Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF document files. Click the "Get Adobe Reader" button to obtain the latest free version.

GreenPlay, LLC has been on the forefront in developing innovative and extremely useful tools that produce results for our clients and address Today’s Issues and Tomorrow’s Needs. We are able to enhance the quality of services through the implementation of these resources and encourage you to consider them as a part of your planning projects to help you meet your goals.

GreenPlay, LLC has established and improved the “Pricing Pyramid” methodology for helping agencies create an overall philosophy and methodology for determining consensus on values, mission, allocation of subsidy resources, pricing programs and evaluating expected cost recovery.  This method is invaluable for creating cost recovery and prioritization strategies that are equitable, defensible and can be implemented at all levels.  These are based on the VALUE of the services to the community not just a comparative evaluation of “what has been done before” or “what others are doing”.
 

It is an extension of “activity-based costing”, but takes the analysis further into assimilating the values accepted and defined by your community and elected officials. We explain and document the methodology and evaluate your agency’s current and potential methods for fair pricing and increased cost recovery.

for a document describing the steps to developing a Cost Recovery Philosophy for your organization.

Left click to open it in a separate viewer window.
Right click and select "Save Target As" to save the document to your computer.

Across the country we are seeing a trend for agencies to look outside the traditional funding mechanisms to the use of alternative funding and partnerships to fund improvements and programming for public agencies. GreenPlay, LLC has extensive experience in looking at options for alternative funding that typically include grants, donor programs and/or partnerships. This may include partnerships with other business, governmental (Federal, state, school, nearby agencies, etc.), and/or non-profit agencies, along with creation of policies and evaluation processes to help determine if they might be a “good fit”. If desired, our firm can work to identify key partnership strategies to help support your community goals.

GreenPlay, LLC can help you identify key partners and analyze potentially viable community partnerships.

GreenPlay, LLC can identify strategies to address Public and Private Partnership opportunities and provide tools to facilitate partnerships and minimize risk.

GreenPlay, LLC can provide recommendations and sample documents used to formulate a Partnership Policy to streamline the partnership opportunities.

Public agencies typically analyze their existing parks, open space, trails and recreation systems to try and determine how the systems are serving the public. Previously, a Level of Service (LOS) has been typically defined as the capacity of the various system components and facilities to meet the needs of the public, and generally expressed in terms of the size or quantity of a given facility per unit of population.

In order to help standardize parks and recreation planning, universities, agencies and parks and recreation professionals have long been looking for ways to benchmark and provide “national standards” for components a community should have. In time “rule of thumb” ratios emerged, such as providing 10 acres of parklands per thousand of population, to become the most widely accepted norms. Other normative guides also have been cited as “traditional standards,” but have been less widely accepted.  Over time, it has been realized that the capacities standards do not work for most communities, and are especially troublesome when trying to evaluate special assets like mountain parks, open space, trails, historic and cultural assets.

GreenPlay along with our partnered firms Design Concepts and Geowest have adapted and built upon the previous practices to create a different approach using a “composite values analysis.” The composite values analysis methodology is proprietary and is called the Geo-Referenced Amenities Standards Program (GRASP^®). This methodology builds on the traditional capacity analysis, but can track not only the quantity (or capacity), but the quality of the components of an entire system. By combining and analyzing the composite values of each component, it is possible to measure the service provided by a system from a variety of perspectives and for any given location.

The steps for GRASP^® analysis typically include:

• Determining the “relevant components” of the resource system for analysis.
• Rating all inventoried components based on GreenPlay and staff rating consensus using a three-point basis: 3 = exceeds expectations for functionality and/or service for the next ten years; 2 = meet expectations for the next ten years; 1 = does not meet expectations (Sometimes we also use a zero or negative number to identify components that are unsafe, in immediate need of repair or replacement, or do not function as intended).

• Including modifiers for the ratings, for items like access, adjacency to restrooms or shade, condition, quality, location, ambience, etc., to be determined)
• Identifying the key issues of the plan based on the public process, needs assessment, alternative providers, demographics and trends analysis
• Creating analysis tools, spreadsheets, resource maps and analysis maps called “Perspectives” to examine each of the key issues and the system overall
• Looking at service of groupings of components from various perspectives (local use, regional use, active, passive, natural, etc.)
• Refining capacity and LOS standards that are appropriate for your community.
• Analyze the system in relationship to quality, availability, access (walkability, barrier analysis and transportation), and geographic distribution of services.
• Refining the resource classification system and resource development guidelines.

The GRASP^® Methodology for Standards and Level-of Service Analysis is just one tool in the planning process, but it gives invaluable decision making information in digital and graphic form for determining appropriate standards, priorities, resource allocation, budgets, and work plans. The GRASP^® based LOS is accurate, dynamic, is readily implemented, can be benchmarked, and is unique to an individual community.

Some specific outcomes of our GRASP^® approach are:

• Using common GIS, it provides a better way of analyzing how any specific location, home or business is being served by community amenities.  Today’s technology easily accomplishes what used to be an impossibly tedious task.

• It brings a qualitative component into the measurement of service that is not available with traditional capacity methods of LOS analysis.

• Rather than using an outdated classification system that relies on broad and ambiguous facilities categorization, it looks at individual components such as pools, gymnasiums, utilities systems, street types, and/or other community amenities, and then measures the service that each component provides to the neighborhood and the community.

• Components can be readily evaluated and easily displayed graphically to quickly identify gaps in service on a neighborhood, community and/or regional basis.  The methodology also allows population density factors to be combined into the traditional LOS equations.

The GRASP^® LOS approach can be incorporated into mapping and tabular information that become management tools.  The methodologies provide clearly comprehended information that helps guide decision makers and is also easily understood by the general public.

The National Recreation and Parks Association is now using GRASP^® for their internal inventory and assessment purposes.

for samples of past project GRASP^® Perspectives!

GreenPlay staff are considered experts in research and management in the fields of parks, recreation, open space and other quality of life organizations. Senior staff are often asked to speak, facilitate, present and teach at a variety of local, state and national agencies and associations. Additional information and current topics are available upon request.

The Mission of GreenPlay RED is to facilitate the creation of innovative, practical management tools and strategies intended to enhance and promote parks and recreation industries through research, development, and education.

Home | About Us | Areas of Expertise | Recent & Current Projects
Research & Innovations | Education & Tools | Contact Us | Helpful Links