CLASS DESCRIPTION
Class Duration and CEU Recommendation
- Duration: 56 minutes, 54 seconds
- Recommended CEU value: 0.1 CEU (based on the common standard of 1.0 CEU = 10 contact hours, this session is ~0.95 contact hours ≈ 0.095 CEU, typically rounded to 0.1 CEU for reporting)
In this 56-minute virtual session, participants learn how to use today’s AI tools (such as ChatGPT and similar platforms) to save time, reduce repetitive administrative work, and improve communication with the community. The instructor introduces a simple prompt-writing framework (persona, goal, task, and context) and demonstrates how small changes to a prompt can dramatically improve the usefulness and accuracy of AI-generated output for common parks and recreation scenarios (marketing and announcements, parent-facing messaging, and internal documentation).
The session also covers how to create custom GPTs by setting guardrails (tone, priorities, and “avoid” rules) and uploading organization-specific documents (policies, FAQs, guidelines) to anchor outputs in institutional knowledge. Participants discuss practical considerations such as testing before rollout and basic security/privacy decision-making (including why account type and organizational AI policies matter). Finally, the course explains AI agents—tools that can take action, not just generate text—using recreation examples like automated refunds and waitlist management, and customer-facing chat that can assist with registration.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Explain how AI can support parks and recreation teams by reducing manual, repetitive administrative work and freeing time for community-facing priorities.
- Apply a prompt-writing framework (persona, goal, task, and context) to produce more useful, targeted AI outputs.
- Improve a “generic” prompt into a high-quality prompt by adding specificity (audience, length, tone, and success criteria) relevant to recreation programs.
- Outline the steps to build a custom GPT including defining the job, setting guardrails, uploading relevant documents, and testing before broad release.
- Differentiate between AI chat, custom GPTs, and AI agents and identify at least two operations workflows (e.g., refunds, waitlists, registration support) that could benefit from agentic automation—while recognizing basic security/policy considerations for document sharing.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Rachel Williams is the co-founder and president of Rec, where she oversees operations, people, and culture. She previously scaled platforms at Uber, MasterClass, and Stork Club, including expanding Uber Eats into new markets and growing MasterClass programming to more than 20 launches annually while managing nearly 100 top-tier instructors. A graduate of Queen’s University and lifelong soccer player, Williams combines operational expertise with personal passion to make community recreation as easy and accessible as today’s favorite consumer apps.