California Association of Recreation and Park Districts
President's Message
June 2014
It is my pleasure to now serve as the President of CARPD and I look forward to accomplishing great things together in the coming year. This was my 6th Annual Spring Awards Conference attended and I enjoyed it just as much if not more than the first. It was wonderful seeing everyone again and meeting new first time attendees. Although some of the faces have changed, all-in-all our family is in tact. Our reputation of the “Little Conference that Could” came through in flying colors.
This year’s conference was one of our best ever. Our attendance was up from a year ago. We had representatives from 24 Districts and our scholarship money raised from our raffle ($2,133.00) was an increase from last years total. The only complaint I heard was not everyone won at the casinos. My hats off to our Executive Director, Pat Cabulagan, and his staff at CAPRI for all their hard work making this conference a success.
This years scholarship award winners were Dr. Aleta Wallace from Western Gateway Recreation and Park District and Matt Young from Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District. Matt came into our Board Meeting on Sunday morning to personally thank us and tell us he thought it was the “Best Conference in California”. And who can blame him. We offered a great deal of pertinent information in a two-day conference with an intimate crowd of familiar faces eager to share their knowledge and experience with all our member attendees. The Board Member and District Administrator Round Tables were packed full of helpful information for all that attended. Don’t forget to send back your evaluation surveys so we can start planning next year’s conference.
We’re looking at possible locations such as Napa, Monterey, Palm Springs or possibly back in beautiful Lake Tahoe. With the 2014 conference off the radar we now can take a deep breath and start looking at the upcoming year. Our Legislative Advocate, Ralph Heim is on board for another year to keep us up to date with our Assembly and Senate Bills, our Board of Directors are geared up to bring as much needed support to our members as possible and our man at the helm, Pat Cabulagan is ready to keep us on track.
My goal this year is to find ways to help our organization communicate better with all it’s members, bringing more needed and helpful information to all. Thanks again for being a member and supporting our organization. Yours Truly;
Rick Sloan
President, Board of Directors
