BOARDMANSHIP...        The Spirit of Cooperation By Dr. Ted Flickinger, CAE IAPD Executive Director and Managing Editor

A district well structured, but lacking in spirit of cooperation, dedication to purpose and citizen involvement, will bog down and lose public support.

The elements of spirit, morale, or esprit de corps don't occur by accident. The executive and board must develop these elements. Loyalty, reliability, responsibility, support and performance of board members are dependent upon the spirit developed within each board member.

Among the most important conditions in developing a cooperative spirit among board members are the following elements.

Unifying purpose
For the board to work harmoniously and effectively, there must be a clear and accepted purpose. The executive and board must agree to the purpose of the agency, and then continue to call attention to, and show evidence for which the agency exists, how purposes are achieved, and the worth of the effort. Their purpose should recognize that an investment in parks and recreation is an investment in life and our environment. The board, executive, and agency staff working together must continuously make a case for parks and recreation in the ever competing battle for public funds.

Creating a willingness to contribute and support parks and recreation
A positive attitude must be engendered in the community. The board itself, by the quality of its own cooperative attitudes, its image in the community, its behavior, all set the tone. The board must make every effort to develop generous, appreciative attitudes toward individuals, organizations and community groups. The spirit of cooperation should prevail. Vindictiveness, pettiness, prejudice to other groups, or indifference to others should never be tolerated on a park and recreation board.

Camaraderie
For a park and recreation board to develop a spirit of cooperation, there must be a commitment by all board members to respect the worth of his fellow board members. Board members must feel they are doing a worthwhile job. They must obtain rewards of personal growth, prestige, pride in doing a good job, and patriotic feelings. Failing to recognize and commend efforts and talents can decrease the satisfaction and diminish the spirit of board members.

Cyril 0. Houle recognized in a pamphlet titled, The Effective Board, a variety of qualities that are present in boards which have an effective group spirit.

- Every board member accepts every other board member with a due appreciation of his strengths and a tolerance of his quirks and weaknesses.

- There is an easy familiarity of approach among the members of the board with an awareness of one another's backgrounds and viewpoints.

- Everyone concerned with a particular decision actually helps to make it - The contribution of each person or group is recognized.

- The board has a sense of being rooted in some important tradition and of providing continuity for a program which has been and continues to be of importance. - The whole attitude of the board is forward-looking, and there is a confident expectation of growth and development in the program.

Illinois Parks and Recreation ¦ 6 September/October 1991

- There is a clear definition of responsibilities so that each person knows what is expected of him or her.

- The members of the board can communicate easily with one another.

- There is a sense that the whole board is more important than any of its parts.

- There is a capacity to resolve dissent and discord, or, if it cannot be resolved, to keep it in perspective in terms of larger purposes.

- There is acceptance of and conformity to a code of behavior, usually involving courtesy, self-discipline, and responsibility.

- There is an awareness of the fact that all boards contain clusters or pairs of persons who tend to like or dislike one another, as well as some who may not be closely involved with others; but there is also a capacity to use these personal relationships as effectively as possible to achieve the larger purposes of the program.

- There is an ability to recognize and use the informal authority of individual board members which arises not out of their specific assignments on the board but their power, connections, wealth, age, or ability.

- In case of internal conflict, the group has the capacity to examine the situation objectively, identify the sources of difficulty, and remedy them.

- Most important of all, the board members share a clear understanding of and commitment to the cause which the agencyserves.

We have a right to be heard by politicians. If we choose not to use that right, we must then accept the decision that politicians will make on our behalf. We will achieve collective goals to adequately fund park and recreation areas and services not by shunning political action, but by embracing it, by learning it, and by doing it.

A major objective of the IAPD is to focus on our membership's efforts to increase citizen/board member involvement in the political process. Professionals must be the technicians to supply the information and motivate our citizens/board members to carry the park, recreation and conservation banner in the political arena.

There are literally thousands of men and women in communities throughout Illinois serving on park and recreation boards, commissions, councils and committees. Citizen involvement is the foundation of the park and recreation movement. Let us always keep in mind that it is the concerned citizens, not professionals, who can exert the greatest influence in Springfield and the nation's capitol to improve and expand park and recreation areas and services.

Citizens who are not compensated, who serve as volunteers on park and recreation boards, are often viewed by legislators as individuals who do not have a vested interest but instead represent the public's interest. Therefore, part of our mission should be to work more closely with all citizens in Illinois and the 7,000 citizens who are members of the Citizens/Board Members (CMB) branch of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). The CMB branch is second only to the American Park and Recreation Society branch in the number of NRPA members. Our goal is to encourage more and more board members, supported by professionals, to get involved in the legislative political process so our voice will be heard more loudly at our state capitols and in Washington, D.C.

For this to happen, the professionals must supply the documented information that citizens can use to carry the banner and make a strong case for parks and recreation. We can communicate through legislative efforts and a unified public awareness program the values of parks and recreation—that trees beautify our environment, provide shade and oxygen, and help clean the air we breathe ... that recreation does address problems of tension, boredom, and loneliness. But, we can't continue to only refer to recreation in esoteric terms.

Legislators relate to economics, and I think it is high time that we take actions to which they relate. We must show that our park, recreation and conservation agencies are not tax abusers or tax eaters. Recreation is a big business! We must document that for every dollar we take out of a community in taxes, we put at least three times that amount back into the community in jobs, wholesale and retail business, tourism, increased real estate values, taxes on recreational merchandise, as well as many other amenities.

We do have a tremendous effect on the sale of sporting goods and recreational equipment because we are the major suppliers of the areas and facilities where people use such merchandise. Think of the tennis rackets, bats, balls, boats, camping gear, recreational clothing apparel, that are sold by local merchants to citizens who use the areas we administer. Thousands of recreational products are purchased to be used in parks, recreational areas and nature preserves that are under the auspices of our agencies.

Therefore, I am proposing that our mission should also be directed to supplying the research, the necessary documentation that we need to adequate promote public awareness of parks and recreation, and a citizen legislative advocacy program. The growth of parks and recreation depends on making a strong commitment to this mission.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 7 September/October 1991