CABI Information, May 18, 2000

This volume compares, contrasts and suggests similarities among various definitions and models of therapeutic recreation. These definitions range from recreation services as purely enjoyable, to definitions that while still enjoyable possess more goal directed and treatment oriented objectives. Comprising an introduction, three sections and a conclusion, Section one contains six chapters that establish the philosophical, conceptual, historical, and political underpinnings of recreation and persons with disabilities. Section two includes six chapters that provide general and specific information about people with disabilities, while section three discusses the recreation service delivery system and trends related to service delivery (five chapters). The book advocates a people-centered approach which recognizes that people with disabilities are people who have the same wants and needs as anyone else and deserve the right to be at the centre of recreation and therapeutic recreation services that are ostensibly for them.

Creative Forecasting, June 2000
Pegi Schlis, CTRS, ACC

Developing Recreation Skills in Persons with Learning Disabilities is a 304 page publication dedicated to professionals who deal with people with learning disabilities. The author notes that a person with learning disabilities actually has an “invisible disability.” He looks quite normal, may articulate and express himself quite well, but in a given situation for some unknown reason experiences difficulties in reading, performing simple math problems, remembering, or misinterpreting what he hears in a particular conversation.

Chapters in Developing Recreation Skills in Persons with Learning Disabilities include Introduction, Learning Disabilities, Awareness, Leisure, Delivery of Recreation Programs, Specific Accommodations and Modifications of Recreation Activities, Resources, and Appendices (case studies, assessments, evaluations). The author presents modifications, adaptations of recreational environments, and compensatory strategies that allow individuals with learning disabilities to participate fully in recreation activities. The book also contains case studies and exercises to explore family leisure interests and satisfaction, discover family members’ perceptions of one another, and analyze social behavior. Developing Recreation Skills in Persons with Learning Disabilities also contains strategies designed to modify behavior and improve social skills.

Developing Recreation Skills in Persons with Learning Disabilities is a very good resource for Activity and Recreation Professionals, counselors, educators, and parents who would like to know more about adaptations and delivery of recreation/leisure opportunities. It can also be very helpful for use with other special populations especially in the area of cognitive impairments. Professionals working with individuals that have head injuries, attention deficit disorder, strokes, and communicative disorders might find the information and resources supplied in this book beneficial to planning and implementing leisure activities.

World Leisure & Recreation, No. 1/2000
Francis Lobo

Historically, the education of sport and leisure managers has lent towards the community development model. Few of the early sport and leisure courses included the financial aspects to sport and leisure services. There was no existing need for this type of knowledge for managers of services. However, as times have changed and managers are required to be more accountable and complete for the recreation dollar, the financial aspects of sport and leisure services is now a necessary adjunct to the training of undergraduates. This new book by Brayley and McLean is a timely contribution to the education of sport and leisure professionals.

The book has four main sections: concepts and practices of financial management; revenue management; expenditure management; and long-term financial planning. Each section in turn has from two to four chapters expanding on section themes. In the first section on concepts and practices of financial management, chapters consist of economic principles, financial management in public, private non-profit and commercial sport and leisure organizations and organization of financial resource. Basic economics is included for the development of skills and strengthening of decision-making abilities. Operating in the three sectors requires knowledge of public funds, funding through donations and enterprise activities and motivations of profit, particularly with the commercial sector. The awareness of administrative systems of the organization is critical to the success of the financial manager.

The authors believe that revenue management is a critical skill for the manager. So in chapters in Section B major sources of income are identified, pricing principles and strategies are presented, the process of grant seeking is carefully detailed and philanthropy and fundraising are explored. The chapters on revenue management lay the foundation on expenditure management.

The third section deals with expenditure management and three chapters are allocated to accounting/reporting; budget preparation; and budget formats. Skills of bookkeeping, accounting and financial reporting are meant to be developed in the first part of Section C. In the following chapters explanations are given as to why budgets are such important tools. The chapters describe how budgets are prepared and managed.

The final section of the book deals with long-term financial planning. Elements of a business plan are described and explanations are given as to how information may be used by the plan developer, suppliers, investors and creditors. The business plan as an essential support and capital budgeting as it applies to public, private non-profit and commercial sport and leisure services are discussed.

Managing Financial Resources in Sport and Leisure Service Organizations is a valuable text for undergraduates who have little or no background or experience in managing financial resources. It is useful not only ion improving their financial management skills, but also enables them to be more accountable for resources at their disposal and improve their revenue earning capacities.

Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, Summer 2000
Andrew Holdnak

Citing a dearth of information, particularly textbooks, in the emerging field of sport management, Sawyer and smith have developed a text that captures the essence of management for clubs, recreation and sport

Attempting to distill the information on such a wide range of topics as leadership, budgeting, facility planning, marketing, human resource and risk management is a formidable task. As is generally the problem, breadth is traded for depth. Such is the case for The Management of Clubs, Recreation and Sport: Concepts and Applications, a text that covers so many topics that more questions are raised than answered. To their credit, the authors acknowledge and embrace this position.

This book was developed and intended for us in a capstone course—encouraging students to create a bridge between their coursework in sport management and practical experience, and to serve as the basis for discussion of issues common in the management of sports sand clubs. It would also be an attractive and useful addition to the practitioner’s library. In either situation, the reader must rely on personal practical experience to keep the topics in perspective. The resource centers on club management “best practices,” rather than providing a survey of club and sport management ideas. Each chapter contains numerous, useful checklists of issues for consideration as well as summaries and self-test. The appendices are extensive and detailed providing additional reference material and examples.

A major strength of this resource is that the authors, Sawyer and Smith, have broad experience and are well known in the area of clubs, recreation, and sport management. They have written the content in such a way to be insightful, comfortable and understandable to students and practitioners.

The reader is challenged, however, in several notable ways beyond the focus on breadth over depth. The authors, for example, never completely explain the settings to which their material can or should be applied. In fact, they introduce the content with the contention that “management is management,” as which point the text alternates dramatically between focuses on for-profit fitness centers and high school, college and university recreation and extramural sports programs. The reader would be well guided by an introductory section that discusses how management varies depending upon facility, agency and mission. Another more problematic are is that chapter organization. The book is divided into four parts: (1) Human resources and Planning, (2) Financial Management, (3) Marketing, and (4) Facility and Risk Management; the chapters, however, do not logically follow this breakdown. Programming for Success is included in Part 1 (Human Resources and Planning) and Facility and Event Management is included in Part 3 (Facility and Risk Management). Perhaps most confusing is the inclusion of Promotions and Advertising and Membership Retention in Part 2 (Financial Management) rather than Marketing (Part 3).

Overall, the book makes a contribution to the field in that it invites the reader to consider the management of sport from a variety of perspectives. It is, however, best considered a valuable reference addition to a practitioner or student library, rather than a stand-alone course text. Dr. Holdnak’s area of primary interest is in commercial and resort recreation and coastal tourism. He has special expertise and interest in recreation administration throughout the leisure industry, and regularly teaches courses focusing on tourism, administration and management.

Journal of Tourism Research

, Vol. 38, #4
Jonathan N. Goodrich

Measuring Tourism Performance is an informative compilation of some 47 different indices used in the tourism and travel industry to measure various aspects of tourism performance. Each index is defined and the formula tested, and the advantages and shortcomings are discussed.

The book is divided into five chapters, as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Travel and Tourism Indices

Chapter 3: Activity/Trip Indices

Chapter 4: Geographical/Population Indices

Chapter 5: Price/Economic Indices (which also discusses miscellaneous indices)

In chapter 1, Tzung-Cheng Huan and Joseph T. O'Leary define what an index is; discuss briefly some types of tourism indices; and cover some of their uses by manager, planners, and researchers. An index can also be either a simple aggregate index or a weighted aggregate index. An index number can be defined as a number used to indicate change in magnitude (e.g., quantity, price, and cost) compared with the magnitude at some specified time usually taken as 100 (p.2).

A listing of some of the indices in the book is instructive. For example, some travel and tourism indices listed and discussed in chapter 2 are accommodation index, investment performance index, restaurant growth index, and tourist intensity index. Similarly, chapter 3 lists and discusses trip indices, such as activity index, travel frequency index, and trip index. Chapter 4 addresses many geographical/population indices, including brand development index, compactness index, destination perception index, directional bias index, recreation index, and travel propensity index. Finally, chapter 5 lists and discusses many price/economic indices, as well as miscellaneous indices. These include consumer price indices, the Dow Jones Travel Index, relative price index, tourist sales index, demographic index, loyalty index, and tourism attractiveness index.

The different indices offer several practical management advantages to measure and compare a state or regional tourist activity, assist in setting standards, calculate various touristic activities, and help with planning and making projections (p. 105). Some important issues that have an impact on the use of these indices include the availability and collection of data, the sampling frame, and the availability of computers for data mining and calculations.

Many of the indices discussed in the book are used in tandem, some are modified, and some are rarely used. A list of the most widely used indices by practitioners in the tourism and travel industry versus a list of those indices that are mostly of academic interest would have been helpful. Similarly, it would have been informative to see a list of indices categorized by their use and importance in the various parts of the tourism industry (e.g., cruise, airlines, domestic tourism, parks, and retail sales). I realize the latter would pose a challenge.

Measuring Tourism Performance is one part of a new series of monographs that attempts to explore in depth narrowly focused but important theories and/or practices in tourism. It is useful because it brings together in one volume the most important indices used in tourism. Scholars, practitioner, and students will find the book helpful and convenient.

Green Teacher, Spring 2000
Trudy A. Harrold

"INTERPRETATION is an educational activity that aims to reveal meanings about our cultural and natural resources." Thus Larry Beck and Ted Cable begin their recent contribution to the field of interpretive literature, Interpretation for the 21st Century: Fifteen Guiding Principles for Interpreting Nature and Culture. The reader immediately understands that one of this book's goals is to clear away misconceptions about interpretation as a field of endeavor. This goal is well met through an engaging, contemporary style and an approach that is rooted in an historical context.

A philosophy of interpretation began to emerge with Enos Mills' book Adventures of a Nature Guide and Essays in Interpretation, published in 1920, followed by Freeman Tilden's Interpreting Our Heritage in 1957. These books, and others over the years, have provided the basis for current concepts and practice of interpretation. Beck and Cable build on these traditions, extending to 15 the six principles of interpretation that originated with Mills and Tilden, and relating these principles to current and emerging issues. The philosophy, process and practice of interpretation are all addressed. With this kind of depth,

Interpretation for the 21st Century promises to take its place as a new classic in the field.

Each of the 15 principles of interpretation is given a chapter of its own in which the authors elaborate the principle with examples and discussion. As an example, Chapter 3, The Importance of Story, introduces the principle that "The interpretive presentation-as a work of art-should be designed as a story that informs, entertains and enlightens." A discussion of different forms of story is followed by pointers for keeping a story pertinent and on track. A list of imaginative ways to treat knowledge (such as by using analogy, exaggeration of time scales, repetition) leads to a discussion of the uses of arts such as music, storytelling, poetry, drama and dance in interpretive presentation. The chapter ends on a philosophical note, asserting that listeners' experiences of a story can be profound if it is relevant and reveals deeper meanings of place and time. Other topics covered in equal breadth include sparking interest (Provocation), thematic design (Holistic Interpretation) and communication techniques (Techniques before Art). In addition, the book provides suggestions for shaping materials to serve different age groups from young children to seniors. On a practical note, the book incorporates a good bibliography and contains many quotes from other sources, enlivening the text and enriching the ideas presented.

Readers involved in interpretive work at centres for cultural and natural resources will find this book a useful overview to the profession; they can also benefit from the extensive chapter on the uses of technology in creating new interpretive experiences. As an in-depth look at interpretation, the book will also serve the needs of student interpreters who are still developing skills. Educators at all levels should find this book valuable for understanding the process of interpretation when they take groups to interpretive centres. Finally, discussions about partnerships, volunteers and economics are insightful and could prompt teachers to explore new relationships in their own educational settings.

Beck and Cable conclude their book with the idea that interpretation is a gift-to receive and to share. The book leaves the reader not only with a greater understanding of the interpretive process but also with inspiration-a gift from the authors.

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The Journal of Environmental Education, Winter 2003
Dru Clarke

Make a place on your reference shelf for this extension and enhancement of Freeman Tilden’s Interpreting Out Heritang; Beck and Cable have honed interpretation into a viable and necessary art for the 21st century. Although Tilden’s guide, complemented by the thinking of other interpretive giants (Enos Mills, for example), has helped to create many effective interpreters of culture and nature, it is dated in language and scope. The authors have captured Tilden’s essence but have refined and enriched his original guidelines for contemporary lifestyles and audiences.

As I read the chapters, each devoted to clear expression of one of interpretation’s principles, I foundmyself nodding in satisfied agreement with their sensible but well-researched and theory-based perspectives and wished that I had possessed such a book when I began teaching almost four decades ago. Created for professional interpreters (for whom the book is one of the selected texts in the certifiction process for the National Association for Interpretation) as well as anyone who works with diverse audiences in varied settings, Interpretation for the 21st Century is instructive on many levels and can be a useful tool for naturalists, zoo keepers, aquarists, historians, guides, docents, and teachers - even custodians, receptionists, and grounds keepers, who also greet visitors at environmental sites.

The parallels with teacher preparation are uncanny. The chapter “Lighting a Spark” may be compared to the first of the five Es, engagement, of the learning cycle. The chapter on holistic interpretation is reminiscent of constructivism and “reader response” - learning colored by whole-life experiences. “Enough is Enough” demonstrates that simplicity, like good experimental design, is elegant (and parsimonious). And “Importance of the Story” encourages the treatment of knowledge imaginatively by analogy, metaphor, and anecdote. Althongh Tilden focused on creating different interpretive programs for youth, Beck and Cable extend the need for specialized interpretation throughout the life span. Discriminating use of eloquent quotations sets the stage for personal reflection on each principle. Thoughtfully inserted in each chapter are particularly insightful vignettes from interpretive experiences, which further support the veracity and effectiveness of each principle. The authors’ attention to common but ineffective practices, such as asking an audience, “Do you have any questions?” is welcome and provocative in forcing reflection about trditional methods. An appendix offers resources for readers to explore, notes provide extensive reading on specific principles, and the bibliography is expansive and revealing.

The essence of what interpretatin can and should be is no fortunate piece of luck but can be found in Beck and Cable’s book.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, April 2001

Natural Resources and the Informed Citizen is a complete introduction and guide to citizen involvement in the preservation and appreciation of natural resources. Beginning with informative chapters on the value of, and demands upon, natural resources, Steve Dennis proceeds to survey the impact upon our natural resources by outdoor recreation, the federal resource management agencies (including the National Park Service, The U.S. Forest Service, The Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Also covered is the impact of state, special district, county, and municipalities involvements, as well as citizen and activist involvement in natural resources issues. All the major issue categories are examined including forestry and timber, wildlife management, range management and grazing, water management, and mineral resource exploitation. Highly recommended for personal, academic, professional, and community library environmental studies reference collections, Natural Resources and the Informed Citizen is enhanced with an appendix of selected Internet sites, a glossary, index, and ”Author’s Page.”

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The Buzz, April 19, 2001
Dan Barnett

Steve Dennis of Forest Ranch is a professor of parks and natural resources management at Chico State University. His new book, “Natural Resources and the Informed Citizen” ($44.95 in paperback from Sagamore Publishing) grew out of a course he teaches with the same name. The book is accessible and inviting to the general reader, and offers a balanced (but not neutral) view of the place of natural resources within the human community.

“This book,” he writes in the preface, “looks at the way we make decisions about natural resources in the United States, so it is mostly a political perspective on the subject.” But politics, for the author, is not a dirty work. It’s akin to “practical wisdom” (when practiced well) since the political process, with its give and take of compromise, is designed to help us get along with each other.

What Dennis offers is an easy-to-digest history of the politics of natural resources, a history that charts the course for the environmental movement. Before and during the 19th century exploitation ran amuck. Dennis writes that “even the mismanagement of a single tree pointed to the irony of a greater stupidity. Realizing they might be looking at one of the largest living things on earth, in 1854, entrepreneurs erected scaffolding and set about meticulously removing the lower 116 feet of the bark on a tree known as the ‘Mother of the Forest’ in the Calaveras Grove of Big Trees in sierran California.”

The bark was displayed in New York as one of American’s wonders. Critics of the display when it moved to London noted that “were such a tree to have grown in Europe, it would have been protected by law. But in America, such a marvel could be purchased, stripped, and shipped off ‘for a shilling show.”

The irony? “Within a few years, a small fire swept through the North Grove of Calaveras Sequoia gigantea. The thick bark of healthy redwood trees protected them from the heat and flames. But the exposed Mother of the Forest succumbed, leaving today only a blackened eighty-foot toothpick as a monument to human greed.”

What arose as the result of these tragedies was the preservation philosophy of John Muir. Yellowstone was the first national park, established by Congress in 1872, using what Dennis calls the “worthless lands argument.” That is, part of the justification for setting aside such land was that the Yellowstone region was “worthless” for anything but “scenery and tourism.”

The philosophy of conservation (“wise use”) also developed during the late 19th century but found itself at loggerheads with the preservation perspective over a valley in Yosemite National Park named Hetch Hetchy. Conservationists wanted to build a reservoir; preservationists would have none of it.

Finally, in the “modern era” comes multiple use and ecosystems management.

The environmental movement, Dennis says, “grew in the reworked soil of the ancestral progressive movement. The demand for government action was answered by legislation and regulation kindled in controversy and beckoning for compromise. The optimistic concept that natural resources could be ‘all things to all people’ was expressed in the doctrine of multiple use.” In laws established for the U.S. Forest Service in 1960.

But any satisfying compromise was hard to come by, and today what is called ecosystems management seems a more carefully considered alternative. “The idea that we are integrated with an ecosystem and should manage it as a peer rather than a master is gaining a foothold” as “ our ethic toward the land continues to evolve.”

Dennis himself writes that thought he has endeavored to present an unbiased view of the issues, “I admit I’m a strong believer in intelligent resource stewardship.” It’s as if Dennis is saying that though human beings are part of an ecological web (where nonhuman organisms are important in their own right), human values take precedence; yet those values themselves ought to include a sense of stewardship on behalf of generations yet to come. By contrast, more extreme environmental perspectives would denigrate human values and more extreme “management” advocates would find only utilitarian uses of the natural world. Both, I think Dennis believes, are off course.

Dennis’ book is not a primer for extreme action but an encouragement for all of us to become involved in making policy for all of us.

Next time: water rights and endangered species.

Athletic Business , May 2001
Elizabeth Huddleston

This second edition to the 1978 original, which was titled Productive Management of Leisure Services Organizations: A Behavioral Approach (John Wiley & Sons), addresses the ways in which the field of leisure services has changed since the first edition, but without dropping the original book’s emphasis–the management of human resources. Incorporated ideas from a variety of settings, including government, nonprofit and commercial organizations, the book is meant to assist recreation, park and leisure services students and practitoners in understanding and applying the most forward-thinking management practices to all aspects of the field, including financial and legal issues, as well as information technology.

Tourism Culture & Communication, Volume 4, Number 2, 2003
Denis Harrington, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

The book is divided into seven chapters around which key aspects of international tourism policy is explored. As the title suggest, the book is international in focus and each section incorporates some discussion of international issues affecting individual country policies, tourism bodies, and organizations. The book aims to explain the role that tourism policy plays in integrating the economic, business, and environmental benefits of tourism to “improve the global quality of life and provide a foundation for peace and proserity” (p.ix). It also seeks to elaborate upon the importance of international trade in tourism and the future growth prospects and potential for the industry as a whole.

On closer examination the book shows itself to be strong in certian areas, particularly in the examination of policy projections (chapter 6) and also the review of sustainable tourism (chapter 5). In research terms, the discussion of future policy issues is particularly useful given the need for both increased dialogue and research in international tourism policy generally. From an Irish perspective, the book is particularly valuable given the continued strategic importance of tourism to the Irish economy and the growing significance of tourism policy-related issues for tourist organizations. Indeed, there is a strong consensus supporting the need for research in may areas identified in chapter 7, and certain chapters add in important ways to existing Irish and international studies in this area.

The discussion throughout is well researched and draws on established theories and contributions in developing arguments and ideas. It also builds upon previous work in the area and offers important new insights as outlined in chapter 6. Further, the author raises a number of interesting questions in the latter part of the text and proposed further areas for research investigation.

The material is clearly structured and much thought has been given to the topics under consideration. For example, the author takes account of new and emerging agendas as well as traditioanl themes in the international tourism context.

The author is to be commended for the well-documented chapter notes and supplemental readings included on pages 89-101. These provide important sources for those readers interested in particular areas and usefully elaborate on aspects of tourism policy illuminated upon within the text.

Drawing together the foregoing observations, it would be fair to say that the text is ideally suited for students of tourism at an undergraduate level. Both the structure of the material and ideas presented make it a valuable source text for students at this level.

The Journal of Environmental Education, Spring 2003
Dru Clarke

In a world struggling to find hope, the work of some who have chosen, against all odds, to commit their personal resources, talents, and their lives, can offer inspiration. But their work is often overlooked and overshadowed by more dramatic world events. So too, are some parts of the world which , at first glance, are so complex and so difficult to survive in that we tend to ignore their very existence. This book showcases the lives of extraordinary people in West Africa who have made “commitments of the heart” to protect the valued wildlife and ecosystems in which they live, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. Ted Cable, a professor of forestry and natural resource management at Kansas State University, tells their stories as an artful interpreter, and, in so doing, evokes in us awe of what a single individual can accomplish despite seemingly insurmountable barriers to success. These stories offer hope.

Following a foreword by Jane Goodall, the book’s preface and introduction provide the historical and ecological framework for the conservationists’ profiles, which Cable created during the 1990s through numerous interviews in their respective West African countries. The inside cover offers a color map of the countries depicted in the stories’ settings. The body of the book is divided into themes: Trees for Timbuktu, Championig Chimpanzes, Modern Noahs, Natioal Parks, and the Politics of Conservation. Sustainability, described by the auther as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” seems a concept foreign to most natives, who are poverty stricken and merely trying to survive, but sustainability is the binding, althongh problematice, thread that ties the themes together. The status of wildlife is sorry: habitat destruction; shifting cultivation (slash and burn); unbridled population growtih; and hunting, especially “bushmeat” for food, have taken a toll on indigenous animals.

Each conservationist’s story is compelling and remarkable, and some have evolved through the most unlikely and serendipitous sequence of events. Take Peter Jenkins and Liza Gadsby, “the drill team.” Through a series of chance meetings with Nigerian forestry students and an African American from Chicago who was computerizing the forestry department’s record-keeping system, they connected with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation and signed on to do a gorilla survey. During the survey, they discovered drills, beautiful and endangered primates, and Gadsby was given a baby one to care for. “We came in through the backdoor to conservation, knowing nothing about it. We can’t stop. Who will do this if we don’t?” Gadsby said.

Other conservationists offer sage advice, especially to foreigners who proffer their help to native peoples. Rosalind Alp, one of the featured chimpanzee conservationist, sees the Africans as needing to tackle their own conservation problems and offers alternatives sensitive to their cultural beliefs.

Hair-raising anecdotes, hilarious moments, and disheartening events accompany each conservationist’s story. Drawn by the campfire, over 300 buffalo bedded down and spent the night surrounding Pierre Poilecot’s tent. On another occasion, he was bathing and shaving in the Camoe River (Cote d’Ivoire), and an animated gray mass-a hippo-galloped toward him. Sometimes the stories are not funny. Park rangers are murdered every year, often by poachers. Enivronmental advocates such as Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian writer who opposed th impairment of wetlands by an oil company, have been tried and hanged on questionable charges. Greed and power dominate the politics of many West African nations, often leading to more misery for the poor and more impoverishment of the wildlife and lands.

Although fear and force appear to some of those profiled to be the means of the end - conservation- others hold that education at a youg age offers the most promise for a sustainable future for West African peoples and their lands and wildlife. One of the many poignant quotes that Cable is fond of using is one by Benjamin Disraeli: “Youth is the trustee of posterity.” If children can be taught to be gun-toting soldiers and assassins, as they were in war-torn Liberia, they can learn to love life and the land that supports it.

These conservationists are models for everyone, but especially the young. Teachers, interpreters, and anyone who cares about protecting the integrity of living systems on Earth, be it in West Africa or western Kansas, and promoting a sustainable land ethic in all citizens, be they African or American, can draw inspiration and hope from this book. By Cable’s commitment, we are offered a portal into a little-known but heroic landscape where miracles can and do still happen.

Sagamore Publishing Advisory Board member e-mail feedback, 8-20-03
John Harden, MWR

Although Recreation Programming, Fourth Editionis written as a text book, I find it a valued manual for incumbent administrators, managers, supervisors, and programmers. Rossman and Schlatter write both as highly trained leisure scientists and as educators who recognize that scholarship stands in the service of practitionership. In Recreation Programming they render the contemporary “quest for program design and delivery” not only accessible but also relevant to the core of our professional output.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this “first among equals” publication. I look forward to the fifth edition.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, January 2004

Nutrition educator Thomas H. Sawyer, former coach Michael G. Hypes, and athletic trainer Joe Brown, deftly combine their knowledge, experience, and expertise to make A Guide to Sport Nutrition, a truly comprehensive resource and reference accessibly written for people of all walks of life, but most especially for student athletes, their parents, coaches, and trainers. Individual chapters cover individual nutrients, maintaining a physically healthy weight, particular nutritional concerns for the active life of an athlete, and more. A Guide to Sport Nutrition is very highly recommended for personal and academic sports and athletics reference collections and reading lists.

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Jan Milligan, Director of Camping & Environmental Education
Camp Sealth, Camp Fire USA

Truly mainstreaming youth with disabilities in our outdoor programs can be challenging and expensive. This book has given me a wealth of reasons to keep improving our inclusion practices and how to do it for the greatest good for all the kids. The book includes hundreds of proven practices for staffing, inexpensive solutions to complicated problems, and advice from many of the best professionals in this field. As a result of my contact with these people and their ideas, my camp has become known as one of the most successful in the country at including youth with disabilities and mainstreaming them into camp programs. The research tools provided by the authors in the book and accompanying CD will save any agency thousands of dollars and much staff time; the tools are more sophisticated than most others being used in outcomes research.

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Kevin Sullivan, Camp Director, CYO Camp Rancho Framasa
Mary Beth O'Brien, Assistant Camp Director

We are pleased to have been involved in the creation of the book Including Youth with Disabilities in Outdoor Programs: Best Practices, Outcomes, and Resources. As an inclusive summer camp and outdoor education center, we are dedicated to providing programming that is welcoming to youth of all abilities. Through our involvement in the National Inclusive Camp Practices (NICP) study and in the writing of this publication, we have gained insight into the best practices in this field. It is also very satisfying to be part of an effort to make inclusion more recognized, accepted and implemented in outdoor recreation as a whole. Including Youth with Disabilities is the final product of over 3 years of effort in an ambitious project which provides both research-based support for, and practical advice about, including youth with disabilities in outdoor programs. This publication has been a resource for us in improving programs and in educating our stakeholders about our inclusive efforts. We feel it is both a positive contribution to the academic literature and a practical resource for professionals, students and anyone interested in inclusive camping and outdoor recreation.

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Mark Wurzbacher, President
Wurzbacher and Associates
Human Service Consultants Takoma Park, Maryland

Including Youth with Disabilities in Outdoor Programs is the most comprehensive and useful text available on inclusive camping in the United States. Making use of results from the landmark National Inclusive Camp Practices (NICP) Project, the authors present the first major in-depth look at this emergent and exciting field, including "best practices" from across the country, and provide considerable thoughtful and practical advice for organizations that want to bring children and youth with disabilities into the "mainstream" of the traditional American camping experience, either for the first time or as part of an ongoing effort to do so. The text is well organized, and relatively easy to read, with a lot of "how-to-do" information and examples from the field, such that it has much of value and use to everyday camping practitioners. And for organizations that are serious about evaluating the quality of the camping experiences that they provide, the authors have included several instruments of their own design from the NICP Project, including step-by-step information on how to use them, to measure various aspects of inclusion, as well as independence, socialization, and other behavioral outcomes for all campers, regardless of their disability status. If you care about inclusion in recreation, and want to do away with the notion that "special needs" children and youth "need" their own separate programs, this book is a must read!

Wisconsin Bookwatch, April 2004

A very highly recommended contribution to professional and school district special education resource reference collections, Music Therapy and Leisure for Persons with Disabilitiesby board certified music therapist and music teacher Alacia L.Barksdale is an informative instructional guide for educators, parents, and therapistis seeking to utilize music therapy to help children of all ages cope with their learning disabilities. From developing an appropriate music therapy treatment plan; to organizing a music therapy program, goals and objectives to be achieved in community-based settings; and so much more. Music Therapy and Leisure for Persons with Disabilitiesis a candid and welcome assessment of the means to make the most of music as an aid to not only learning, but fully partaking of life itself.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, May 2004
James A. Cox

Co-written by Phyllis Coyne (an Autism Specialist for Columbia Regional Program) and Ann Fullerton (a developer of self-determination emphasis curriculums for austim spectrum disorder people), Supporting Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Recreation is a deftly presented instructional guide for parents and educators responsible for raising and educating autism spectrum children, and with particular respect to leisure pastimes and pursuits. Individual chapters cogently address special planning and preparations to make; camp programs especially for autism spectrum disorder individuals; strategies often used to develop recreational skills; and more. An accessibly written, down-to-earth guide, Supporting Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Recreation is an informative and very welcome contribution to both Disability Parenting collections and Special Educational reference shelves.

Library Bookwatch, June 2004

Introduction to Leisure Services: Career Perspectives is the collaborative effort of Richard Kraus, Elizabeth Barber, and Ira Shapiro. With opening chapters covering recreation and leisure in American life and the organized leisure-service system in place today, Introduction to Leisure Services goes on to descriptively address public recreation, park and leisure-service agencies; non-profit, volunteer oriented, leisure-service agencies; commercial recreation businesses; armed forces and employee-service programs; campus and private-membership recreation; therapeutic recreation services; contemporary sports management; travel, tourism and hospitality; and career perspectives in leisure-service agencies. Enhanced with a bibliography, an author/subject index, and two appendices (“Listing of Organizations and Societies” and “Suggested Class Assignments and Student Projects”), Introduction to Leisure Services is an enthusiastically recommended addition to academic library collections and an ideal textbook for leisure, sports, and recreational services curriculums.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, August 2004
James A. Cox

The collaborative effort of Thomas H. Sawyer, Michael G. Hypes, Julie Ann Hypes, Financing the Sport Enterprise focuses on the basics of financial management especially for students in sports management curricula and professional managers. A comprehensive survey, Financing the Sport Enterprise covers basic economics, sales operations, fundraising, financial accountability, planning, and purchasing. Financing the Sport Enterprise is an expertly written and presented compendium, rounded out with appendices detailing specific sports finance matters such as a glossary of box/ticket office terms, how to sample insurance companies offering appropriate programs, and more.

Reference & Research Book News, November 2004
Jane Erskine, Editor

Sawyer (Indiana State University) provides students in sport management with a survey of traditional and innovative aspects of financial management. Coverage includes foundations of sport finance, financial accountability and planning, financial development, sales operations, fundraising, and financial risk management. Appendices provide references such as a sport sponsorship preparation and proposal outline, a concession lease agreement, guidelines on non-profit organization. No background in financial concepts is assumed.

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Can you imagine a community without Girls Scouts or the YMCA or Junior Achievement? For decades, these youth-serving organizations have enhanced the quality of life in communities across the country. These youth-serving organizations have dedicated professional staffs and thousands of volunteers. And each year, college students prepare to work in theses organizations to "make a difference" in the lives of young people.

American Humanics, a national alliance including 70 colleges and universities and 18 of the largest youth-serving national organizations, is dedicated to recruiting, educating, and certifying professionals to lead nonprofit organizations. These college graduates are the professionals who dedicate their lives to the development of youth. The disciplinary fields of social work, sociology, biology, psychology, education, and others provide research and theories upon which the principles and "best practices" are developed.

This text brings together the research, theories, and practices around youth development and utilizes the experiences and approaches tested by practitioners. A brilliant blending of theory and practice comes to life in this textbook. The richness of experience and the expertise of the three authors are evident throughout the text. The national organization of American Humanics recommends this textbook to the faculty at more than 70 campuses. We believe the material will enhance the educational experience of the 2500 American Humanics students to become tomorrow's leaders in youth-serving organizations.

Of special note are the chapters on mentoring and ethics. Learning about both of these areas is critical to providing quality experiences and positive leadership. Utilizing Greenleaf's work to shape the concept of youth professionals as leaders in the service of others broadens the awareness of leadership with a worthy purpose and mission. The central mission of American Humanics' alliance and member partnerships is leadership in the service of others. Authors Edginton, Kowalski, and Randall have provided an excellent textbook and reference source for organizations and individuals working with youth. We recommend this book to our university programs and to the youth-serving national organizations in our alliance.

Karla M. Stroup
President
American Humanics
Former University President and faculty member
www.humanics.org

Reference & Research Book News, September 2004
Jane Erskine, Editor

In eleven chapters, the contributors examine recreational opportunities for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including defining the role of parents, assessing experiences, planning and supporting recreational events, and creating strategies for developing recreational skills. They describe how to include and support people with ASD in parks and recreation agencies, youth service organizations, and camp programs. They also include methods of assessment to ensure people with ASD get the most from their recreational experience. Appendices give resources, web sites, and related organizations.

Green Teacher, Fall 2004
Dru Clarke

Habitat destruction, slash and burn cultivation, unbridled population growth, and the bushmeat trade have taken a toll on indigenous animals in West Africa. In Commitments of the Heart: Odysseys in West African Conservation, Ted Cable describes the work of those who have committed their resources, talents and, frequently, their lives, to protect wildlife and the West African ecosystems in which they live. In so doing, he inspires awe of what a single individual can accomplish despite seemingly insurmountable barriers. Anecdotes of hair-raising, hilarious, and disheartening moments accompany many of the stories. While some of those profiled see fear and force as the means to conservation, others hold that educating the young offers the most promise. While the book sometimes offers more detail about the conservationists’ lives than we need to know, Cable has given us a portal into a little known but heroic landscape where miracles can and do happen. Appropriate for secondary school and adult readers.

Annals of Leisure Research, June 23, 2006
Dr. Donna Little from the University of Waikato, New Zealand

This new edition represents a comprehensive overview of the concepts and practices that impact on the delivery of leadership in the leisure industry. Inclusive of face to face, supervisory and managerial leadership contexts, the authors have endeavoured to provide an overview of the theoretical foundations of leadership (e.g. styles of leadership, models of leadership and general definitions), the underlying facets of leadership (e.g. group dynamics, lifespan considerations, motivation and communication), and the application of leadership across a range of settings (e.g. how to manage risks, leading in outdoor and aquatic environments, and event management). To do this they have designed the text with a theoretical foundation which is then contextualized to specific case studies, teasing out exemplars of practice to help provide meaningful application of how to effectively lead. Unfortunately in the process, they distance the content from international audiences, as both the conversational style of writing and the case study examples used, are uncompromisingly North American.

That said, there are distinct positives with this text. The breadth of content is to be commended. Creating a point of difference from other leadership textbooks, this edition goes beyond the recognized baseline discussions of leadership theory, roles and styles of leading, group dynamics and communication, to include more detailed sections on motivation (as both a psychological construct and leadership technique), risk management, and the facilitation of social settings. Throughout there is a concerted effort to provide meaning, explain the importance of the theory to practice, to draw together the complexity of leadership, and to offer examples of actions that can be taken to address the multiple issues that impact on leadership.

More directly, the applied nature of the explanations of theory mean the book is practical and comprehensively functional. In addition, it is accessible, readable and informative for the undergraduate/ trainee leader. To aid in the learning process, issues of presentation style have been considered. Wide margins are offered to accommodate to those who write notes in books and the layout is such that the reader is not overwhelmed with text. Popular and specific quotes are used on each page to engage the readers’ imagination, and case studies, personal profiles and discussion questions are included to encourage the reader to self-reflect. These additional components also serve to assist the teacher of leadership skills, offering activity boxes that can readily be used as tutorial tasks, exam questions and discussion points.

While there are numerous strengths in the intentions and content coverage of the book, there are some disappointing features as well. The whole text would benefit from tighter proofing, particularly in regards to missing and misspelt words, and quotations which are not always correctly completed. There tends to be an over- reliance on dated information both in leadership theory, and other descriptive concepts. As an example, in discussing the needs of youth and implications for leadership the authors draw exclusively on 1989 and 1990 studies on the social health of youth to indicate the current situation. And, as mentioned, the text is unselfconsciously North American, making consistent reference throughout to ‘our’ (North American) experience, the litigious environment of the United States, the historic and current (U.S.) leaders influencing parks, recreation and leisure, and using American case studies for reader analysis. By simply making these more generic and recognizing an international experience, this text could have been more usable and inclusive, but it would appear any external market was not factored into the writing process.

This text is comprehensive and remains accessible in its style to undergraduate students and those building a foundation in both the theoretical and applied understandings of leadership. I will value it as an additional resource and reference book from which to draw readings and build learning opportunities for students, but the North American focus reduces its impact and general applicability to an international audience. This is disappointing as the inclusive nature of the book drawing on programming, leisure theory, psychology, communication, management and instructional perspectives should make this a core workbook to utilize.