Henderson Nevada finds Insights and Direction in Hosted Parks and Recreation Management Solution
The second largest city in Nevada just a few miles south of Las Vegas, Henderson is home to more than 320,000 people. Located in the Mojave Desert, it has a hot desert climate. As Parks and Recreation Systems Administrator Jeannette Palmer says, “summer is hot, our pools are busy, and we need to be creative about indoor programming space with everything we have to offer.” With the height of COVID hopefully behind us all and a recent move to the hosted RecTrac, they’re getting increasingly responsive to their community needs and desires.
Embracing Systems for Success
As the main system administrator at the award-winning Henderson Parks and Recreation, Palmer recalls when they first implemented Vermont Systems RecTrac in 2007. Fully embracing the system, they became intimately familiar with details and processes of getting exactly what they needed from the system. “We knew everything there was to know,” says Palmer. “When it came time to make the decision to move to hosted, we felt it was necessary to explore our options. In the end, we decided that it was best to stick with what we knew. Hosted offers so many different features and enhanced functionality it was the best choice for our customers.”
Recovering from COVID
While the virus changed indoor programming, Henderson Parks and Recreation have bounced back quickly. “Our numbers are trending in the right direction, we're back up to where we were pre COVID with many of our programs,” according to Palmer. That doesn’t mean everything is status quo. In fact, the break combined with data from Vermont Systems proved to be a good time to look at their offerings. “The pandemic gave us a moment to evaluate where we are and what types of programming we need to offer. What is our community looking for now? That's changed a little bit for everyone over the past few years.”
“We report on our enrollment, attendance, and visitation - we've had those analytics in place for years. We can easily spot trends.” With their programming divided by type Henderson is able to note the changes in enrollment and isolate the triggers that led to the change. “We definitely use RecTrac data to help us identify changes and trends. We then use the data to guide our program plans,” said Palmer.
Empowering the Team, Connecting with the Community
One of the advantages they have seen with hosted RecTrac is how they can access their data in a grid. Most screens allow the use of filters and export to a CSV file for any user. This access to data is something that has put the power more in their programmer's hands.
That’s proven to be a huge advantage. “We have been actively teaching our users, ‘you have this power, you can go in and pull all of the data yourself.’ They don't necessarily have to use out of the box reports and then try to manipulate the data to their needs”. One area that programmers are applying that information is in identifying optimal days and times to offer programs. “We look at days and times our programs are being offered. Do Tuesday afternoons look better than Friday? Do we see a trend to increase or decrease hours based on enrollment or attendance?” offers Palmer. “Overall, we can find our program data quickly and use the tools built into the system without the need for complex reports.”
Supporting the Departments Needs
“Hands down, the support is beyond anything any other software that I work with delivers.” That’s one reason that Henderson Parks and Recreation have chosen to stay with Vermont Systems through the years. The result as they work toward success is they come to be on a first-name basis with many on the Vermont Systems team. “We know support is really trying to understand our needs,” says Palmer. “When we put in tickets for service items, we know they are doing their best to find answers and communicate.”