548 PARKS 



Contacts -with the public. The responsibilities of a park executive would 

 be comparatively easy if his contacts were concerned only with his govern- 

 ing authority and with the organization and direction of his staff. It is as 

 a public character, more or less constantly in the limelight, that his real 

 cares and responsibilities begin. As the head of an organization which 

 touches the people of every degree so intimately and in such a variety of 

 ways, he is called upon to exercise infinite patience, correct judgments and 

 statesmanlike qualities. Individual citizens of every type, the press, the 

 pulpit, political, business, civic, social, cultural organizations and societies, 

 will take cognizance of what he is doing or not doing, and frequently make 

 demands upon his time, patience and knowledge. Much of the time of his 

 regular office hours will be consumed by the public; in fact, that is the chief 

 purpose of having regular office hours. He will be the recipient of com- 

 plaints and criticisms, commendations and flattery. He will be called upon 

 to give talks or addresses before many different kinds of organizations and 

 at many different occasions, both by groups who are genuinely interested 

 in some particular phase of the work of the department or in the work of 

 the department as a whole, and by groups who are interested chiefly in 

 filling up a program. As the leader of a great social movement he will be 

 expected to know more about the community and its leisure time needs 

 than anyone in the community. His advice and assistance will be frequently 

 sought. Moreover, in the very nature of modern park service, the superin- 

 tendent is bound to initiate certain contacts with individual citizens and 

 with organized groups of private and public institutions. 



The conditions of his organization may require that he establish and 

 maintain relations with the civil service, the purchasing, the legal, the 

 police, the financial, the engineering departments of the city or county, as the 

 case may be. In the conduct of negotiations for the purchase of properties, 

 or in the making of contracts for improvements, or the purchase of supplies, 

 tools, materials, equipment, he must establish relations with many indi- 

 viduals and corporations. He may need publicity in order to make some 

 particular service effective, or to put through some particular project. He 

 may call upon the press, the pulpit, the public schools and other avenues for 

 disseminating information. If the governing authorities adopt a policy of 

 using properties and facilities not under their own direct control in order 

 to extend their services, he will need to establish contacts with individuals 

 possessing properties adaptable for use, or with the public school system, 

 or with private organizations and institutions possessing indoor and out- 

 door facilities which cari be turned to public use. He may desire to promote 

 certain types of recreational activities and may therefore call upon a golf 

 association, a tennis association, an athletic association or dramatic society, 



