We have learned about many different forms of leisure and the different places that offer leisure to individuals. There are different categories of these organizations that offer leisure. They include private-membership, public agencies, non-profit organizations, commercial businesses, campus recreation and others. In the following paragraphs we will compare and contrast three different organizations that offer leisure opportunities. The three organizations are: Glenview Public Park Center, the Orange and Blue Golf Course, and the ARC. We will describe the goals and objectives of each venue, how they are funded, who they serve, their strengths and weaknesses, and if they meet their goals.
Goals/Objectives
All three agencies have the underlying purpose of offering leisure to the public, however each agency has its own specific goals and objectives in how it will attain this purpose. The Glenview Public Park Center’s objective is to provide a public recreation site big enough to offer leisure to everyone in the Glenview community and enhance Glenview’s attractiveness for visitors and tourism. The Orange and Blue Golf Course strives to offer a place for people to golf, practice, snack, and socialize with a focus on University of Illinois students. In a similar respect, the ARC aims at providing opportunities for student recreation and jobs.
Agency funding
Although our organizations are very different, they all have one thing in common. They are all partially funded through fees. The Glenview Public Park Center is open to the public, but it charges fees for some of the activities available. The Orange and Blue Golf Course charges fees to people that wish to play golf or use the driving range. This can also be covered by a yearly membership fee. Similarly, the ARC charges all University of Illinois students a membership fee through tuition. For non-students, yearly memberships and daily passes can be purchased. Fees alone though do not cover the entire cost of operations at these facilities. For example, taxes and donations of the citizens of Glenview help fund the Public Park Center. The golf course and the ARC are additionally funded by the University of Illinois.
Individuals the agencies serve
Each of these facilities offers service to a wide range of people. The Glenview Park Center serves the people of Glenview and the surrounding area. Non-residents are charged an additional fee to use the center. The Orange and Blue Golf Course serves everyone that wants to use it but is focused on those interested in golf. The third place, the ARC serves students and faculty and those that pay for membership. The ARC and the Glenview Park Center have a more limited focus on the people they serve. The ARC aims at serving the students of the university and faculty members. The Glenview Park Center's focus lies in the residents of Glenview. However, the Orange and Blue Golf Course does not have a set target demographic. A similarity between the three is that while the first two are slightly limiting who they serve, there are no extreme regulations excluding patrons from the facilities. A similarity between the Orange and Blue Golf Course and the Glenview Park Center is that they offer leisure for all ages. However, the ARC does not. Its programs are geared at the adult public, with a focus on the students and faculty, and not children.
Key Program Elements
Compared to the ARC, the Glenview Park Center offers much more aquatic leisure and serves a greater variety of people. The park center not only has a lap pool, but also has a water slide, Jacuzzi, and warm water therapy pool. The lap pool is the ARC’s only aquatic feature.
However, the ARC provides a greater variety of physical leisure then the Glenview Park Center and Orange and Blue Golf Course. Physical leisure ranges from weight lifting to Wii Bowling. Even though the Glenview Park Center has a workout facility, the ARC has much more equipment. With a wide variety of activities, the ARC hosts large masses of people.
The Orange and Blue Course is the only agency out of the three that offers outdoor leisure directly at their location. It also differs from the Glenview Park Center and the ARC, by providing a different type of transportation in allowing their golfers to drive the golf carts. In addition, customers must pay for rentals unlike the ARC and park center where you are allowed to borrow for free.
Strengths/Weaknesses
As we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations in question, it is a good idea to think about how the various programs can have some very similar attributes, as well as contrasts. For example, one of the strengths that these agencies all had in common was their variety in leisure. While this may seem as a similar strength, it may surprise you to see the difference of variety within these groups. The Glenview Public Park Center, which is known for its state of the art architecture, provides activities for all age groups. It includes education programs, cultural activities, as well as detailed training programs for employees. The Orange and Blue Golf Course provides two separate courses with 18 holes of golf to make sure the users do not get burned out playing the same course. When it comes to the ARC, there are no additional fees to pay and most leisure activities do not require students to pay additional money on top of their tuition. They also have an efficient check-in process.
With strengths come weaknesses, and these agencies show us a few examples of this. The weakness regarding the Glenview Public Park Center lies within its fees. The fees they charge leave out lower income families. Also, they charge higher fees to non-Glenview residents, which limits their willingness to become a member. The Golf Course provides seasonal leisure, so during the winter months there are no times of profit. The clubhouse is also small in size and has a disorganized layout. When it comes to the ARC, there are minimal therapeutic activities for post-workouts or physical leisure such as a hot tub. In addition, the weight room can at times be overcrowded.
Do The Organizations Fulfill Their Purposes?
Each one of these organizations fulfills their goals and objectives in most ways. The ARC and Orange and Blue Golf Course fulfill theirs completely. Although they all continue to make improvements to make sure their goals and objectives are achieved, they have fulfilled their goals in different ways. As stated earlier, the Orange and Blue Golf Course has the goal to provide the public a place to golf, practice, snack and socialize. Not only have they achieved that goal, but they have become the home of the Men's and Women's Illinois Golfing Team. It has continued to stay popular among students because of the good deals. The golf courses, driving range and club house all remain busy throughout the day as well. The ARC has also fulfilled their goals and objectives. They have provided student recreation and job opportunities. Similar to the Orange and Blue Golf Course, the ARC is becoming an extremely popular place for leisure. The ARC provides students with intramural activities, sports clubs, social activities and entertainment. Students are also able to gain work experience there and make money while doing it or receive a tuition reduction. The ARC offers many leisure opportunities for students, and the majority of campus takes advantage of them. Unlike the previous two industries, the Glenview Public Park Center does not fully fulfill its goals and objectives. Its goal was to offer the entire Glenview community a place for leisure as well as making Glenview a better tourist area. Although the Park Center is able to serve most of the community, it is unable to serve the entire community. It does offer leisure to all age groups and cultures, but it may exclude some families with low income. It excludes this group because of the fees it charges community members when using the facility. However, the Park Center does a good job of listening to the community to make sure its needs are met. It has made recent additions to make the pool a more accessible place for the elderly and handicapped. The state of the art building has also been a good tourist attraction for the town. The three organizations do a good job fulfilling most of their goals, but only the Orange and Blue Golf Course and the ARC fully meet their goals.
Conclusion
We have analyzed some of these different places in several categories and weighed the positive and negative aspects of each one. In comparing and contrasting these three leisure organizations we found many variations of similarities and differences. Each organization is unique in its own way, but it is not difficult to see similarities among the three. Through this project we have discovered more about the various leisure types and places that offer ways to practice it. Overall, this project has helped us gain insight on the diverse leisure types and how they function in society.
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