California Park & Recreation Society (CPRS)

Client Overview

The California Park & Recreation Society (CPRS) is a nonprofit, professional, and public interest organization with over 4,000 members. CPRS is dedicated to highlighting the importance of parks with the motto “Parks Make Life Better!” One of their primary services is providing in-person educational events to their members. Based in Sacramento, California, CPRS recently considered a project to assess and potentially replace their outdated Association Management System (AMS).

The Challenge

CPRS was operating on an antiquated version of their AMS, nearly seven years behind the latest updates. This gap left many staff without access to modern features, resulting in significant manual processes and workarounds. Additionally, their technology ecosystem was highly fragmented, with disjointed systems that lacked integration, making it difficult to obtain a comprehensive view of member interactions and engagement.

The Goals

Evaluate whether to upgrade the current AMS or initiate a selection process for a new system.
Identify other technology gaps and opportunities for improvement.

The Solution

A comprehensive Technology Assessment was conducted to address CPRS’s challenges:

Discovery Sessions: Held with each functional area to understand business needs and system requirements.
Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborated with external stakeholders, such as volunteers and exhibitors, to assess their interactions with the technology.
Vendor Consultations: Engaged with AMS vendors to gain insights into their solutions.
Process Automation: Identified manual processes that could be streamlined through appropriate technology.

The Implementation

The insights gathered were analyzed to create a detailed set of recommendations, which were presented to CPRS’s leadership team. This phase included:

A thorough review of CPRS’s structure and services.
Prioritization of actionable steps to optimize their technology ecosystem.

The Results

The assessment yielded actionable recommendations designed to enhance operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, including:

Upgrading the current AMS to access new features, improved reporting tools, and alignment with CPRS’s updated website.
Avoiding the costs of implementing a new AMS by leveraging existing resources.
Implementing a Learning Management System (LMS) to generate non-dues revenue by providing content for members unable to attend in-person events.
Creating integrations with event and exhibit systems to enhance the attendee experience.
Completing their website relaunch with a new web product.

Future Outlook

CPRS is working to upgrade their current system, avoiding a costly and unnecessary AMS replacement. The upgraded system will allow them to modify manual processes and to set the foundation for a new LMS and other modern technology options.