8.15.16 | Conference Call

Participants: Brad Tullberg, Parks & Facilities Manager, City of Brooklyn Park; Ken Gilbertson, Professor, Education and Human Services, UMN Duluth; Angelica Klebsch, Project Facilitator and RCP Coordinator, City of Brooklyn Park; Mike Greco, Director, RCP

RCP Project 15 – Nature-Based Recreation: A Recipe for Community Health

EnEd 4315: Operations & Management, taught fall semester at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.

Environmental and Outdoor Education students, both grad and undergrad

He will have 3 different projects for the class, one of them the BP project, and students will self-elect projects.

First few weeks of semester, use the site and the parks department as a backdrop to teach annual operations sorts of issues. Students review budgets, the department mission, vision, and goals, etc.

Second half of term, learn how to write a long-range management plan, grounded in public participation. Will not produce a full-fledged plan, but will identify key issues, do cost estimates, etc.

Second week of December, students will present to whatever constituents Brooklyn Park identifies (mayor, parks and rec director or staff, citizen advisory group, etc.)

Julie Ernst, colleague of Ken’s who teaches course about young children and benefits of nature play. Some students who have had her course will likely be in his class, so may be more inclined to choose this project.

Brad Interested in nature-based recreation opportunities beyond just children. He has only been with Brooklyn Park 6 months.

Another potential question/issue is documenting the community-health and child developmental benefits of nature-based play. Also want to be sure to include consideration of immigrant kids and underrepresented groups and any specialized needs/benefits related to nature play.

In terms of scope for Ken’s class, probably focused more on the last two questions (where to develop additional nature play areas, and strategies for integrating and promoting within existing parks and programs) than the first two questions.

First question is more risk analysis, and second is more design oriented.

Another course fall term called risk management, taught by Greg Petrie. He has been through the Operations and Management class as an undergrad. Not sure if he will have group projects in the class, but if did, would be undergrad level students.

Ken has a few requirements of BP:

  • need a contact person who is accessible to help guide the students (Brad, Angelica as backup)
  • Likely to make 4-5 visits (including meeting with Brad)
  • Organizing final presentation to city (Angelica and Brad will coordinate)
  • When give presentation to city, want them to have a map available (we pay to print). Already have parks and rec map (with trails)

RCP Dropbox—will contain background information on project from Brooklyn Park (Brad still needs to upload documents):

Next Steps:

  • Ken will draft a project description based on the template Mike sends
  • Ken will post the project on the course website for students to see. Students select a project based on these descriptions (he does not require a representative to come in to class to present)
  • Students choose project by the end of the first week (August 29 classes begin)
  • Students will be directed to contact Brad directly to set up first meeting and site visit (Angelica and Mike should be part of that meeting as well)
  • Tentatively plan for week of September 12 or 19 for first meeting and site visit with students