Management plan beginnings : A guide for the novice : Dissertation presented as part requirement for Diploma in Parks and Recreation (Local Authority Option), Lincoln College

Abstract

1. How did management plans begin? 2. How does one begin a management plan? The purpose of this dissertation is to offer some answers to both these questions (hence the title Management Plan Beginnings). But the answers to the second question contribute the main theme.

Before the requirement for management plans, some sort of unwritten plan for management must have existed in most park departments. But now planning is required to be communicated in document form. In the small city or town, this responsibility may fall upon the park administrator and his assistant - people who obtained the positions they hold through their ability and background in horticulture. These people are horticulturalists, not planners. They may have never attempted to produce a document like a manuscript plan ever before. It was with these people in mind that this dissertation was compiled.

The writer, unfortunately, has not had any long-term experience in management plans. Therefore, most of this dissertation content depends on the experience and opinions of others. Many quotations have been used to express important points and views relating to specific topics. Hopefully that in this order different peoples' views will be considered in relation with others (rather than considered individually as separate writings, that result in a disjointed collection and not a flowing combination).

The resulting compilation is an attempt to arrange in sequence, information and advice so to be in a serviceable form.

To complete the dissertation, an example is given of a draft plan produced from a horticultural-based report. This will show the 'administrator-come-planner' (or any other form of novice) that a management plan is a statement of what they most likely already know (if they are familiar with their reserves).

Overall, the inexperience of' the writer has been valuable as an aid in understanding what other inexperienced people desire to know. Hopefully the compilation of the following quotes, explanations, facts and examples will be of benefit to the novice beginning management plans.