Recreation Guy

Years ago I worked for a recreation department as a part-time employee. I was already in the California PERS (Public Employee Retirement System) system so I wasn’t required to stay under the 1000 annual hours that some of the other part-time staff were restricted to. Even so, during the school year I was only given 15-20 hours per week – simply because that’s all that was available. When I requested more hours my supervisor informed me that she ran her department a certain way, and that there was indeed a way I could get more hours.

Basically, it broke down like this – if staff wanted more hours they needed to develop a program that kids would register for. As part-time staff, we didn’t get paid for designing a program. That had to be done on our own. But if we offered a program and enough kids registered for it, we were rewarded with hours for the program as well as prep hours. For a weekly after school program this would equal out to an additional 3-5 hours per week.

What was great about this system is that we had total buy-in to the programs since we were developing them ourselves. It also motivated us to market the programs by talking to the kids and parents about them. It really was a win-win situation for the staff and the recreation department. Not to mention that we had to focus-in on what the parents and kids wanted in an after school program or special event, so it was great for them too.

After about 9 months I raised my hours from 15-20 to 25-30. At the time I was working with teenagers specifically. A year later I was at a steady 35 hours per week since I was creating and running after school programs, trips, events and clinics that the teens were interested in.

Developing a system like this that will fit into your organization may take some adjustments (or it may not), but it’s worth it for you, your staff, your organization and those you serve. The next time you have a staff member ask for more hours tell them that they need to earn them by creating a new program and filling it with kids – instead of saying, “Sorry, it’s not in the budget.”

If you happen to be part-time and need more hours, design a couple of programs that are likely to interest enough parents to register their kids for, and approach your supervisor with them, asking for additional hours if the programs get the required number of kids.

Suppose, as a part-time employee, you’re already working after school programs the whole week. How about creating:

• a birthday party service that you can run at the center on weekends
• a monthly Friday Night Parents Out program where you and another staff entertain the kids while Mom and Dad go out for a few hours
• a monthly Friday Night Dodgeball program for teens
• a before school program
• a recreation program specifically for homeschool kids in your area that can be offered earlier in the day
• weekend sports clinics
• weekend crafts clinics
• weekend trips for teens to amusement parks, paintball fields, the lake