CASE STUDY NUMBER ONE: (answer the follwoing questions: 1,2,3 and 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)

SOJOURNER DOUGLASS RECREATIONAL CENTER

For this case study, you are the Facility Director of the largest recreational center in the city of Baltimore. Having turned several facilities around over the years you are known as a troubleshooter by your peers and the leadership in the city. The mayor, city council, and the neighborhoods surrounding every recreational facility you have worked with have improved immensely because of your ability to turn these facilities around. Because of this, you are called the Fixer of Baltimore, Maryland Department of Parks & Recreation facilities.

You have been tapped by the Mayor, The Director of Recreation, The City Council and the neighborhood organizations to assist in turning around the Sojourner Douglass Community Center. To turn around this troubled facility, its grounds and outdoor playing fields are going take a tremendous effort. In addition, the stakeholders have given their support to you and the facility and the proposed plans to demolish two full city blocks of vacant homes that house one of the largest open-air drug markets in the city is designed to gentrify the surrounding neighborhoods and improve West Baltimore. The new facility will be the hub of the old and the new community. You have at your disposal the police and fire department to help facilitate correcting the current facility issues

The current facility is the largest in city was, formerly Sojourner Douglas High School converted into multi-use facilities, has two indoor full basketball courts, four outdoor basketball courts, a tennis court, two football fields, one baseball field, and one softball field and a childrens playground currently the scene of most of the criminal activity in the neighborhood all in some level of disrepair. The facility itself is in decent condition to be used but needs some TLC. The neighborhood is changing rapidly as well as the demands for use of the facilities. Newer residents are demanding new and improved facilities, activities and sports. In addition, the facility houses a methadone clinic for opioid and heroin addicts in the city.

However, before any of the actual changes take place you must get the facility itself operating correctly. There has been a total of six different facility directors in the last three years! The last one lasted only 30 days before resigning. The current program director has been acting as facility director while the department tries again at finding a new director. The current staff consists of the following positions.

Facility Director: Temporarily assigned to you

Program Coordinator/ Assistant Facility Director (Current Acting Director): Kim Morris recreational department employee 22 years. Lives in the neighborhood and seeks to move up to facility director however she has several challenges in her career that have prevented her from moving past her current position which she has held for the last 15 years at Sojourner Douglas Recreational Center. Ms. Morris is responsible for creating and developing all programs currently coming out of the center.

Part-Time Staff People: you have three part-time staff people. Two work in the mornings, one works in the middle of the day and the other two begin in the early evening. The schedule is listed below.

Staff Member One: 9:00 am- 3:00 pm

Staff Member Two: 9:00 am- 3:00 pm

Staff Member Three: 12:00 pm- 5:00 pm

Staff Member Four: 4:00 pm- 9:30pm

Neighborhood Volunteers-12+

In addition, to the regular staff the facility has a regular contingent of retired and senior citizens from the neighborhood. However, attrition is high with these volunteers as many have passed away, ill, moved from the area, or are afraid to return to the facility because of the increased crime rate. There is a tremendous need for volunteers throughout the city and none more evident than at Sojourner Douglas Recreation Center in West Baltimore, Maryland. Currently the facility has 6 volunteers and could use roughly 20+ for the youth sports programs including internal operations such as the concession stands at the games, operating the front desk and other activities.

Special Program

Daycare Center Daycare Center: Mon-Fri 6:30 am- 6:30 pm

The daycare center is supposed to be a revenue-generating entity for the facility. Supposedly self-sustaining, the center has enrolled a tremendous number of children however, the revenue has not matched the number of children enrolled. You have been told by staffers that there is a shortage of reported revenue oftentimes parents are called as children are sent home due to staff shortages. It has also been reported that the individual operating the center is a relative or close friend of the program director and they are not licensed or certified childcare providers. Individual parents have been selected to act as daycare providers even though they lack background checks, training or skills. The remaining staff are often given fewer hours than the family members and friends violating the nepotism and cronyism clause with the city government. The family members and friends of the Program Director also have their kids in the center as well.

Activities

Senior Citizen/Adult Card Games: Mon-Fri 9:00 am-10:00 pm.

Childrens Afterschool Program: Mon-Fri 3:00 pm 6:00 pm

Recreational Games & Esports Leagues TBA

Billiards: Friday & Saturday Night: TBA*

West Side Madden League: TBA

Poker TBA

The activities currently operating in the center has not been changed in over twenty years with many of the same individuals participating in them. An honor system was instituted initially to pay for the complimentary coffee and donuts provided by the facility for the participants however that was discontinued long ago. Now the facility has been providing coffee and donuts for free. As the neighborhood continues to gentrify the demands for more diverse activities have increased exponentially. You must develop a diverse group of activities for the millennials as well as baby boomers, single mothers, and new to the neighborhood and include fees for participation that would be reasonable to cover the operating costs of the program, i.e., staff member, equipment, etc. All listed activities above are to be opened operated scheduled and funded after all the issues have been addressed.

Youth Sports

Teams Practice

Football-Mon-Fri 3:00 pm- 9:00 pm (August-November) football fields.

Basketball: Mon-Sun 3:00 pm- 9:00 pm (December- March)- Indoor Basketball Court I -Youth & Women Indoor Basketball Court II- Mens League

Baseball: Mon-Fri 3:00 pm- 9:00 pm (March-October) Field I-Youth League Field II- Softball League

Soccer: Mon-Fri 3:00 pm (September-December)

Softball: Mens & Womens Leagues

The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore just recently passed the Youth Sports Protection Initiative. The initiative requires all youth sports organizations to undergo extensive training to protect young athletes who participate in youth sports. All organizations must have this training before they can use the facilities. However, you already have a substantial number of teams participating in leagues at the facility indoors and outdoors who have ALREADY PAID their money. However, you cannot find any documentation that payment was received or deposited into the facility account(s). The credit card machine has been inoperable for several years. According to staff past and present, payments made by those seeking to use the facility were subjected to cash or money order(s) payments only because many of the individuals in the neighborhood did not have to check accounts.

In addition, the Hispanic community has repeatedly requested to use the soccer field for their league. Their requests were received by the programming director but were summarily ignored. Now the city councilman for that district is complaining to the Director of Parks & Recreation (your boss) to try and prevent a lawsuit for racial bias and a planned protest march by the Hispanic community in West Baltimore. There is a scheduling conflict for the requested time and their deposit cannot be located. The team(s) playing during that time are coached by one of the staff members from the recreation center. You also find out through a review of the time clock print outs that the coach was practicing with the team while he was on the clock. All timesheets are signed by the program director because of the high turnover at the Facility Director position. In addition, you find out that all of the sports coaches have a paid position at the facility and are on the clock while coaching their teams. The bank and payroll records reflect that there are ghost employees on the payroll.

Because of the constant turnover, the program director is the only person who has unfettered access to the budget, accounts and all of the bank accounts. As facility director, you must correct the organizational dysfunction internally before any further development of the facilities (indoors and outdoors) proceeds and funding the project(s) begins. The Director of Parks & Recreation has given you the mandate to correct all the dysfunction found. All current and proposed programs are placed on hold as well as all sports leagues. In addition, because of the high level of crime in the area, you must provide security at the center inside and outside as well as security cameras, identification systems, and lighting because of complaints by the residents of the neighborhood.

Fitness Center & Classes

The fitness center has been in severe disrepair and has not been safely operated for several years as well. The facility is currently being used by the youth football teams all who are under- age and the Methadone/Drug Treatment Center and The Safe Streets Program on the other side of the facility. Much of the equipment is old in disrepair and does not have a warranty. The facility has no certified individuals working there and no identification or security measures in place to prevent anyone off the street from walking into the facility. After going through the office, you can find no records of insurance maintenance or certification for assigned personnel. There are currently no classes being conduct out of the facility and often it appears to be a hangout for Your experience at other facilities tells you that the minimum age of someone who desires to use the facility begins at 16 years of age.

West Side Methadone/Drug Treatment Center and The Safe Streets Program

The current relationship between the non-profit groups of the Westside Methadone Treatment Center and The Safe Streets Program is imbalanced, to say the least. There have been reports from the neighborhood watch and other residents that criminal activity has been taking place around the facilities and that much out it involves the individuals who are either participants in the programs or work there. Numerous shootings, drug- dealing and prostitution have been reported. The Safe Streets Program on the east side of Baltimore was shut down due to gang infiltration. There are rumors of the same happening on the west side.

The facility has an agreement with you to use the recreation facility several times a week but the individuals teaching the group fitness classes were supposed to compensate the facility for use. They claim that they have a signed agreement and paid all the money upfront. When asked how they paid they said by money order to an unknown account. You are dispatched to do an evaluation of the programs and to determine if the relationship with them is worth having them attached to a recreational center. They currently pay no rent, nor do they provide any value to the community surrounding them. In fact, they are considered detrimental to a community seeking to revitalize itself. Can Sojourner Douglass Recreation Center operate properly with a methadone clinic and a quasi-neighborhood watch/gang recruitment non-profit organization? The mandate by the city and the Department of Parks & Recreation is that the building and facilities should be used as a non-profit to benefit the indigenous people in need. Unless there is substantial evidence that their presence hurts the community.

CASE STUDY REQUIREMENTS!!!!!

Steps to Correcting the Organizational Dysfunction

1. Read carefully the entire document and the full scope of the challenges surrounding the center. Some involve personnel changes others involve following established rules to correct the issues others involve creating new rules/policies and procedures to correct and ensure that this does not happen again.

2. List all the challenges you see and perceive would happen if you acted on them or did not do anything.

3.You are to use the following formula to address the challenges in this case study.

4. Problem: Identify the problem, potential problems, hazards, liabilities, issues or challenge(s) that exist in the case study!

Response/Solution: Respond with a proper solution based upon what you would do like the (troubleshooter)/Facility Director of the Sojourner Douglass Recreation Center with a mandate to correct the challenges and resolve the issues including those that would potentially happen. Remember that you are to answer the questions by thinking below surface level and looking at based upon the effects on all the stakeholders in the community. You should respond as a manager and not an employee, think as if you are in-charge and responsible for the entire operation.

1.1) Address all the issues found, and potential problems hazards and liabilities discovered!

2.1) Create a master schedule for all the sporting events and activities listed in the document

3. 1)Schedule all individual programs and activities operating or not. Utilize Google or any other website to find a Master schedule for a recreation center as a rubric/ example for your project

Rationale: What is your rationale/reason for the decisions you made. Discuss your rationale! Before you decide you need to think of what may or may not happen when you make the decision. Your rationale just like your response should not be a one-word answer and should take into consideration that you are in charge and responsible for the facility. You are to use any and all available information to help you make the best possible decision and should be able to explain it.