You Tarzan, Me Beehiver

TRENDS ARE EVERYWHERE!

Some of the trends that these cultural forecasters have identified have implications for parks and recreation, such as;

Beehiving—The growing tendency to form new and small groups that share common interests, values or activities.

Altered States—The pursuit of fantasy and escape as a means for relieving stress and just getting away from it all.

Tarzaning—The desire to get back to the jungle and/or nature including the popularity of hiking boots and sports utility vehicles.

Merit Badges—The trend towards collecting experiences rather than possessions, particularly apparent as baby boomers move into a new life stage.

Personal Best—The inner need being evidenced by Americans to seek self-fulfillment through volunteer work, lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Joie de Vivre—Americans are becoming enraptured with the long-held French pursuit of the "joys of life." Expenditures on music, books, sensual products, art and little luxuries reinforce the reality of this trend.

(Source: Abrahamson, Vickie; Meehan, Mary; and Samuel, Larry. The Future Ain't What It Used To Be: The 40 Cultural trends Transformim Your Job, Your Life, Your World. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.)

GEN XERS GROW UP

Who are they?
Generation X is a term taken from a Douglas Copeland novel that refers to people currently in their 20s and early 30s. They are known by a variety of terms and those terms help us to understand more about them. They are sometimes called:

The Boomerang Generation which refers to the way in which they seem to start and stop life pursuits. They start school and then drop out. They get a job and then quit. They get married and then return home.

20 Somethings is another name for this group and it reflects their tendency to not reach specific life mileposts at previously accepted ages. Many of them take longer to graduate from college, move out of the house or get married.

Baby Busters is another term for this group since they are fewer in number than either the baby boomers or the echo boomers that follow on either side of them. This works both for and against them. They tend to be overlooked politically because their numbers are small but they are highly recruited in the workplace due to these same small numbers.

YIFFIES is the Gen X version of YUPPIE. Coined by a Fortune magazine cover story, it describes this cohort group as young, individualistic, freedom-minded and few.

What do we know about them?
• They grew up in contradictory times. They knew peace and prosperity as children and then came of age during a recession and Desert Storm. They grew up in the shadow of the Cold War and then witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR. They were the final real latchkey generation growing up quite independently but now appear reluctant or indifferent to move towards greater independence.

• Having survived the break up of the nuclear family and witnessed downsizing in the corporate world, they tend to value family stability and independent or entrepreneurial career options.

• They like the 3 F's: food, fun and friends.

• They were raised on technology. They witnessed the Challenger disaster on television in school and watched the high-tech warfare of Desert Storm on prime time. They represent the beginning of the global village that is connected to one another through e-mail and the Internet.

40 | Illinois Parks and Recreation

PATTERNS & PREFERENCES

A University of Michigan study conducted by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association found that one in ten American households owned a recreational vehicle in 1997, the highest level of ownership in the past 20 years. The profile of a typical RV owner is a 48-year-old, married individual with an income of $47,000.

In terms of participation numbers, bowling hits a strike while baseball strikes out. According to American Sports Data, approximately 53 million Americans went bowling in 1997 making it one of the most popular sports in the country. As bowling makes a big comeback, America's pastime— baseball—is taking a small but steady slide in numbers of participants and equipment expenditures.

The 1997 Gallup Youth Survey found that most popular afterschool activities for youth ages 13 to 17 were spending time with friends (85%); watching television at home (76%); playing an organized sport (64%); working for someone other than a parent (43%); working with their parents (37%); and taking music, dance, drama or art lessons (36%). (American Demographics, July 1998) ž

ELLEN O'SULLIVAN, Ph.D., CLP
is the president of Leisure Lifestyle Consulting of Glastonbury, Conn., specializing in support for the service industry in reaching and retaining customers through leisure experiences and lifestyle connections. Comments or suggestions about the column can be made by contacting her at 830.633.3652 or ellenosull@aol.com.

TREND WATCHING Yogi Berra, that great American ballplayer and sage, once said: "You can observe a lot by just watching." Why not set aside the next two weeks and ask Staff to use some of the observation methods employed by the Iconclast folks and intentionally watch what's happening around your community. Then have them come back to share observations and identify possible implications for parks and recreation.