Update

Since the last time I have written not a lot has happened. I am involved in the transition phase of Downtown Intramurals. I have a program tonight with the spring festival. I am in charge of dodge ball inferno. I am in charge of having the referee and I will be there to make sure the program runs safely as well as I am there to be in charge of risk management. I am going to be the one to administer CPR and first AID. I am also getting ready for a meeting with Dr. Friedman the dean of the college for downtown. I am also preparing for the volleyball league on Monday night. This will be the fourth night and we have two more nights to come. I have been in charge of ordering the championship shirts to hand to the winning teams of the league. I will keep you updated as things occur.

Link to the ASU Downtown Intramural Sports page for Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=47813438078

Link to Recreation at the Downtown Phoenix campus

http://students.asu.edu/node/1839

Program Handbook Outline

Program Handbook:
1. How to register for an intramural event
o YMCA front desk
o Online registration
2. Team captain responsibilities
o Rules specific to that intramural sport
o Intramural policies and procedures
o League changes
o Schedules
3. Participant eligibility for YMCA use
o ASU students
o Faculty
o Alumni
4. Participant eligibility for parks use
o Open to Public
o ASU students
o YMCA memberships
o Alumni
5. Policies and procedures
o ID required
o Refunds
o League Play
o Injuries
o Awards
6. Team sportsmanship rating
o Outstanding
o Acceptable
o Unacceptable
o Season Ending
7. Academic Colleges
o Public Programs
o School of Journalism
o School of Nursing
8. YMCA contributions to recreational sports program
o In charge of Registration
o Transportation
o Facility use
9. City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation contributions to recreational sports program
o Facility use
10. Arizona State University contributions
o Director of Intramurals
o Marketing
o Hiring Supervisors and referees
11. Contact information
o YMCA contact
o ASU contact
o City of Phoenix Contact


Project deadline is May 5, 2009.

I must have contact with all the deans of the Downtown campus to discuss what to do that will integrate recreation with the academic colleges, have their support, and make connections with students. I must have a meeting with the YMCA and City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation to discuss what we can do to make sure that the program will run smoothly and everyone is on the same page. The meeting will happen in the middle of April. I hope to have everything done before the new intramural league supervisor takes over my position.

Up to date Information

Last night we had our focus group. Three people showed up to express their opinions dealing with campus recreation. Here are some of the suggestions that we heard. Have competition between clubs and student organizations on the Downtown campus. Also use the CA’s and the first week of move in for the students to get them involved in intramurals. We have identified the reasons why students should participate. Here are some of those reasons retention of students, keeping connections within living communities, and staying healthy. There are also communities inside Taylor Place that should be tapped into in the semesters to come. With all of this information, the Downtown Recreational Sports Program can become the premier program in the urban setting. I have to make a program handbook for future league supervisors and will be finishing that soon. I am also going to be making the fall 2009 schedule that should be finished soon.

March

After spring break is the time for these programs to get off the ground. I am going to have my first tournament for any program in this semester on March 22, 2009. It is going to be badminton. There is also indoor volleyball and flag football leagues that are coming up. I am getting excited for these intramurals to follow through. I have not much more to say until the focus group happens on the 25th of this month. Which as of now I only have one person coming to give their thoughts. The deadline to RSVP is tomorrow and another mass email has been sent out today. I can only hope that this focus group will go through and the downtown Recreational Sports Program will flouish for years to come.

To grow and foster ..

As spring break nears and a focus group still has not happened I begin to see that it is not as easy to get a focus group together and I have the task of getting two. One group is for on campus students and another for students who live off campus. I am still in the process of making a formal letter to have sent out to the students to have them RSVP. I am watching the calendar fly by and I have still had no programs. I am also seeing that doing your own marketing is a hassle. I have just learned today that my email address of the flyers that are all over campus is wrong. I looked over as well as had other look at them to make sure they were correct and it is now the end of February and I am still editing the flyers.

Last week though I ordered equipment with the budget I have because I decided even if not one sports goes through on our schedule that the recreational sports program will still have equipment for years to come. I am excited about everything good and bad because it is real life experience and I will not get this in a classroom. I am thankful for the opportunity that I have and am humble about it all as well.

Focus Groups

Since my last post I have done thinking on how to bring intramurals alive on the downtown Phoenix campus. I have met with the web designer at Arizona State University on Tempe's campus to get the website up and running. I have laid out the design that downtown recreational sports program site will be looking like and have put in the request to have it go up in the near future. I also had my first business lunch. It was fun and we went to hamburger works on 15th Ave and Thomas. It is just like the Chuck Box on Tempe's campus. I set up this meeting with Phoenix Parks and Recreation to discuss how to handle the focus group for the community. The decision was made to make a survey to find out how we could better the intramural program with community members. Also this week I handled some things for the focus group for students. I have made questions that relate to what the students are dealing with in school and their leisure time. I am not rushing this process because I would like the best outcome to get the students involved. I am also going to be doing a focus group for YMCA members. I will be hoping to meet with them in the next two weeks. As all of the focus groups are met with I will then bring the collective group together for a final session so everyone is happy and on the same page about the intramural program. I know a lot of good will come of this and the downtown Phoenix community will be impacted positively. I hope everyone is doing well on their internships.

Time Flys

It seems like week six but I think it is only week four. I have not been doing as much as I wanted to do because it is slow. There have been no sign ups for any of the programs and I am thinking of doing a feedback session with student’s downtown to better the quality and understand what needs to change to make the Downtown Recreational Sports Program grow in this urban setting. I am typing all the possible questions that could be asked to get all aspects of what the program needs to do and move forward in this challenging time. It is really exciting though to have the opportunity to grow this program from the beginning and lay the foundation down to make the Downtown Campus a place for growth in the recreation field. I am setting up a time, place, and people who I will be contacting to get this in motion. I am waiting for my budget proposal to come through by student government. In the mean time, I am also trying to develop a website that will streamline all the information that the program has to offer. In the middle of all this, I am applying to graduate school and am hoping to further my studies in the recreational field. This internship will past by so quickly I will not really get the chance to soak it all in but I will try my best to live in this moment as the Intramural League Supervisor.