Many Things To Look Forward To In The Coming Year

by Doug Grove • CPRS President

Wow! What a conference!

San Diego was fantastic and a great kick off to what promises to be an exciting and fun filled year full of community, advocacy, resources, and education. Let’s all give a huge THANK YOU to CPRS HQ staff and all of the volunteers whose commitment made the conference such a big success.

As many of you saw at the conference, I had a custom pair of Vans shoes made to celebrate CPRS and PMLB. The shoes include the four colors of the CPRS flag; blue, yellow, green and red. This year the focus is on the color red which stands for “Our members, the heart of CPRS”. There are also the Parks Make Life Better initials along with the six PMLB messages; Play, Positive Spaces, Gathering Places, Exercise, Nature, and Forever. These colors and messages are at the heart of what CPRS is all about. The shoes will go on the road with me to all CPRS events so keep an eye out!

We have already gotten things going for our member community with the Park, Rec, & Roll It! virtual challenge as we collectively travel 100,000 miles between April 2023 and February 2024 on our journey to the conference in Palm Springs. If you have not joined us you can do so on the CPRS website by clicking on the Park, Rec, & Roll It! link on the home page. You can run, walk, roll, cycle, and swim to help us achieve this ambitious goal. Members are also the focus with the Corn - hole tournaments being planned with each Region and Section. There will be online brackets and we will provide the boards and bags with sponsor logos. If you are interested in being a sponsor please contact CPRS HQ or email me directly. The top 3 teams from each tournament will play in the conference tournament in Palm Springs. I plan to attend all of the tournaments and I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. More details to come in June from the Region and Section representatives.

Advocacy for our profession is critically important for individuals and agencies to communicate and demonstrate the importance of parks and recreation as a vital community service. Past President Frank Carson did an amazing job last year with Frank Fridays posts on social media (frankfridayscprs on Instagram and @FrankCarson on Twitter) highlighting articles and research that provide empirical evidence on how parks are essential. Through the CPRS A-Team we will continue to promote this message to all members of our communities. The CPRS State Board is also working on expanding the ways that we spread this message so stay tuned.

Resources for all members is a key component of our mission and there are a variety of tools available on the Resources page on the CPRS website. There is a library of over 1,000 documents, reports, fact sheets and agency examples at your disposal. Looking to position your agency as a vital community service? Check out the VIP Action Plan, Parks Make Life

2023-2024 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT Doug Grove, RLA, ASLA, LEED AP RHA Landscape Architects 951-781-1930 dougg@rhala.com

PRESIDENT-ELECT Kyla Brown, CPRE Riverside County Regional Park & Open Space District 951-955-4306 kylabrown@rivco.org

VICE PRESIDENT Cindy Bagley City of Rohnert Park 707-588-3452 cbagley@rpcity.org

SECRETARY-TREASURER

Victoria Reyna, CPRP Jurupa Community Services District 951-727-3524 vreyna@jcsd.us

REGION 1 REPRESENTATIVE (Dist 1, 2, 3) Adam Chow, CPRP City of San Ramon 925-973-3321 achow@sanramon.ca.gov

REGION 2 REPRESENTATIVE (Dist 4, 5, 6) Patricia Mullan City of Menlo Park 650-330- 2225 pmullan@menlopark.gov

REGION 3 REPRESENTATIVE (Dist 7, 8, 15) Lauren Cronk Standard School District lcronk@standarschools.net

REGION 4 REPRESENTATIVE (Dist 11, 13, 14) Candice Smith City of Ontario 909-395-2020 csmith@ontarioca.gov

REGION 5 REPRESENTATIVE (Dist 9, 10, 12) Jenni Worsham City of Fountain Valley 714-593-4447 jenni.worsham@fountainvalley.org

SECTION REPRESENTATIVES (Administrators, Recreation and Recreation Therapy) Janine Andrade City of Bell 323-773-1596 jandrade@cityofbell.org

(Aging, Aquatics, Development & Operations and Educators) Teri deRosier Cosumnes Community Services District 916-405-5605 TerideRosier@csdparks.com

Please contact any Board Member with questions or comments

After a 20+ year hiatus from the City of San Diego, CONNECTIONS returned and the anticipation levels were quite high. Neither the City or the conference disappointed. From the Opening Session with Charles Clark to the Closing Session with Michelle Faraco, enegry levels were on a continous high.

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Conference APP Conference Experience Recommend CONNECTIONS Personal Grown Knowledge Base

Attendees, speakers and exhibitors downloaded and used conference APP

Attendees rated their conference experience as outstanding or above average

Would likely or very likely recommend attending CONNECTIONS to a colleague

Agreed or Strongly Agreed that educational content provided a tool or two for personal growth

What attendees had to say about Connections ’23…

Agreed or Strongly Agreed that CONNECTIONS enhanced their current knowledge base

I have been attending the conferences for years and I think this year by far was one of the very best ones yet. The session topics were very relevant and the sessions I attended had very good speakers. The key to the session is the content and the ability of the speaker to engage the group and make it relevant, useful, and beneficial to those in attendance.

Outstanding conference – always a chance to make great connections. Multiple keynotes were a good idea and the communication, follow through etc. were on point throughout.

Thank you for the opportunity to attend my first conference. It was beneficial for my professional development and gave me a chance to network and learn from industry peers. Definitely excited to come back next year and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in my industry.

The best mix and quality of educational sessions in a few years, kudos to the selection team. Excellent through-line of message from keynotes to closing speakers.

As a 25+ year industry professional and currently a Community Services Director, these were the best educational sessions in a really long time. I found something I was interested to learn about in most all blocks of training times. The speakers, content, descriptions/outcomes, length of session, and room sizes were so well done. A+ rating!

Thank you for bringing in engaging speakers to not only work on individual professional growth but give us tools to bring back to the workplace. The varied speakers, both in topic and location across the United States, were interesting, engaging, and thoughtful in their presentations. I love learning how our profession operates not only in the state of CA but across the nation.

This year’s conference was amazing! The vibe was great, excellent sessions, welcome reception location was perfect (a lot of space, food, bars). I heard feedback from many that they really enjoyed it!