Back to the Moon - for Science or Leisure

I grew up on the manned space program and was fortunate enough to see the first moon landing by Apollo 11. My parents made sure me and my sisters witnessed history as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Within a couple years of that historic walk this country was done visiting the moon. What a shame. I remember Skylab, but my greatest memory of that program was it's fiery crash over Australia. Now the Space Shuttle program is over and from what I've read there's nothing ready to take it's place, but there has been talk of returning to the moon. That would be something. Until that time, I'll have to keep my longing for manned space exploration to all this country has available right now - the International Space Station. Here's a pretty cool NASA time lapse video from the International Space Station. Now and then during a full moon I take my binoculars and look at it. Two things always cross my mind. One, we should still be there, and two, we should go back there. As a kid, eating Food Sticks and drinking Tang, I wanted to be an Astronaut. Now I would be happy to be a tourist, but at this pace and with my resources it isn't going to happen. Perhaps my grandchildren will take their kids for a vacation to the Lunar Hilton . . . just maybe.

I Wanna Be Like Walt

Walt Disney once said, “In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, or even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future."

I'm a big fan of Walt Disney. I enjoy all the movies and love going to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. I've made two trips to the still relatively new Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. But I love reading about Walt Disney the man, the visionary, the creative genius. I've read eight books about Walt (the best being Walt Disney: An American Original, by Bob Thomas). As a kid I always thought my grandpa looked like Walt; similar hair style and mustache. Coincidentally, they were both born in 1901.

This fascination with Walt started after I attended the Disney Institute in Orlando in 2007. All during our sessions and tours our instructors, Paul and Michelle, kept talking about the vision and passion Walt had for his company, as well as the influence and impact his practices and new ideas had on his competitors, even those organizations not in direct competition with the Disney machine. This left me thinking, "if only I can have a fraction of that vision, common sense, problem solving ability, creative thinking . . . just think of the impact I could have on those I work with and the community in which I serve . . ." Today, our Customer Service model in West Sacramento Parks & Recreation is based on the Disney model, thanks to the influence the Disney Traditions had on me and my staff.

Most fascinating to me about Walt was his pursuit of the future - he was an innovator. Always pushing the edge of possibility. Did you know Walt's most ambitious vision was of a master planned community? He really saw EPCOT as the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow - a living, breathing, functioning community that would always be evolving as new technologies and systems were developed. It was there he wanted to see those innovations put into practice as an experiment prior to their introduction to society at large. Unfortunately, he died before a shovel full of dirt could ever by turned on the 'Project X' site, but I believe he had been watching this vision in his mind over and over. That's how much he wanted to see it happen . . . and believed it would happen. For more on Walt and the original EPCOT concept check out the book Walt Disney and the Quest for Community, by Steve Mannheim.

“There’s really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward – opening up new doors and doing new things – because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting. We call it Imagineering – the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how.” - Walt Disney

In my department I talk a lot about how we can be the first to do something or do it better, set the bar, be trendsetters and be the ones to pioneer new best practices. That means taking risks, being tolerant of failure, being tolerant of more failure, being vulnerable, looking silly, not playing it safe. We dreamed, designed, collaborated, researched, prepared, built, trained, . . . and finally, we had our new West Sacramento Recreation Center. It was risky, but my director and leader, Bob Johnston, had a vision, and it wasn't long before we all started seeing that vision, too . . . even before we saw a single shovel full of dirt turned over. That's why being an innovator is important and having the ability to share your vision is critical.

The family leisure pool at the West Sacramento Recreation Center

In his article, Stop Blabbing About Innovation and Start Actually Doing It, Aaron Shapiro talks about the 10 ingredients in his recipe for having a work culture that helps foster innovation. It's a good read with some great ideas.

Of course if you have the vision and innovation ready and waiting, you could always take Walt's advice:

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

UPDATE: April 22, 2012 - Here's an article from Saturday's New York Times that talks about the Disney Institute: Teaching the Disney way is big business. I'm glad I wrote my piece before this came out . . . whew!

Parks and Play: Just Add Adults . . . Please!

As a kid I was never interested in what was happening in the classroom. I wanted to play, and play just didn't seem to happen indoors for me. Indoors meant having to sit still, sit up straight, pay attention, stop eating the paste . . . I don't think I ever did this, but seriously - I was a real pain in the keester for every teacher I had at Orville Wright Elementary School. Poor Ms. Bravo, poor Mrs. Peters. They were my favorite teachers, but nothing they seemed to do could get my mind off the playground and into my school work.

Perhaps becoming a parks and recreation professional was the logical path for me. I will never claim to be very bright and stumbling onto leisure as a field of study is proof of that (I should mention I spent 7 years in community college trying to figure that out, but I'm glad I did). Leisure, recreation, parks and play are my passion, especially when you see the benefits they have in the lives of individuals, families and communities. In California, "Parks Make Life Better!" is our profession's brand promise, and I have yet to meet anyone who didn't agree with this statement.

I love play. Even today I love playing basketball. I also love playing nerf ball tennis. Scott and Kaisa are two people I work with and for a while we would play tennis, using foam tennis balls, inside our Rec Center gym (mainly because it was cold and wet outside). Man, is it fun! One day we started playing the game with two (2) balls in play - it wore us out, but we had a blast. We modified the game again and said all walls and the ceiling were in play and if either ball comes to a stop on your side of the net, your team loses. We lasted about 5 minutes, but it felt like forever, and so we named this game 'Forever Ball'. I think we need more play like that where we make the game up as we go along.

Back outside now . . . you heard me . . . go outside and play!

We need to get outside and play, especially adults. Of course kids need to get outside and play, too, but we adults would benefit greatly from some goofing around, playing silly games, and simply being more active for the sake of fun and laughter. In his article, "It's Called Play", Jay Heinrichs talks about the benefits of play for adults and the value of putting recess back into our daily lives. Now that we're all grown-up (well, at least all of you), that recess can take place in our local parks . . . and no need to worry about the school bell ringing.

Duck, duck, goose anyone?

Evolving is hard, but it beats the Alternative

I am really making an effort to catch on to the latest technology, and to read up on things that I can do with my iPhone and iPad. In fact, this whole post has been done using Siri (and several corrections using the on-screen keyboard) and the Blogger app I just downloaded from the iTunes store.

I attended the California Park and Recreation Society's annual conference in Long Beach, and two things made an impression on me this past week. The first is the need for greater connection between people who work in public parks & recreation and the community, specifically neighborhoods. The second concern being that we still have a long ways to go as a profession to catch up to the technological advances in social media and how society, especially the younger generation, are using mobile devices and Smartphones as a way of staying connected and accessing information.

There was an article in today's Sacramento Bee about how younger generations do not value owning a car the way older generations have. Scratch, a division of MTV, found that most younger people prefer access to the Internet over owning a car. Based on this information, I'll have to make sure I add Scratch as one of my RSS feeds so I can get the latest information they find in their research, as I believe their findings will have a direct implication on how we should think about our customers wants and needs, how we design facilities, and how we should develop programs in the future.

It's easy to go out and buy new technology, to sign up to use social media sites and to download apps through iTunes. What takes effort is figuring out how to use all those different tools effectively both for business and personal life. My greatest concern is that I could constantly have my head down looking at a small screen trying to take advantage of all of these new opportunities. But like everything else that you want to become skilled at, you have to spend a little more time than you think you should trying to master the activity . . . and in my case it's not that I'm trying to master something, I'm just simply trying to catch up.

So yes, evolving is hard, but to stay relevant in my chosen profession I believe I have to make the effort to understand how both society and technology are changing if I am going to be able to continue contributing to the field of parks and recreation.

Trading Business Cards . . . so 2011

It makes sense there's an app that replaces the practice of exchanging business cards. According to this LA Times article one of those app's is called Bump. I downloaded the app to my iPhone and hope to use it at a conference next week.

Back in 2008 I attended a conference that used a technology called nTag. Each attendee was issued an nTag device that acted as their confernece badge. You could use it to exchange business contact information, receive conference messages and updates, request presentations, and participate electronically in polls conducted by presenters. It was pretty cool. Four years later that technology may no longer be relevant. How long before I look at my iPhone and say 'this thing is so 2012'?

The Tweet Sound of Success

    I'm not very good at using Twitter and LinkedIn.  I know how to use them, but I am not motivated to tweet or post that often.  Maybe that's a good thing.  I don't want my stream of consciousness to be out in cyber space, but if I do have what I think is a clever thought or witty remark, I will thumb-it-out and click send . . . maybe . . . if I think about it.  That's not even a second thought for many young people today, as was demonstrated by a young lady in Kansas.  Check this out: 
    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/nov/28/no-penalty-for-teen-who-tweeted-about-kansas-gov/

    The stir her tweeted comment made allowed her to go from 61 followers to over 12,000 in less than a week!  Any business that is using social media would love to have that kind of success in growing their following so fast is so short a time.  This clearly demonstrates the power the right or pithy comment can have in the world of social networking. 

    For my parks & recreation department I want to grow our Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but I want it to be because of the great things we do, great parks we have, and wonderful opportunities we offer residents for recreation and positive social interaction.  An individual who wants to be controversial and edgy can probably get away with that, but it's a bit trickier for an agency that serves the public and has both a reputation to consider and Council members and taxpayers to answer to.  That said, I make every effort to sound friendly, encouraging and clever in the postings I do on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/westsacfun), and most of all to engage those who 'Like" and comment on our postings. While I would love for us to post or tweet a comment or video and have it go viral, I am content for now with our modest following of 1,200+ people on our Facebook page.

    That's my take.  Now excuse me while I tweet about our new pole dancing class.

Who needs cocaine when you can simply have sugar?

More medical research is suggesting that processed, sugary foods and beverages may affect the brain much like narcotics. As someone who used to consume lots of fatty, sugary and processed foods, this doesn't surprise me. The process of eliminating sugar from my diet was very difficult and I had to endure headaches and feeling deprived (my family had to endure me). Now when I walk into any store that sells junk food I see it as a poison. It's an attitude I had to take to avoid being sucked back in by sugary snacks, cereals and candy. While I still have a sweet-tooth, I am able to satisfy this craving with items that are sugar-free. Now I love the way I eat and weighing 30 lbs less than I did 2 years ago doesn't hurt either. Some may laugh at the thought of some foods as addictive, but I know how hard it can be to change the way one eats. Check out the article and tell me what you think.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-02/fatty-foods-addictive-as-cocaine-in-growing-body-of-science.html