OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 555 



from eight to ten thousand dollars and upwards, and to function as a com- 

 munity recreation agency, it should have a definite office headquarters with 

 a clerk or secretary in charge whose primary duties shall be the accurate 

 and comprehensive keeping of all the basic records of the department. This 

 clerk or secretary should be directly responsible to the superintendent who 

 is in the last analysis responsible for all record keeping as well as all other 

 functional activities of the department. In fact, it would be advisable in 

 most cases for the park and recreation commission to elect the superintend- 

 ent secretary of the department. This would clearly place the responsibility 

 of organizing and managing the office division upon the superintendent just 

 as he is responsible for the organization and management of other divisions 

 of the department. When the budget is as small as the minimum set here, 

 and even considerably larger, the entire time of the secretary might not be 

 needed for keeping the records. In this case he or she might be required to 

 perform some other duties in the department, such as acting part time as 

 play leader on a playground, or in charge of some sport, or as swimming 

 instructor, etc. This plan might be followed until the affairs of the depart- 

 ment grew large enough to employ the full time of the secretary. As the 

 scope of the activities of the department increase, other office workers would 

 be added from time to time until the stage of development of the office is 

 reached as found in the office organizations of the larger park and recreation 

 systems of this country. 



This plan of office organization development is recommended to all 

 park and recreation departments of the country, irrespective of the form of 

 city government under which they operate. 



j. Qualifications of the secretary of a park and recreation department. 

 The training and personal abilities required of a secretary of a park and 

 recreation department will, of course, vary with the nature and extent of 

 the duties to be performed. In the smaller systems his duties will be chiefly 

 of a routine nature, requiring technical knowledge within certain fields. In 

 the larger systems his duties will be largely supervisory and to some extent 

 executive, requiring a technical knowledge of the several phases of the 

 entire field of business organization and management. In very small systems 

 where only one secretary may be needed, the training should include a 

 knowledge of stenography and typewriting, bookkeeping, taking and keep- 

 ing of minutes, filing, how to properly take and answer telephone calls, 

 etc. If the office duties do not require the full time of the secretary, it is 

 advisable for the secretary to be qualified to perform some other duty in 

 the operation of the department. Educationally the secretary in such a 

 department should be at least a graduate of high school in the business 

 course or its equivalent in some business college. 



