Robert has worked in recreation for more than 30 years, starting as a camp counselor. Today his department includes a little over a hundred people, running everything from a regional sports center to year-round aquatics and camps.
Escondido uses Amilia, and one of its biggest time-savers has been automating refunds. Robert said roughly 90 to 95 percent of class registrations now happen online, which means payments are electronic too.
Residents used to call the office, and staff would pull a receipt, fill out a form, and send it to finance. Now the team has set clear criteria once, and the system applies them!
A resident opens their account, chooses to disenroll, gives a reason, and the refund follows the rules. As Robert put it, "we've been able to automate our refunds."
The result: residents get an answer right away, and staff stop handling refunds one by one.
Robert is also looking at technology outside the office. Escondido is working toward hard metal signs on picnic areas, each with a QR code. Scan it, and you can see that space's calendar. If it's free, it's first come, first served. If you want to reserve it, you can do that on the spot.
Robert put it this way: effective parks and recreation management starts with reaching residents through the easiest channels, at the right moment, to make their experience better.
It also helps behind the scenes. Right now, rangers get a weekly email listing reserved picnic areas and post paper notices. Robert's goal is for staff to check the schedule in the Amilia app instead, so no one has to post a paper permit.
Robert was clear that experience matters, but "it really needs to be backed up by data." When enrollment in the Tiny Tots preschool program fell after the local school district began offering free transitional kindergarten, the trend data helped him make the case to city council to end it.
Robert's department has set four priorities: digital transformation, operational governance, community impact, and revenue generation. Right now, he said, the focus is on the first two. His reasoning is simple: "a lot of these things are very rote," and rote work is the first thing worth handing to a system.
That's the idea behind Amilia's SmartRec platform: online registration, reporting, and facility tools that work together, so your team spends less time on admin and more time with the community.
Hear Robert's full conversation with the Parks & Tech Collective Podcast → Watch now
Related articles
