Monday was Hump-day!

I am pleased to announce that on Monday around 1:30pm, I passed the halfway point of my internship.  Time flies when you're having fun, right!  When I get back from spring break, I'll be plowing head first into preparing a promotional packet to try to sell advertising space on the wristbands distributed to swimmers over the summer.  With the budget cuts, everyone's trying to think of creative ways to generate funds.  Selling ad space around the center is definitely a hot topic.  I'll get to work with various managers and marketing people in Glendale P & R to learn how to put this project together and hopefully score a customer before the end of my internship!  We'll see!!!!

The Weinermobile strikes again!

Glendale Parks and Rec does the Touch a Truck event annually.  This is a pretty cool event!!  For a few hours on a Saturday, a bunch of big trucks go to Glendale Community College parking lot.  There was a wide variety of trucks like fire trucks, tow trucks, UPS truck, police cars, various city maintenance trucks, and even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!  Guests can sit in the trucks and, of course, honk the horns.  (I wasn't prepared for all of the honking!  4 long hours of honking.  Whao.)  The best part about the event was that it was free of charge!  It was a beautiful day and lots of people made it out for this unique event.  

I was pleased to get to help set up and clean up as well as work while the event was happening.  I think it's interesting to see events liked this come together and then get put away like it never even happened!  I especially like to see how people work together to accomplish a common goal.  Never ceases to amaze me!   And, I got a little bit of a sunburn!  Nothing like getting started on the summer tan in February!  

Road Trip!

This past week I got to go on a (short) road trip to Glendale City Hall to observe a budget meeting with the Parks and Rec Deputy Directory.  And actually, the Director of Parks and Rec was in attendance to share what she knew about budget cuts and the new voluntary furlough program implemented by the City Manager.  The meeting was short and somewhat informative.  Mostly the word was, 'when we know something new, we'll tell you.'  

So it is what it is I suppose.  But I continue to be disappointed to be in the pinch of budget cuts causing much of the focus to be on how to squeeze more money out of participants rather than creating and continuing excellent programming.  I'm really not trying to critized, because without cuts and increased fees, NO programming will exist.  And it's not just at my facility, but all over.  And it certainly isn't just a Parks and Recs issue.  It's everywhere.  Everyone is struggling.

So enough about the budget and back to the road trip.  It was fun to ride along with the gang.  They are fun and I enjoy being around them.  We laughed quite a bit and they continue to take advantage of 'teachable moments' with me and are great about sharing the history of different policies and activities.  I feel blessed to get to be part of their team for a while.      

Ugg...

I can't lie.  I'm worn out and it's not even Monday yet! Internship, classes, family visiting last weekend, and church camp this weekend has wiped me out and occupied much of the time I would like to be sleeping or doing homework.  But, that's life, right!  Roll with it and make the best of what I've got.  I'm on it.  Hope you all have a great week!     

Customer Service

As some of you know, Glendale Parks and Rec is working toward its accreditation.  I don't know all of the details, but from what I've heard and seen, the accreditation process is extremely detailed and very labor intensive.  It seems like nearly every employee is involved in the process in some way. This cool because people from different departments are collaborating to accomplish one big goal.  When they get their accreditation, everyone should feel a great sense of accomplishment.  If it weren't for the massive budget cuts, I'm sure they'd throw a big party! 

Personally, I have not been nor will I be officially assigned to any of the accreditation working groups.  However, I have been attending the Customer Service group with one of my supervisors, Jackie. This group consists of people from several different areas of Glendale P&R.  They are working to create customer service policies, guidelines, and training materials about the importance of maintaining a very high standard of customer service.  It's great to see each of them contributing their ideas and offering to use their individual abilities and experiences to help the group achieve its goals.  

I have been able to contribute by looking up YouTube videos.  The idea is to embed some fun customer service clips into the training video to help make it more interesting for viewers.  I found a couple of good ones.  I attached two to this blog for your viewing pleasure.  :)  I was also assigned to help write the script for one of the 7 main training points.  I finished my assignments today and turned them in to Jackie.  I'm sure we'll do quite a bit of revising before we submit the final product, but I feel confident it's going to be great! 

So that's it.  GO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

Videos:  One is good service and the other is not-so-good service.  You be the judge!

What in the world is 'lapidary'?

Everyday, there's something new happening at the Rec Center.  Of course there are the same ol' day to day things like keeping the place tidy and running short errands here and there.  However, I'm confident that I have learned or experienced something new every day of my internship so far.  I suppose this is pretty much the point of an internship so I shouldn't be surprised, but it's still fascinating to me.  Even the simple, little things are fun, new adventures.  For instance, today I learned how to transfer calls.  So simple and yet so helpful! It's a little thing that helps me have more confidence when doing my job.  

I also got to take a field trip to the Glendale Adult Center.  This, as the name implies, is a recreation center for adults.  I went with Lori, who works in my facility, but organizes all Special Interest Classes for the entire City of Glendale Parks & Rec Department.  She had to check on some things at the Adult Center and invited my to tag along.  She introduced me to several people and took me on a tour of the facility.  It was crazy!  There were so many people just hanging out playing cards, shooting pool, playing shuffleboard, chillin' in the computer lab, and even practicing dance.  I never would have thought there would be so many people there.  And then...we went into the Lapidary room.  I'm pretty sure I had never even hear the word 'lapidary' before today, but one of the lead guys explained that lapidary is all about engraving and cutting gems.  They take glass and rough gems and turn them into pretty, shiny stones for jewelry and other things.  It's really amazing!  I think it would be so great to get to take the time to make a ring or something someday.  We'll see.  

And, while learning new words and how to transfer calls was great, I think the best thing I took home from this day was a first-hand observation of the importance of recreation facilities.  It really was great to see so many people utilizing the Adult Center.  There were so many smiles and so much laughter around me when I was there.  I don't intend to make assumptions about the lives of the people who were there, but I can't help but to think that their lives are enhanced by their participation in recreation activities.  It's great for people to have a place to go to socialize, challenge their skills and knowledge, and learn new things.  I close with sad thoughts of how our poor economy threatens such facilities and organizations.  I hate to think about those people not having such a special place to go.     

I Love Guts!

Ok, so yesterday was a great day on the job.  It may sound a little shady, but honestly, the best part of the day was getting to see the 'guts' of the building.  I love big pieces of equipment and learning how they work so, when I'm in the presence of cable TV, I thoroughly enjoy shows like How It's Made on the Discovery Channel and Modern Marvels on the History Channel. Unfortunately, I'm too cheap to pay for cable so I don't get to seem them much. However, I digress.  Getting to see the heavy duty equipment that keeps the facility going was fun.  They have very large evap coolers, which provide the pleasantly cool temperature in the building.  I also got to see the big water heaters.  I learned that the Center has a separate water heater for the Teaching Kitchen because the water needs to be set at 140 degrees for sanitation reasons. This is a little toasty for folks taking showers so the water heaters supplying water to locker rooms and restrooms are set at a lower temperature.  

Foothills also has a heated lap pool outside.  The water for the pool passes through a large boiler and is sent back to the pool to keep the pool at a comfortable temperature so guests may swim all year long.  The crummy thing about the heated pool is the gas used to operate the boiler costs thousands of dollars each month through the fall, winter, and spring.  In an effort to reduce this cost, the Center purchased a (very expensive) pool cover to help keep the heat in.  Just yesterday, the staff was discussing how the pool cover has saved the Center so much money, it's already paid for itself and more.  Whoever came up with that idea ought to get a big pat on the back!

Finally, though it has nothing to do with 'guts', my other favorite thing about yesterday was that I got to give tours to people interested in learning about the Center.  I really enjoy giving tours.  I like to meet new people, find out what they're interested in, and give them great customer service.   The entire staff shares the responsibility of giving tours and I have already been on a tour with nearly every full-time staff member.  Each adds a personal touch and does their best to promote the facility.  I will be happy to continue contributing by helping with tours, too.  

I did many other wonderful things yesterday, but I suppose I'll save them for another blog.  :)