In the traditional sense, our Planning issue has a clear objective—to help parks, rec, and camp leaders start the year on the right foot. This is our opening statement for the 12 months ahead, a roadmap of sorts to help navigate specific industry challenges while never losing sight of your goals. But (and hear me out here), a year is too narrow a scope.
One year sounds like a long time to get things done. Yet we all know how quickly it flies by and also how deflating it can feel to reach December 31 without checking every task off the annual checklist. However, maybe we’re thinking about it all wrong.
I think one of the stories from this issue, “Future Readiness,” best illustrates what I mean. The article highlights the changing role of civic architecture in society. A new rec center may be built to fill a gap in a previously underserved community. Where perhaps there were few accessible or affordable options for fitness, the center offers a better alternative that reaches more residents. However, the rec center represents much more than a place to get active. In times of economic uncertainty, it can become a distribution center for a local food bank. During bouts of extreme weather, it can double as a cooling center. And so on—there’s the primary purpose of the space, then there are all the supplemental uses.
“Future Readiness” argues that these spaces must be built (or upgraded) with these additional requirements in mind. It no longer suffices to haphazardly adapt a facility to meet an unexpected need. Everyone involved in the design-build of a project must assume that the building’s purpose will evolve along with the community’s expectations.
So, let’s say a rec center is scheduled to open in 2026. Of course, it will have an immediate impact on the community, offering new options for play and exercise, creating jobs, and increasing the value of the surrounding areas. But the center will be used for years (hopefully decades) to come. Even bigger still, it will fill many critical roles in the community over time, many of which have been anticipated, while others are not yet realized.
Whether it’s a single purpose or a fixed period of time, it’s important not to limit ourselves or our projects to rigid ideas of impact. You might not hit an intended target by December, but that doesn’t make the planning moot, nor does it mean the goal will never be achieved. I think this—a more compassionate and expansive understanding of goal-setting—is what connects this month’s stories.
Be it new programming, operations, or infrastructure, our featured projects and initiatives (and by extension, our writers) are focused on long-term results. January’s a great time to think about the future, but it’s important to remember the future is much longer than a year.
