Time

So here we are again, presenting our year-end issue. It seems like just yesterday

that we started publishing Parks & Rec Business (we’re actually in our

fourth year).

Yeah. I know. The “seems like yesterday” line is a bit of a cliché, but

danged if it isn’t too true! It’s scary true.

I’ll never forget sitting at in a Chevy’s Mexican Restaurant in Aurora, Colo.,

with a newborn son sitting in a car seat on top of the table, blissfully asleep,

while I took the “seems like yesterday” cliché into the future.

“You know,” I said to my wife as we waited for our waiter. “Next thing you

know he’ll be asking for the keys to the car.”

“Don’t say that,” my wife retorted. “We’ll be (a pause while she does the

math in her head, drumming the years on her fingers on the table)… 44!”

Oh, the horror! Our lives flashed before our eyes, and we quickly ordered

a bucket of Pacifico.

Now we’re about halfway there. Well, more than halfway, as that once tiny

infant is now almost nine years of rumbling, stumbling boy.

I suppose there’s nothing you can do about time. I also suppose you could

fight it every inch of the way, but with every inch you gain, you lose two. So I

figure, you might as well enjoy it while you got it, and not fret it so much.

And, oh, if I could only take my own seemingly simple advice!

I don’t want to trivialize anything any of us do, but we might as well have

a good time doing it. Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, or not challenging at all. But,

in fact, we ought to relish challenges. Why do we play sports and games anyway?

Is it because it’s easy to win? I don’t think so.

So we’re inviting you to join us next year at our interactive, hands-on

training event, LIVE!, Sept. 19-20, at Deer Creek Resort & Conference Center,

just 20 miles or so southeast of Columbus, Ohio. Building on this past year’s

excellent event (see Parks & Rec Business, November, page 22 for a full recap),

we’re putting together one heckuva training opportunity.

We’re putting the final touches on two days of relevant, helpful and fun

presentations, plus other events and activities, to ensure an event that reaps

lasting benefits for your department. We’ll keep you regularly updated here

and on the Web site at www.northstarpubs.com/LIVEmain.html.

But why tell you about it now? Space is limited, and we’re already getting

close to capacity, so make sure you get in before it fills up. You know that time

has a funny way of getting by too quickly.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions regarding

LIVE!, and the magazine in general. Enjoy this year’s Q&A. Everybody enjoyed

putting it together…

Regan D. Dickinson

Editor