Municipal Leisure Services: a Service Delivery Model for the Future

Municipal recreation service delivery is a complex and intertwined business. Local governments and municipalities are on the cusp of needing to look at and adopt new ways of providing leisure services in order to improve operational efficiency, be responsive to the needs of patrons and employees, and to improve working relationships with community partners. With decreased budgets, increased operational costs, and a rapidly changing workforce, recreation professionals are faced with new challenges requiring new perspectives on how to manage, change or improve the systems they are required to work within. This research focuses on the systematic aspects of municipal leisure service delivery, provides a new way of looking at the challenges organizations are facing and outlines recommendations on what the profession can do to move forward as the future unfolds.