Do NOT feel you must make all decisions right away.
Do know what you are and are not valuing throughout the process.
Do ask questions throughout the process as a means of education and to make well-informed decisions.
Trust the involved experts to provide options with associated costs, but as the owner, be highly involved with all decisions.
Do NOT let others run the project – you are the owner/occupant.
Do stay highly involved through the process to ensure, as the owner, you are getting what you intended.
By setting a firm date of completion, you are setting yourself and others up for disappointment and perceived lack of success.
Too many factors can impact timeline set-backs.
Do NOT corner yourself by setting a firm date of completion.
Consider broad aspects of how the project will enhance fitness and recreation needs and wants via various mediums:.
#West chester university rec center professional#
Once approved, do communicate with department professional and student staff.
Do communicate with your direct supervisor the final agreed upon scope of work, budget, source of funds and general timeline to gain final approval.
Do sequence work to ensure a smooth transition and that contractors and equipment installers are not tripping over one another to perform their work.
Do factor in the best time for the project to lessen negative impact on current programs and services.
Do have separate construction and equipment budgets.
The more communication with everyone during the pre-construction phase, the better likelihood of staying on budget and reducing the need for costly “change-orders.”.
Do bring together architect, facility project manager, equipment vendor(s) and university budget members to finalize the scope of work and budget for the project.
As an offer of good will, for any equipment not being given a fair trade-in value ,consider giving it to other university or campus partners.
Identify trade-in value of all equipment to be extracted.
Do communicate with national and regional equipment vendors to discuss potential new strength and conditioning equipment needs and various design layouts to best meet and exceed the functionality of intended spaces.
Groups to include, which sometimes can be forgotten, are custodial services, I.T./telecommunications and university marketing.
Identify a project team and what role each person will play.
Do communicate with colleagues in facility project management to learn how best to coordinate all aspects of a potential project, timelines based upon other similar campus projects, etc.
Be transparent with the results of the assessment.
Partner to create an assessment tool for distribution.
Do host multiple town hall meetings with the student government association to discuss the potential project and how partnering to solicit information and feedback is mutually beneficial to the campus community.
Do identify source of funds, department reserves or need for a referendum.
Give “the why” as a means of educating your supervisors.
Do communicate with those you report to about the need to create and distribute an assessment tool to gather information and solicit feedback.
Listed below are many “dos’” and “don’ts” learned while going through this process and are intended to help others coordinate successful facility enhancement and renovation projects. However, since the opening of the SRC, many factors led to identifying a need to reassess how our spaces were currently being used and how best to meet and exceed the needs of our campus community related to best practices and standards for campus recreation. The West Chester University Student Recreation Center (SRC) opened in August, 2012. At this time, the SRC was viewed as a modern, comprehensive, state-of -the-art university recreation facility created to facilitate community building around health, fitness, inclusivity, recreation and wellness. Identifying and prioritizing facility renovation and enhancement projects becomes a critical means to meeting and exceeding new and evolving fitness and recreation needs. In many cases, university campus recreation departments do not have the funds to expand or build new facilities to accommodate current needs. As a follow-up to last week’s story on renovation don’ts, Eric Maki, the senior director of campus recreation at West Chester University, shares his advice and experiences of renovating gained through a number of opportunities while previously working at Illinois State University, Cleveland State University, the University of Missouri and Wichita State University.Īs global fitness and recreation trends continue to change and evolve, so too must the facilities and spaces in which these activities take place.