes demands that will impact the performance of the hardware available today.

One of the most exciting technology advances on the horizon for park districts is the use of handheld computing devices. Handheld personal computers (HPCs) and pocket PCs (PPCs) that run the Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, will change the information available to instructors and supervisors. A day soon will come where attendance is taken in class by clicking a small check-box on a handheld device with a pointing device, commonly called a stylus. A few more clicks can lead to more information about the participant such as emergency contact number or important medical information.

The on-the-go program supervisor can access all class information on a handheld device including times, locations, instructors, and class lists. Much of this information is already available in the computerized registration systems, and can be downloaded to the handheld devices. It also can keep valuable phone numbers on the device, such as numbers for replacement referees or umpires, program instructors, or key park staff members in order to have important information available should the need arise.

Reliability of computer hardware and system networks are other areas with expected improvements over the next several years. Prior to the personal computer's introduction, computer systems were purchased from a single vendor. That single vendor was responsible for every component installed into the computer, and reliability was easier to obtain. Today, a single PC is usually made up of multiple vendors. Typically there is a hardware vendor, operating system vendor, and application software vendor. It is easy for different vendors to blame each other problems related to a piece of equipment.

As PCs move into more mission-critical applications, reliability is becoming a bigger issue, and the industry is responding. Many manufacturers offer "managed" computers. These systems have special software installed that monitors the computer, and can report back to a central computer any problems that the computer may be experiencing.

Microsoft also improved its operating systems; Windows 2000 being one of the

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most stable operating systems ever released. These things alone, however, are not enough. Park districts must continue to be vigilant about backing-up data, protecting equipment with uninterruptable power supplies, and keeping anti-virus software up-to-date.

Training Makes Good Use of Technology

Despite the advances in technology, there is still a need for individuals to operate the computers and monitor the other technology devices utilized by the park districts. Unfortunately, many park districts do not have a formal training program in place for users of technology. Staff often gets a few quick lessons when they start, and are required to learn the rest on their own. Unfortunately, many software packages are underutilized because the users never get the training required to take full advantage of all the features in the software. As new technologies are brought into the park districts, a concerted effort should be made to be sure users are properly trained. Community colleges are good places to get training on popular computer software, and the price is often very reasonable.

Technology will continue to improve life for park district staff. There are many exciting advances on the horizon, and there are advances that haven't even been thought of yet. The task is to accept the changes brought on by technology in a way that improves the day-to-day workings of the park district with a keen focus on where that technology is also benefiting the people served.

JEFF MURPHY
is a software developer for Lord & Murphy, inc., and has been developing software and designing computer systems for park district and municipal governments for more than 12 years.

His last article for Illinoss Parks & Recreation magazine was "Let Policies Police Computer Use," published in the July/August 2000 issue. Contact Murphy at jmurphy@lordandmurphy.com.

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