The C. T. Brannon Corporation is frequently asked by communities to conduct studies which might include outdoor recreation, indoor recreation, swimming and aquatic facilities, or just about anything else which might be classified as 'recreation'.

Sometimes the community leaders just want to find out what the citizens want!

WHAT GOES INTO A STUDY?
A typical study, whether for aquatics or other recreation might include:

• INVENTORY - An inventory of existing facilities; an assessment of their condition; code compliance; and an estimation of value of the existing facilities.
• NEEDS ASSESSMENT - To determine what the public needs; conducting surveys in person, mail-outs, or via internet; conducting public meetings; questioning staff and various 'stake-holder' groups; comparison of the standards with national and regional standards..
• NEED MITIGATION - An assessment of what should be done to meet the demands found during the NEEDS ASSESSMENT whether it be construction, demolition, programming, or management changes. This includes analysis of all the various options and what the impact will be for each option.
• IMPLEMENTATION - Development and presentation of a priority list, a list of projected costs to implement the program, development of a time table for accomplishing these objectives and, finally, alternative methods of funding the various projects. Discussion of funding options may include the development or revision of user fees, grants or capital programs like bond sales. Implementation may also include changes in marketing.

Studies have to be customized to meet the community needs. No two are alike.

WHAT DO THEY COST?
Recreation and aquatic studies can cost as little as $2,500 or as much as $100,000. Obviously there is more work and final content in the more expensive study. A typical facility study for a city of 100,000 in which we evaluated three existing swimming venues and made recommendations as to their disposition (including copies of a 90 page report and a presentation to city council) ran $15,000 in 2004. A study which required public participation meetings, stake holder meetings, evaluation of existing facilities and a ten year plan for aquatics in the city of 40,000 cost just under $30,000 including the bound 86 page report and presentation to the city council.

Obviously, the cost will vary with the hours it takes to conduct the study and the availability of community resources such as maps and people to conduct surveys. Clients can keep the costs down by hosting the public meetings, conducting the surveys under the consultants direction, and helping with the research.

WHAT DOES THE CLIENT GET FOR HIS MONEY?
Two old sayings go that "a consultant is someone from fifty miles away with a brief case" or "a consultant borrows your watch to tell you what time it is". Both, to a degree are true. Sometimes you just need some objective eyes from outside the community with an unbiased approach and no political agendas.

In a good study, the client should be receiving a quality, well written report with color photos and charts to clarify the consultant's points. In this day of Kinkos and color printers there is no excuse not to receive a high quality product. And get the report on compact disk for future reference or to print more copies.

But more importantly, the content has to be of equal quality.

• The report must identify the aims of the study - what it was intended to do and, just as important, what it was not intended to do.
• The report must clearly spell out the methods used in the study. Were surveys conducted and how? Were public meetings held?
• The report must show the findings and present them for all to see and evaluate. This would be the raw data - the condition of existing facilities, the opinions of the public, the results of website surveys.
• The report must show the consultant's recommendations clearly

Too many reports are simply colorful presentations of the facts but without clear recommendations.

WHY CAN'T I DO THIS MYSELF?
This is not rocket science of course and the temptation is there to just save the money and have the staff do the study. But, its not a good idea. The pubic will usually open up to strangers from outside about their city and tell them things they would never tell a city official face to face.

Sometimes the numerous political agendas present in any city, regardless of size, interfere with the fair and balanced accumulation of data and presentation of results. Experienced consultants can, due to their past experience, identify these influential groups and recognize what their agenda really is. And, because he or she does not belong to the community consultants have no fear of repercussions from unhappy constituents. A city employee could lose his or her job if the wrong people are stirred up by what they write.

A local employee or committee would usually only be able to study and write from their narrow experiences and not from a regional or nationwide base of knowledge.

Sure you can handle the public participation phase if you know how to craft questions in a survey or conduct a survey on a website or conduct a statistically relevant mail-out questionnaire.

HOW CAN I GET A STUDY FOR MY COMMUNITY?
Call for Terry Brannon, President, The C. T. Brannon Corporation, P.O. Box 7487, Tyler, TX 75711 or e-mail us at tbrannon@brannoncorp.com for more information. We'd love to talk with you. . . no obligation of course.