ABSTRACT
The program is the fundamental reason for any recreational service agency. By the program is meant all of the direct and indirect recreational opportunities that are or can be delivered to the agency constituency. Direct services are those planned, organized, and led by the recreational service department. Indirect services are those opportunities afforded to the general public via ethically coordinating, cooperating, or collaborating with any community institution in the furtherance of obtaining recreational experiences and/or resources for the benefit of citizens residing in the community. It represents the basic concept of recreational service. Patrons are attrac-
ted to recreational places because they expect to be entertained, amused, satisfied, or otherwise be a part of the enjoyment, excitement, and social action that accrues to both spectator and participant. Planning is essential to programming. It is the development of many different activities into a combined schedule, integrated, supportive, and having some relationship, regardless of the distinction drawn by category or major classes of activity. It is the presentation of various activity forms, active and passive or in combination, in such a manner as to stimulate some participation. Functionally, the program is everything occurring in a recreational context at, in, or on a recreational place. The program is viewed as a dramatic interplay of events in the routine course of human affairs. Such confrontations deal with peer relations, spontaneous activity or performance, modified behaviors, adherence to pre-arranged schedules, conformity to particular codes, individual adjustment to changing conditions, and the free exercise of the individual’s desire to achieve as far as such activity does not infringe on the rights of anybody else. The program then, is the coordinated effort of the recreational service system to organize, manage, guide, lead, direct, or offer resources so that people may lead more satisfying leisure lives.1 Programming, in the strictest sense, is the arranged activities that the system or agency sponsors, organizes, or for which it provides leadership. The program, on the other hand, is all those activities that can or may occur at a recreational place. The program consists of spontaneous, organized, routine, special, recurring, or intermittent activities through which people seek recreational outlet and value.
