November 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 18

RESEARCH
Agency Performance Review
Survey Is Ready for Your Input
By Melissa May
I
f you are like many park and recreation professionals, you are familiar
with both NRPA Park Metrics (nrpa.org/ParkMetrics) and the
NRPA Agency Performance Review (nrpa.org/APR). Both resources are
the most comprehensive sources of park and recreation agency data
benchmarks and insights in the United States. Perhaps you do not know
either resource by name, but you likely know the typical number of people
per park or the annual operating expenditures at a typical park and recreation
agency, or even the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) park and
recreation employees per 10,000 residents. Many park and recreation professionals
have come to rely on the information available in Park Metrics
and the Agency Performance Review for their agency's planning, budgeting
and reporting. But have you thought about where these data are coming
from? The answer is simple: it comes from you.
From now through the end of January,
the NRPA Research team is
conducting its annual campaign to
encourage you to complete the Agency
Performance Survey. This survey
provides NRPA with vital data that
serves as the backbone of Park Metrics,
and that allows us to produce
the annual NRPA Agency Performance
Review. Your contribution to NRPA
Park Metrics by completing the
Agency Performance Survey influences
the entire profession.
Last year's Agency Performance Review
contained insights from more
than 1,000 park and recreation
agencies - spanning from large
systems located in urban settings
to smaller agencies that serve just
a few hundred residents in small,
rural towns - providing our field
with a wealth of data.
Completing the Agency
Performance Survey
Annual participation in NRPA
Park Metrics is a habit for many
park and recreation professionals
and their agencies, but for some,
this might be your first opportunity
to contribute. If your agency is
new to Park Metrics, you can create
a free account at tinyurl.com/
2p82kz4b. You will gain access to
the Agency Performance Survey
and a variety of data, including reporting
tools that allow you to filter
data to best meet your needs.
The survey is split into the following
sections:
* Jurisdiction
(location,
tion, size of area served)
* Agency operations (operating expenditures,
revenue sources)
* Capital budget (current
five-year capital budget)
* Personnel (FTE counts, distribution
of responsibilities)
* Workload (number of parks and
buildings, mileage of trails, number
of people served)
* Agency responsibilities (what agencies
operate, maintain, contract)
* Facilities (counts of facilities,
athletic fields)
* Activities (sports leagues, cultur18
Parks & Recreation | NOVEMBER 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
year,
populaal
offerings, out-of-school time
programs)
* Policies (tobacco use, admission
fees, hiring practices)
If your agency has completed the
survey before, simply copy data from
the most recent year the survey was
submitted and update any information
that has changed. If you or your
agency are unfamiliar with completing
the Agency Performance Survey,
feel free to download an Excel version
to familiarize yourself and your
staff prior to beginning. Always remember:
the survey can be edited
and updated at any time.
In appreciation and recognition
of you and your agency's completion
of the Agency Performance
Survey in NRPA Park Metrics by
the January 27, 2023 deadline, you
will receive a custom Agency Performance
Report. Your custom report
compares your
agency's
operations,
budget, workload, personnel
and more to that of the nation. We
will email these reports, as well as
post for download in your NRPA
Park Metrics account, beginning in
May 2023.
If you are unsure whether your
agency has participated in Park
Metrics in the past; need to verify
the contacts on your Park Metrics
account; or have any questions regarding
Park Metrics, the Agency
Performance Survey or the NRPA
Agency Performance Review, feel free
to reach out to Melissa May at
mmay@nrpa.org.
Melissa May is NRPA's Senior Research
Manager (mmay@nrpa.org).
http://www.nrpa.org/ParkMetrics http://www.nrpa.org/APR http://www.tinyurl.com/2p82kz4b http://www.tinyurl.com/2p82kz4b
November 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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