Greetings!

The WRPA E-news is distributed twice a month to our total membership. Its our tool for providing timely news and information you need regarding current events, grants, training, and great ideas to add value to your work day.

WWRC Legislative Reception  

Tonight - February 15, 2012: 5:30-7:30pm The Women's Club, Olympia WA

You're Invited to a Wildlife and Recreation Legislative Reception.  Meet the Coalition's board and staff, talk with legislators and show your support for the WWRP grant program.  More

2012 WRPA Annual Conference & Trade Show

Interested in being a sponsor of or exhibiting at Washington's premier park and recreation conference?  More

Bellevue Visitors Guide
Safe, walkable and easily accessible, downtown Bellevue is a vibrant fusion of welcoming hotels, restaurants, lively culture, outdoor recreation world-class shopping and the Meydenbauer Convention Center. Surrounded by pristine natural beauty with big-city amenities, Bellevue offers a wide variety of entertainment experiences, and is home to innovative global corporations.  

Athletic/Fitness Section Retreat

March 14-16, 2012: This two-day retreat is a training and meeting 

opportunity for professional development, sharing resources, exchanging information, and networking with fellow professionals. WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Recreation Coordinators, Programmers, Specialists,
Managers, all WRPA Members & Students. This retreat is open to all recreation professionals! Sponsored by AllPlay Systems.   More / Register

Facility Section Workshop

Sunday March 3, 2012: Want to learn how to increase revenue by upselling and how to tame the angry customer?  Speakers Jeff Price and Sylvia Allen provide this and more at the facility section workshop.  $35 members/$45 non-members includes lunch.  More / Register

Aquatic Facility Operator Course

March 21-23, 2012: This course provides in-depth instruction in all facets of aquatic facility opertaion and management. The AFO course is specifically designed to meet the needs of those working in public, semi public and municipality pools and water park facilities. The AFO program offers a unique discussion of risk management, not usually directed towards operations personnel. This course is designed to provide information and training for both supervisory and operations personnel.  More/ Register

Teaching Safe Springboard Diving

May 20, 2012: Patti Southerland will be offering this course on how to teach diving that is safe, fun and informative for beginners-advanced level diving! The goal of the clinic is to help new instructors teach young swimmers to become divers or maybe young gymnasts how to become divers! Her time tested techniques have been used over the past 20 years.  More / Register

Vote for Your Future Leadership

WRPA ballots for our board elected leaders were emailed on February 6.  Members without email addresses were mailed a ballot. For questions contact Jen at wrpa@wrpatoday.org. Results will be announced next month.

Legislative Report - Week 5:  

On the WRPA side of things, we had a good week.  One of our Healthy and Sustainable Communities Initiative bills passed off the House Floor; bills to shift dedicated capital funding into the Operating Budget have either 'died' or have been amended to our satisfaction; a gangs intervention/prevention bill is on the House Floor Calendar; an adverse impact fee bill appears ready to 'die'; and Discover Pass legislation continues to move forward.  More

WRPA Awards Program 

February 24, 2012 - Deadline for award nominations

Deadlines for the submission of our annual awards are fast approaching. This is a great way to celebrate who we are, and share with each other the great work we are fortunate enough to do.  Bob Vaux  360/661-3503  More 

Membership News 
We are exploring a new "All-Inclusive" Agency Category and invite an Administration-level  representative from your agency to join us for a focus group discussion.  The focus groups will meet via conference call as follows:

• Agency Level 1-4              March 16th           9:00am
• Agency Level 5                 March 16th           10:30am
• Agency Level 6-8              March 16th           2:30pm

Please RSVP to Brit britk@wrpatoday.org and we look forward to you joining the discussion.

In The News 
New zipline network will add to Bellevue ropes course -  Ziplines have long been a dream of park planners, said Brad Bennett, manager of the community center.  More

What does a group of Parks and Recreation Administrators do after retiring with over 350 years of experience?  They keep on recreating!!  Visit our facebook page for the photo and more. http://www.facebook.com/wrpassociation   

Paul Leuthold, Bellingham Director
Bill Evans, Lynnwood Director
John Ivary, Bellingham Operations Manager
Bill Hutsinpiller, Renton Director
Rod Zoske, Spokane Director
Gary Chadwick, Whatcom County Deputy Director
Jon Aarstad, Skagit County Director
Roger DeSpain, Whatcom County Director
Frank McCoy, Spokane Director
Gary Feroglia, Mercer Island Director
Byron Elmendorf, Bellingham Director

Larry Simkins, Whatcom County Operations Manager

WRPA Forums
We are working to fine tune the forums before we upload our membership  later this month.  If you want to check it out start here.  Remember you must log into the WRPA web site to see and access the forum pages.

Land Aquisition Forum  

Announcing the 4th Annual State Land Acquisition Coordinating Forum will be on March 13th from 9:00-4:00 in room 172 of the Natural Resources Building.  The forum is focused on coordinating grant requests; state agencies will present their acquisition "wish lists" for potential funding in 2013.  More

Quick View of Upcoming Training

Visit our registration page for more information on all these trainings.

• Feb 23: Athletic/Fitness Section Retreat
• Mar 3: Facility Section Workshop
• Mar 14-16: CPSI
• Mar 21-23: Aquatic Facility Operator Course
• May 02: WRPA Annual Conference & Trade Show
• May 20: Springboard Diving
• June 09: Westside Summer Skillbuilder (save the date)
• June 09: Aquatic Skillbuilder (save the date)

Brit Kramer, CPRP, CAE

Executive Director 

Washington Recreation & Park Association

Upcoming Section Meetings

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