25 keys to world-class maintenance: a select group of Springfield College Recreation and Tourism students and their professor have identified the 25 keys to world-class maintenance. Managers of Gold Medal departments have utilized these 25 keys to open the doors to award-winning programs and facilities. All great programming begins here - Park Maintenance

Parks & Recreation, Jan, 2002 by Matthew J. Pantera, III

It is a well-known fact that Dr. James Naismith, a Springfield College Professor, invented the game of basketball. It is a little-known fact that Naismith asked a maintenance custodian named "Pop" Stebbins to assist him with developing an indoor sport that presented the challenge and excitement of outdoor sports like rugby and football. One day in December of 1891, Dr. Naismith asked Stebbins to locate a couple of boxes. "Pop" cheerfully complied with Dr. Naismith's request but all he could find were two peach baskets. The result was the first game of basketball being played indoors on December 21, 1891 in Springfield College's Judd Gymnasium.

One hundred ten years later, another Springfield College professor and a select group of graduate and undergraduate students decided to review the 25 keys to world-class maintenance in park and recreation settings across America. This article describes the process this team followed and some of the findings of this nationwide research. This team of students and their professor intended to create a research survey that could annually assist maintenance crews in improving their focus in providing world-class maintenance in support of programs. Before you read on, if you have not completed this survey, you might want to provide your answers to the 25 keys to world-class maintenance so you can compare your score against the scores that the best of the best attained (see page 00). You will learn what keys to excellence Gold Medal departments focus on as they complete the maintenance processes necessary to support their programs.

Twenty-One Keys Become Twenty-Five

Prior to accepting the position as chair of the Department of Recreation & Tourism, Dr. Matthew J. Pantera III led several park and recreation departments that were recognized by the Gold Medal Awards program and NRPA.

Dr. Pantera identified 21 Keys to world-class maintenance based upon his 22 years as a practitioner leading some of America's highest-profile, award-winning communities. Dr. Pantera and the students then circulated a draft of this research instrument to 50 randomly selected directors of parks and recreation. Each of the directors was asked if the 21 keys represented an all-inclusive list. After several revisions the group identified four additional keys to world-class management, bringing the total to 25.

Research Survey Distribution

The survey included several demographic factors in addition to the 25 keys. It was sent to 237 randomly selected municipal park and recreation departments that represented every state in the union. Each site received a survey with a return envelope and the director of each department was asked to complete the instrument. The students also completed follow-up calls and e-mail reminders to respondents with missing information. One hundred ten surveys were sent back to the Department of Recreation & Tourism at Springfield College, of which 92 were complete. The student researchers were ecstatic, as this number represented a survey return-rate of 39%. Twenty-one Gold Medal award-winning departments and 71 non-Gold Medal departments responded. The respondents represented 38 of the 50 states in America.

Noteworthy Demographic Results

The states with the most respondents included Texas with nine and Illinois with eight. States as far away as Alaska and from every time zone responded to the student's requests for participation. The average number of maintenance awards for Gold Medal winners totaled seven while non-Gold Medal winners totaled zero. The profile of the directors' highest level of education was masters' degrees for Gold Medal departments, while non-Gold Medal winners completed on average BS and BA degrees. The gender for both Gold Medal and non-Gold Medal directors was predominantly male. The researchers did collect information on operating and capital budgets, as well as annual gift and donation accounts. However, the survey was constructed in such a way that each respondent was asked to choose a rating according to how often their organization focuses on each concept. The size of budgets proved to be insignificant when the researchers identified significant variables in delineating Gold Medal versus non-Gold Medal maintenance practices. Moreover, both Gold Medal and non-Gold Medal directors believed their maintenance budgets were inadequately funded. Perhaps that fact underscores that no amount of money is adequate. Something can always be addressed in maintenance and upkeep settings. While budgets might limit an organization's ability to complete the task, the researchers centered their questioning on the self-evaluation and the focus of respondents for each world-class factor utilizing four responses. They included:

Individual Variable Score

1. Not Important: Lucky if we address at all

2. Some attention: We are attentive 50% of the time

3. Priority: We address it 85% of the time it is important to us

4. We feature this: We go overboard because it is very important to us

Likewise, the researchers analyzed the average raw score for each key variable for all the respondents and they included a comparison of the top 10 Gold Medal respondents versus 10 non-Gold Medal respondents that scored 57 points or less utilizing the overall score attained in this survey.