LEI 3400 Exam 2 Review
ABCD Elements of Writing Objectives
- A = Audience - The AUDIENCE identifies who is doing the action (behavior) described in the objective. - B = Behavior - The BEHAVIOR is the action the audience must do (verb in the sentence), and it is required in a behavioral objective. - There should be only ONE verb or behavior in each objective (otherwise the objective is extremely difficult to measure). - C = Condition - A CONDITION helps to describe the behavior in specific terms. Anything that serves to further identify the behavior in the objective is considered a condition. - A condition can be recognized by the way it describes HOW or WHEN an action is to be accomplished. - D = DEGREE - The degree in an objective describes HOW WELL the behavior will be accomplished.
Program Areas
- Adventure Education; Aquatics; Arts & Crafts; Cognitive & Literary; Dance; Drama; Environmental Activities; Extreme Sports; Fitness/Wellness; Hobbies; Music; Self-Improvement; Service/Volunteer Opportunities; Social Recreation; Sports & Games; Trips/Tourism.
Assistive Technology (AT)
- Aids in the full inclusion of people with disabilities into all aspects of a program; Modifications to equipment, supplies, devices, matched to functional abilities/strengths of individual.
Negligence in 2 Ways
- An act that results in personal injury to another person or property; A person was careless in the course of doing his/her duties resulting in injury to another party.
Budgets
- An estimated plan for keeping expenses in line with income. Where you balance costs and revenues.
Blind Spots
- Are sensory "lock outs" of our environment caused by conditioning or prior expectations.
Life Stages and Age Groups
- Behavior results from human attributes: Physical Development, Cognitive, Socioemotional. - Predicting specific individual behaviors based on age group or life stage is not possible.
ADA Amendment (ADAAA) 2009
- Broadens the definition of disability and clarifies language subject to interpretation.
Program Formats
- Competition, Drop-In, Special Events, Clubs, Instructional, Trips, Outreach, Service Opportunities.
Staffing
- Comprehensive task including: recruiting, selecting, training, supervising, evaluating, and compensating.
Secondary Dimensions
- Education - Military Status - Marital Status - Income - Occupation - Religion - Geographic Location
Step 6: Examine Alternative Funding (Beyond Fees & Charges)
- Gifts and Donations - Grant Writing - In-Kind Contributions - Partnerships - Scrounging - Sponsorships - Volunteers
CPR...
- Creativity, Passion, and Research (CPR) are intertwined and are responsible for breathing life into programs.
Scheduling
- Customer convenience; Packaging or bundling services; Best use of areas, facilities, and equipment.
Step 1: Understand Budget Trends
- Decrease in Tax Support: - Doing more with less; Lack of resources large constraint; Decreases in tax revenues & grant-in-aid; Less support in state/federal aid & grants. - Increase Role of Contracting Services: Services contracted to private sector; Maintenance, Programs/Events, Concessions. - Expanded Definition of "Cost": Economic/Environmental (green)/Social (accessible); Challenge to articulate the true costs. - Risk Management: Rising cost of lawsuits - Enticement to file; Liability Insurance -Built into the price we pay. - Economic Impacts: Conducting Studies/Collecting Data on the positive economic impact of event and facilities to obtain/maintain financial support - Direct Impact- Amount spent by visitors/participants on local goods/services; Indirect Impact-Ripple of effect of re-circulating visitor/participant spending throughout the community; Induced Impact-Proportion of household income spent locally for goods/services. - Increased Competition: Keeps Prices low/Quality high-Partnerships.
Step 5: Consider Differential Pricing (Identify the Appropriateness of Differential Opportunities)
- Differentials Pricing Based On... - Participants - Products - Place - Time - Quantity - As Incentives
Fixed Costs
- Direct Service Providers (Program Leaders and Instructors). - Assumed to remain constant over a specific period of time regardless of number of participants - (Ex. Rental fees).
Program Audit Provides...
- Direction and balance for program offerings. - Offerings fit vision, mission, philosophy. - Adequate support systems exist. - Participant demands addressed. - Fit existing schedule. - Meet needs of the underserved. - Helps to fill specific program needs rather than over program in one area.
Creative Thoughts Divided Into...
- Divergent Reasoning: Intellectual ability to think of many original, diverse, and elaborate ideas. - Convergent Reasoning: Intellectual ability to logically evaluate, critique, and choose the best idea from a selection of ideas. - Both divergent reasoning and convergent reasoning abilities are required for creative output.
Risk Management
- Embracing the full duality of risk, both its potential for loss and for adventure; Manage risk to maintain high quality programs. - Programmers, supervisors, insurance agents are responsible to participants and need to be concerned with injuries that may occur when exposed to risk. - Programmers cannot take all risk out of programs will destroy experience. - Programmers must inform participants of potential risk and level of challenge involved.
Indirect Costs Allocation Methods
- Equal Share of Indirect Expenses: Each program is charged with an equal share of indirect expenses. - Percentage of Budget: Each line item is assigned a percentage of indirect expenses that equals its percentage of the overall budget of the agency. - Time Budget Study: The time a service unit spends on each program is studied. The percentage of time is used to allocate indirect expenses. - Space or Measurement Studies: Measures the relative proportion of overall costs that are being used by each program.
Creativity is needed in all aspects of programming and decisions regarding program areas and program formats.
- Equipment (permanent and reusable) VS. Supplies (material consumed/not reusable).
Revenues = Income
- Examples: Taxes, Fees & Charges, Grants, Sponsorships, etc. - Deficit: When Expenditures are larger than Revenues. - Profit: When Revenues are larger than Expenditures. - Pricing: Fees & Charges.
Objectives
- Go hand-in-hand with goals - Prior to writing objectives, one must know the goal for which one is striving. - Objectives are the steps to achieving goals: Objectives are used to serve as guideposts to measure whether or not an individual can do something (named in the objective); Objectives must be SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, and MEANINGFUL. - Types of Objectives: Cognitive -Thinking; Behavioral -Physical; Affective -Feelings/Emotions. - Way to Remember Objectives-SMART: (S=Specific, M=Measurable, A= Achievable, R=Realistic, T=Trackable)
Goals
- Goals are broad based statements of intent. - Types of Goals: Program goals; Societal -Ideals of Community; Agency - Mission; Leader -Agency/Personal; Participant.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - 1990 Civil Rights Law
- Illegal to discriminate based on disability. - Must make reasonable accommodations. - Provide services and programs with most interaction possible. - Separate is not equal. - Cannot charge extra fees to those with disabilities.
Risk Management Plan
- Includes: - Proper activity selection - Solid knowledge of activity - Appropriate staff and supervision -Training - Facility/Equipment checks - Pre program safety checks - Forms and Documentation
Step 3: Calculate Overall Costs - Indirect Costs
- Incurred regardless whether or not the program is offered.
Program Life Cycle
- Introduction; Take-off stage; Saturation; Period of decline or extension (reinvention).
R = Research
- Is a diligent, careful, and exhaustive inquiry into a subject; All avenues of gaining knowledge and gathering resources should be utilized; Being open to unique viewpoints - Seeking information from outside the discipline. - Research: Adapting Resources - Research: Exploring People - Research: The Profession - Research: Written Materials - Research: Various Media - The greatest resource inherent to all organizations is the creativity and passion of its staff.
Types of Budgets Used
- Line-Item Budgeting: Often used in government - Organizes expenditures into specific categories/accounts. Appropriates specific dollar amounts to each item of expenditures listed in the budget. Limited to spending only the dollar amount budgeted on the line account. - Program Budget: Expenditures for specific programs. Links spending directly to planned activity. Focus is on values of programs rather than just costs. Limited cost detail. - Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems (PPBS): Similar to Management by Objectives - Performance-based focuses on the establishment of goals and objectives, long-range planning, and evaluation. A programmer identifies goals & objectives and relates programs/services to the established goals. Examines costs, alternative options to determine which programs/services meet the goals. - Zero-Based Budget: (old way-increase budgets slightly each year) ZBB - A comprehensive and evaluation and justification of all programs is carried out each year. Programmer builds their budget from zero.
Budgeting Challenges
- Maintain the balance between customer demands for programs and the organization's ability to deliver programs. - Ensuring access to people of all income levels. - Price programs in a fair and competitive manner.
Step 9: Understand Price Revision Decisions
- Most Cases "Revised" Means "Increased": Solicit participant input; Price Revision Analysis. - Tolerance Zone: Small increases would not have client resistance. - Customer Adjustment Period: - After a price increase - Demand decrease - Adjust. - Change Perceived Value of Service: Raise perceived quality at time of raising prices. - Anchor Pricing: Assess the new price to be sure is falls between the existing high and low prices (Most noticeable to clients).
Amount of Subsidy Applied to a Program
- No Cost Recovery: Free to participants; Secure alternative sources of funding (grants, sponsorships, etc.) . - Variable Cost Recovery: Priced to cover the direct operating costs only; Indirect costs are covered by other funding sources. - Partial Cost Recovery: Priced to cover all direct operating costs and a share of indirect costs; Other funding sources cover the balance. - Full Cost Recovery: Priced to cover all direct and indirect costs; Revenue/Fees & Charges cover the costs. - Revenue Production is the primary objective of pricing, yet pricing strategies may also be used in other ways.
Steps to Improving Creativity
- Play more. - Create your own creative space. - Keep a journal of ideas, sketches, and thoughts. - Develop outside interests.
Policies, Procedures, and Rules are the boundaries within which programs are developed and implemented.
- Policies: Flow from mission, philosophy, goals/objectives; Gives direction to the operation of an agency; Directs the behavior and actions of employees so actions are consistent; Tend to be broad in scope and application; Often times involve the entire organization (Ex. Dress Code, Leave). - Procedures: Specific actions or approved steps required to carry out the policies; Tend to be applied to departmental or interdepartmental activities (Ex.-Customer registration, staff hiring, fees and charges, etc). - Rules: Narrowest boundaries, deal with specific activities and behaviors; Guides the behaviors of individual staff and participants during programs/events. - Rules: Rules should have reason, be equitable, define responsible behaviors, be appropriate for participants; Rules must be enforceable and clear and succinct; State rules in positive terms; Have only a few rules.
Developmental Assets
- Positive building blocks for youth development; Helps to refocus one's perspective from negative/limiting to positive/ strengthening; when assets present youth less likely to be at risk. - Average young person has 18-40 assets; as young people age they lose developmental assets. - The more developmental assets a person has the more resilient they are and the more positive behavior they exhibit.
Amount of Subsidy Based on 3 Categories of Services Provided
- Private Services: Benefit those who use the service (Fitness Class); Individual Users Pay Full Costs. - Merit Services: Tremendous societal good (Youth Programs); Participants/Users Pay Partial Costs. - Public Services: Benefit the local community (Municipal Parks); Services cannot be priced; Participants/Users Pay No User Charges - Paid through tax system.
Program Design Factors to Consider
- Program Areas; Program Formats; Equipment & Supplies; Physical Environments; Budget; Policies, Procedures, and Rules; Risk Management; Staffing; Program Goals & Objectives; Writing Objectives; Scheduling; Program Life Cycle.
Program Audit
- Program Design begins and ends with a Program Audit of the organization's existing programs and services. - A Program Audit examines all the individual factors of programs and asks where the new or adapted program will fit into the overall program mix of the organization.
5 Primary Dimensions of Diversity
- Sex & Gender - Ethnicity & Race - Sexual Orientation - Age - Physical and Cognitive Abilities/Qualities: 19.3% of US citizens ages 5 & Older have at least one disability
Step 4: Determine Cost Recovery - (Identify Pricing Objectives) - REAL COSTS (Indirect and Direct)
- Subsidized: Some/all costs are covered by other means - Example: Taxes. - Pricing Objectives: Reflected in Agency's Philosophy.
Creative Blocks
- The Right Answer: Ingrained in our heads-Relearn. - Be Practical: Ask "What if" questions. - Avoid Ambiguity: What else might something be. - To Err Is Wrong: Use an err as a stepping stone to a new idea - Strengthen and use your "risk muscle." - Play is Frivolous: It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about important things. - That's Not My Area: Look for ideas to be discovered. - Don't Be Foolish: Who is to say what is right and what is foolish? - I'm Not Creative: Self-fulfilling prophecy - Believe.
C = Creativity
- The ability to make something out of nothing; Using something in a new or innovative way; Seeing opportunities in problems/unique situations; Interaction between an individual and the environment - including other people. - 5 Steps to Creative Thinking: - Preparation: Becoming immersed in problematic issues/curiosity. - Incubation: Ideas churn around below the threshold of consciousness. - Insight: "Aha" moment when the puzzle starts to fall together. - Evaluation: Deciding if the insight is valuable and worth pursuing. - Elaboration: Translating the insight into its final work and working out the details.
Step 2: Understand Budgets - Functions of a Budget
- To forecast and plan; To establish and communicate priorities; To allocate resources; Opportunity to build consensus; Historical record of past priorities; To commit to a course of action; To serve as a reference point; To serve as a monitoring/control system for expenditures (Program/Audit); To translate programs to reality.
Direct Costs
- Traced directly to a specific program only when program is implemented. - Direct Costs: Includes Both Fixed and Variable Costs.
Program Classifications
- Type of activity; Age; Sex; Participant Involvement (passive or active); Indoor/Outdoor; Season of the Year; Skill level; Facility or Setting; Cost; Goal Structure - Outcomes.
P = Passion
- Unfailing dedication to an ideal; Dramatic, powerful, emotional; Demonstrated by intensity and duration-long term commitment; Involves commitment to research-continuing education; Integral to creativity.
Variable Costs
- Vary proportionately with changes in volume - Supplies, equipment, food, manuals, t-shirts, etc.
Enhancing Creative Techniques
-Brainstorming/Brain writing: Divergent thinking; people in groups generate ideas while withholding judgment; Generates large number and higher quality ideas. - Discontinuity: More familiar we are with something the less stimulating it is for our thinking; to enhance our creativity we need to insert interruptions into our day. - Mental Imagery and Visualization: Visualizing an event or program as one would expect it to unfold and then identifying the necessary steps to making all those elements happen. - Unconscious problem solving: Relies on the unconscious mind to continually process the various sensory inputs stored in our short-term and long-term memory; Saturate oneself in a problem and then take a break. - Forced Analogy: Compare a problem with something else that has little or nothing in common to gain new insights.
Expenditures = Costs
-Staffing, Supplies, Equipment, Contractual Services, Facility Rentals, Insurance, etc.
Four Elements (Must be present for Negligence to exist):
1. Duty: Obligation one person owes to another individual based on a legal relationship between each person. 2. An Act or Standard of Care: Actions or Omissions of a person in light of duty owed to participant. 3. Proximate Cause: Injury was the direct result of the action . 4. Injury/Damage: Actual injury to a person or damage to physical property. - To provide high-quality programs and minimize risks, the area in which parks, recreation, and leisure professionals should focus on throughout the programming process is on the act/standard of care.
Manage Risk in Four Ways
1.Eliminating the risk (Choose not to offer program). 2.Accepting the inherent risk. 3.Transferring the risk (Through Insurance-Negligent lawsuit). 4.Reducing the risk (Limits negative risks inherent in an activity).