8.1. SR 12-01-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEASURING PROGRESS Routine evaluation of the park and recreation system is valuable, particularly when justifying requests for funds, facilities, staff time and volunteers. It is also important to proactively communicate benefits provided by the park system to ensure that elected officials, the public, and other decision makers have a thorough understanding of the benefits the system provides and the number of people positively impacted by the park and recreation system. Regular evaluations also have the potential for pinpointing which improvements would better serve system users and identifying benchmarks for excellence. Comprehensive evaluations of park and recreation systems should include both qualitative and quantitative components. Qualitative tools, such as surveys, are relatively easy to conduct and are important in gauging satisfactions, trends, and need. Surveys do not tell the entire picture though. Quantitative methods, such as counts, are important in capturing the who, what, where, and when of park and recreation use. Counts are the most beneficial in demonstrating the magnitude of usage. Finally, the evaluation system should also include an analysis of the community's progress on its goals and implementation of its plans. Following are types of quantitative and qualitative data that should be collected as part of a comprehensive evaluation or progress. Quantitative Data Number of recreation activities and participants tracked through registrations • Number of events, facility users and participants tracked through reservations, permitting, and through usage requests by associations • Number of volunteer participants • Number of people using parks, trails and other facilities through the development of a user count program. This program might be accomplished by counting cars in the parking lot, creating a neighborhood park count volunteer program, or installing new technology to count trail users • Number of signature and other park master plans completed • Miles of sidewalks/ trails completed • Park and trail safety — number of accidents, incidents and crime Qualitative Data Continue city -wide survey on a regular basis and evaluate trends over time • Conduct satisfaction surveys of recreation activity participants • Create evaluation for associations and other groups which regularly use facilities Interview park users to find out how they got there, why they came, how long they stayed, and the importance of the park's different attributes and facilities. If done regularly this can be informative in 73 City of Elk River- Parks and Recreation Master Plan Draft 11 .25.1 4