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ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT COURSES
The adage “Build it and they will come” is only part of a success story. “Built it and keep them coming”… now that’s a success story! These days the challenges of successful service provision in recreation settings go beyond simply offering a variety of interesting programs. A comprehensive service planning and management strategy is vital. This course will examine the many critical elements needed for successful facility service planning and management. Participants will develop a practical work plan to ensure that their specific facility use opportunities are maximized, clients’ needs are met and quality service is delivered.
Topics include:
Knowing and attracting your market
- Designing and conducting a comprehensive needs assessment process
- Reviewing community demographic profiles
- Developing a marketing and promotional plan
Determining and planning your services and supports
- Identifying and successfully handling trends
- Scheduling for diverse users and program balance
- Unique off season use strategies
- Positioning your services for support within your organization and your community
- Developing effective staff recruitment, training and retention strategies
Building Continuous Quality Assurance into every process
- Designing and administering service evaluation processes
- Building a quality-focused staff team
- Quality in facility management
- Quality customer service
The new Private Investigators and Security Guards Act of Ontario was proclaimed on August 23rd, 2007, along with eleven new regulations. This new legislation impacts recreation facility staff (full, part-time and casual employees) tasked with security duties as part of their job. The legislation also has an impact on Special Occasion Permits and licensed events held on recreation facility properties. This course will cover risk management and risk assessments of staff and circumstances, the Liquor Licence Act and provisions for providing security service to ensure the integrity of the license and safety of all those in attendance not only at the event, but who could reasonably be expected to be on your premise at the time for any reason.
Topics include:
Part 1 - Preventing Escalations and Violence
- Advanced communication skills: active listening and gaining insight into understanding the situation
- Avoiding misunderstandings that can lead to escalations
- Barriers and solutions to effective communications, while dealing with difficult people, and managing public perceptions of violence within public venues
- Understanding personalities and escalating behaviour; understanding your own personality and those of others in order to avoid escalations
- Managing emotions and emotional people under stressful situations. Why do smart people say or do dumb things under stress? What role do high emotions play in dealing with inappropriate or violent behaviour? How to deal with a highly emotional person when safety is at risk?
- Learn the links between personalities, emotions and communications and the role these all play in recognizing potential violence before it occurs.
Part 2 - Dealing With Incidents in Various Stages of Development
- Situational awareness and personal safety including being aware of your surroundings, the environment and the people in it, as well as unintentional risks to personal safety such as dealing with numerous people, low lighting, ice surfaces, and inclined floors
- Dealing with difficult people - looking for non-verbal clues to escalations and identifying pre-violence cues of individuals under stressful circumstance
- Dealing with mentally ill persons, criminal activity such as vandalism, theft, assaults and threatening incidents. What the law says you can and can not do. How do facility policies integrate with legislation
Part 3 - Decision Making Simulation Exercise
- Physical skills - learn how and where to stand and maneuver in close quarters and why - learn how to avoid being pushed down stairs, maintain your footing during interventions, and disengage situations without leaving yourself vulnerable
- Disengagement and releases from common grabs, pokes, pushes and assaults
- Learn safe camera and witness-friendly techniques for disengaging from violent people and escalated situations
- Advanced techniques for interventions and post intervention control for more serious circumstances
Today’s recreation workers must have a clear understanding of current law and regulations, legal expectations and limitations within the context of a recreation environment. This course is intended for recreation staff responsible for the daily maintenance, operation and management of recreation programs and facilities. It will provide participants with an overview of the myriad of laws, regulations, codes and the moral and ethical expectations of the public, and provincial and federal regulatory agencies. We will examine the case study of the mythical town of Any Where, Ontario, how it operates and how it deals with its many problems. Participants will develop solutions and recommendations to reduce this small town’s risk of liability. We will use role playing, group work, mock council, mock trials and engaging discourse to raise awareness of our role in reducing our employer’s exposure to liability.
The ability to motivate and manage people in an increasingly complex and ever-changing workplace is a major challenge facing supervisors and managers today. In addition to managing resources effectively and efficiently while achieving quality results, management personnel are also expected to be leaders with vision and the ability to create a work environment where employees can thrive and succeed. Today’s multi-generational workforce also presents challenges for motivation and retention. This course is designed for supervisors and managers who would like to learn about the people management process and its application in the recreation facility environment.
Topics include:
- The Role of the Manager: expectations and responsibilities
- Changing Trends in the Workplace: changing expectations of leaders and employees, employee involvement and empowerment, the multi-generational workforce
- Leadership Skills: what is leadership, encouraging and discouraging leadership traits, leadership styles and their impact on employees
- Motivation: Factors which influence performance, setting performance expectations, providing feedback, recognizing good performance
- Coaching and Counselling: coaching employees, dealing with employee performance problems, counselling for improved performance
- Communication Skills: elements of effective communication, barriers to communication, effective listening skills
- Performance Appraisals: as an effective feedback and motivation tool, conducting a performance appraisal interview
Recreation organizations are finding themselves in constant transition, facing change and challenges, which, at times, may seem insurmountable. Proven methods of operation are rapidly becoming outdated. Recreation providers are being called upon to demonstrate “leading-edge” thinking in the planning and provision of services. Success lies ahead for those who can embrace change as an opportunity to meet customer needs, deal with competition, embrace technology and champion the political agendas of the day. In this fast paced, quality driven age, facilitators will be expected to provide nothing less than the most efficient and effective operation of recreation facilities programs and services.
This course will provide an advanced level of development for recreation practitioners who want to take charge of their futures and the future success of their organization. The program places emphasis on contemporary techniques, proven business principles and innovative approaches to assist practitioners in developing ways of achieving maximum results in the administration of their organization.
Participants completing this course will have developed a thorough understanding of these administrative principles and their application in the administrative co-ordination of a multi service recreation organization.
Topics include:
- The changing workplace
- Demographic impacts
- Political relations; human resource management
- Policy development and administration
- Promotion and public relations
- Marketing of services
- Financial administration; business planning
- Maintenance management and cost allocation systems
- Life cycle management
- New municipal performance measures program
- Organizational development and quality service programs.
This course will focus on the typical recreation facility development process, and on an alternate business sustainable approach. This course will utilize project management methods in which the participant will acquire the skills and tools to manage the entire recreation facility development process from pre-construction to the commissioning of the facility. This course will be of interest to any individual who will be involved in a recreation facility infrastructure project, new or retrofit, and seeking capital funding from government agencies.
Topics include:
Part 1 - The Business of Recreation Facilities
Background
- Recreation Facility – Community Benefits
- History and evolution of recreation facility development
- The state of our aging recreation facility infrastructure
Business Approach to a Sustainable Recreation Facility
- Defining sustainability, what type of facilities can be sustainable
- Alternate approaches for sustainability
- Renewing your aging infrastructure
- Business plan for sustainability
- Maximizing revenue potential
- Establishing user rates and fees
Part 2 – The Project Plan
- Options available to deliver projects:
- Design-Bid-Build – The traditional way
- Design-Build
- Construction Management
- Pros and cons of all methods
- Early initiation and feasibility - How critical and why it should never be skipped
- Due Diligence: Minimizing future surprises
- Managing stakeholders’ expectations
- Selection of your consultant and contractor in the traditional design-bid-build format
- Selection of your design builder
- Selection of your construction manager
- Energy management considerations including LEED certification
- Project controls in preconstruction
- Project risks: What are they and how do you mitigate them
Part 3 – The Project Delivery
- Required phases
- Cost estimating and scope of work control during design
- Procurement cycles
- Stakeholders’ communications
Part 4 – Post Construction
- Project close out procedures
- Commissioning
- Warranties
- Operational considerations
Designing, developing and delivering an event, whether in a facility or in the broader community, requires skill and knowledge to not only ensure a successful outcome that delights the attendees but that the event is delivered within set standards and regulations to minimize liability concerns. This course provides an operational framework consisting of six key components critical to staging any event.
Topics include:
Introduction to Events
- Purpose and value of events
- Ethics, core values, customer service and code of conduct
- Industry trends and issues
- Professional development resources
- Organizational and time management skills
- Stress management
Program Development
- Identifying your market, market research, trends and social issues
- Development of event principles, purpose, goals, objectives and timelines
- Identification of standards, policies and regulations that could impact your activities
- Community networks
- Risk management
- Program and facility interaction
- Contingency planning
Marketing and Promotions
- Use of media and resources
- Development of a marketing and communication plan
- Public relations strategies, media kit development, networks of key partners
Volunteer Management
- Determining the need and use of volunteers
- Developing a volunteer recruiting, selection, orientation training and management program
- Effective leadership to manage volunteers in a union/management environment
- Customer service for internal and external customers
- Writing position descriptions and standard operating procedures
- Human rights issues
Sponsorship and Fundraising
- Defining available opportunities
- Profiling your event
- Potential sponsorship opportunities
- Tracking success
- Benefits
- Sources
- The proposal
- Follow up
Project Management
- Defining project management
- How to assemble your project team
- Effective project leadership
- Budgeting, scheduling and monitoring progress
- Software and other technology
- Risk management
- Motivational skills
- Final evaluation
Sponsorship and Fundraising
- Ideas on how to develop a sponsorship package
- How to attract a sponsor for your event
- How to enhance your program using sponsorship
Event Ideas
- Sharing event ideas for different markets
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