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The Guiding Light All citizen board members (CBMs) should have a basic goal that guides them in all decisions during their term of office. May we suggest that you set as a goal, "Providing the Best Park and Recreation Services in the USA for Your Residents." Uniess you have a positive attitude, you will just wander from meeting to meeting, lost in details and have a mediocre program and facilities. In providing the best you have fun being a CBM. If it is not fun, tell the appointing authority you wish to step down. Use any excuse you want and let the chair be occu- pied by another resident, and go do some- thing you enjoy. The Group Upstairs You will always be sympathetic towards the person or group who proposed your name for your appointment and to those who voted for you. The best way to reward them is to give them a Park Rec program that they can be proudwaf AND keep them informed of the Board's thinking as a group NOT just your in- dividual thinking. The Park Rec Board exists because the appointing authority cannot devote the time to park and recreation services. So keep the residents off the Mayor's back and give the Mayor something to brag about in the Park Rec program. Remember, he or she is human too. Thou Shall Not Sin The CBM Branch of National Recreation and Park Association prepared a code of ethics some years ago (in fact one of the writers was chairman of the committee). It was approved by CBM from all parts of the U.S. and it is printed on the back of this booklet. When in doubt, at any time, read it and stick to it. It keeps you out of trouble. 8 The Name The original name was PARKS. This brings back memories of trees, grass, picnics, band concerts, sunburns, mosquitoes, and all the other items involved in youth while enjoying a day in a big open space owned by everyone, and called a PARK. The beginning of community recreation acti- vity came on the playgrounds. Steel monsters allowed you to go back and forth, up and down, and slide down from top to bottom. Then people got brave and started sports leagues for children and we had a new municipal agency. This was named the Playground and/or Recreation Commission. It was separate from Parks and conversations were held at arm's length between the leaf rakers and ball bouncers. Quickly however they were combined for efficiency and today both services are pro- vided by the same Park Rec agency. A few communities in the northeastern and north- western part of the U.S. still have separate departments. Types of Park Rec Boards Park Rec services are provided by a Board, a Commission, an Authority, or a Department. The names make sense to the legal and ad- ministrative people who set them up and manage them. The residents are confused by them. We have been told for years that there are 2 basic types: 1. A Policy Board has the authority to make the rules, decide what is to be done, employ the people, in most cases allocate the money, and the primary responsibility to provide Park Rec services to the residents. 2. An Advisory Board gives advice and counsel to the people employed by others to do the work. The advice -and counsel can be taken or ignored depending upon the personalities Involved. Do not expect to find logic in the organi- zation of Park Rec government at the local or county level in the U.S.A. It does not exist.