Idris Jassim Al-Oboudi ادريس جاسم العبودي ialiraqi@hotmail.com ialoboudi@citymb.info Idris is a nationally recognized Recreation and Parks professional and public speaker. A Highly motivating, energetic, passionate leader with vision and a pragmatic approach to recreation issues and needs, has been working in the field of Recreation for the Past 28 years. He is currently the Manager of Parks and Recreation for the City of Manhattan Beach California. Idris is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and State / National and International notoriety and acclaim. In February, 2008 Idris, received the Professional Distinguished Service Award. This is the highest award bestowed by the NRPA Pacific Southwest Regional Council. It recognizes professionals in the Region who have consistently given outstanding service to the park, recreation and conservation movement on the State, National and in the case of Mr. Al-Oboudi the international level. He also received the 2007 NRPA’s Program Excellence Award for Special Event. In February, 2008 Idris, received Los Angeles County Special Commendation Award form forth District Supervisor Mr. Don Knabe. This Commendation is in recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all the citizens of Los Angeles County California. In March- 2006 Idris received The California Park & Recreation Society’s (CPRS Over 4000 in Membership) highest Award and Citation that recognizes outstanding contributions to CPRS and the parks, recreation, and/or human serves profession. This award also recognizes his contributions that significantly affect the parks & recreation profession on a regional, sectional, state & national level. Idris was honored for his contributions to the profession and commitment to the Creating Community VIP Action Plan. Both in 2005 and 2006 Idris received the California Parks and Recreation Society’s President’s Award for outstanding Leadership and dedicated service to the parks and recreation profession in California. In 2004 Al-Oboudi was the first Chair of California Parks and Recreation Society’s Youth Sports and Fitness Task Force (Initiative) in charge of providing modality, revamping and re-directing the youth sports experience in California municipalities and organizations. This Plan was rolled out in fall 2005 and is being implemented state and nation wide starting in spring 2006. Mr. Al-Oboudi was in the lead as a creator and organizer of the Rally in support of Youth Sports and Fitness at the California State Capital on March-8-2007 during the CPRS annual Conference. Mr. Al-Oboudi is a 25 year member of the CPRS & a long time member of the NRPA. He has served the CPRS membership in many areas, he was the Education Program Chair of the 2008, CPRS Conference, and served in the same capacity in 2004. He has been and Advisor for the CPRS Director of Education for the CPRS CONF 2003-2005& 2006. He was elected as Southern CA CPRS Administrators Section representative serving from 2003 to 2005. Mr. Al-Oboudi is a frequent contributor to leadership workshops and meetings on recreation issues in Local Collages, Universities, and California Cities, community organizations, CPRS, NRPA and nation wide organizations. Mr. Al-Oboudi Developed a proto type frame work for Vision Insight Planning and Programming (Purpose Driven Programming). This tool was further developed and adopted in Programming for Community and youth recreation, cultural and social activities (Purpose Driven Programming) for the Islamic Community in the USA and the World. This is the First Vision Insight Planning programming tool developed for Muslim Organizations world wide. This ground braking work is a prelude to a comprehensive Initiative Mr. Al-Oboudi is Envisioning, Espousing and Creating, for the Muslim Community in the USA. A 25 year resident of the Cal

1. CPRS Educational Awards Of Excellence
District 12
Education: Multi Focus
iChoose Training 2009
iChoose:
Annual November Workshop
November 19, 2009
California Parks and Recreation Society
District 12
Contact:
Shannon Sellinger, D12 President
300 North Coast Highway
Oceanside, CA 92054
760.435.5039
ssellinger@ci.oceanside.ca.us
Category:
Education
Multi - Topic Focus
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2. CPRS Educational Awards Of Excellence
District 12
Education: Multi Focus
iChoose Training 2009
Purpose/Main Objective
1. “iChoose” was the theme and concept for the November 19th training offered by CPRS District 12. This
training communicated the power of choice in challenging times. This theme purposefully built on
2008’s theme of “Mission: It’s Possible”. Both the 2008 and 2009 trainings focused on meeting
challenges, with opportunities. By building on last year’s training the Board was able to create
consistency and a cohesive message. Last year’s training had a heavy focus on branding. As we learned,
branding evokes a feeling or opinion about something. 2009 echoed this theme and built on it,
providing application to last year’s theory. Annually building upon the workshops connects concepts,
tightens the message, and increases interest and return participation. “iChoose” presented a keynote
speaker, two breakout periods and a “Lunch and Learn”, all of which has a strong focus on the power of
marketing and partnerships. The day’s three main goals were: (1) to EXPAND personal and professional
growth and overall human development; (2) to EMPOWER attendees to be leaders, motivators and
champions, at any level. (3) to INSPIRE creativity and “play” as a means of remaining fresh and on the
cutting edge of recreation service delivery in District 12. District 12 was pleased to host Idris Al-Oboudi
who provided a touching keynote on “Passion to Practice”, his own philosophy of the age-old phrase,
“when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Mr. Al-Oboudi also joined us to wrap up the “iChoose”
workshop, with a “Lunch and Learn” presentation of “the POWER of choice”. Nestled between these two
dynamic presentations were 7 different sessions that each covered topics that focused on the powerful
use of creativity, specifically in the areas of marketing and partnerships, to strengthen service delivery in
challenging times. Additionally, District 12 has purposefully crafted their annual work plan to be closely
in line with the California Parks and Recreation Society’s Ends Policies and the Vision Insight Planning
guidelines. This training fulfilled the following areas of District 12’s work plan goals:
CPRS Ends Policy #1 – Shared Mission, Vision and Values –
Marketing and Branding – This training was largely made possible through collaboration with local
speakers who had been originally scheduled to speak at the NRPA Marketing and Revenue Sources
Management School, annually held in San Diego County. District 12 CPRS members were actively
involved with the coordination of speakers for the 2009 NRPA School, and because this program was
cancelled, the D12 Board had the unique opportunity to utilize four of the seven NRPA speakers for the
D12 November Workshop breakout sessions at no charge to the District. These speakers focused on
building partnerships, using technology to your advantage and marketing and branding your agency
(and the professions as a whole) in the year 2009 and beyond. The sessions were built to support the
previous year’s heavy focus on the important of marketing and branding to “stay in the game”. There
was a very creative and progressive feel to the sessions which made it truly unique and very appealing.
Last year was the “theory” this year was the “application”. Annually building upon the workshops
connects concepts and tightens the message. “iChoose” was marketed to District 12 and many outside
private sector agencies. There was Regional support as well as strong student attendance from San Diego
State University.
CPRS End Policy #2 – Skills and Knowledge to Succeed -
Educational Opportunities – District 12 has made professional development/educational opportunities
readily available to San Diego County. This year’s message was that, through choice, we can apply “play”
and creativity to strengthen development even in the most challenging of times. Additionally, in 2009
the training offered a panel session whereby students and emerging and young professionals could ask
questions of some of the Districts most talented and successful Directors and Managers. This particular
training has a huge San Diego State University partnership component. SDSU and District 12 are in the
second year of a student mentorship program that provides additional guidance and career coaching to
students. This training offers networking for the mentors and mentees. District 12’s goal is to be the
primary resource for accessible, affordable park and recreation professional training in the San Diego
area.
Results
2. & 3. In 2009 the Board utilized Survey Monkey to evaluate the training. The goal was to give
participants time to let the training “soak” in, and survey them days following to assess the actual
retention and overall satisfaction. The data on file to date shows that participants deeply connected with
the keynote address of applying passion and creativity to our daily practice. Were profoundly touched by
the concept of choice in our day-to-day successes and benefitted from the sessions connecting the power
of partnerships and the importance of strong marketing in challenging times. Participants also raved
about the panel discussion for emerging professionals. Overall the results indicate that the connection
between last year and this year was evident and the learning was strengthened as a result.
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3. CPRS Educational Awards Of Excellence
District 12
Education: Multi Focus
iChoose Training 2009
4. The training’s sessions were designed to support the CPRS VIP Action Plan. Simply summarized:
By Fostering Human Development through educational opportunities, we are able to strengthen our
talents and sharpen our skills which allow us to creatively expand our service delivery, thus further
strengthening our agency’s community image, ability to provide meaningful recreational opportunities,
all while being the leaders in health and wellness services.
Resources
5. District 12 uses many of the same concepts as listed in the CPRS Tools of the Trade Tool Kit. At the
onset of each event offered a committee is formed and the Activity/Event Outline (attachment 1) is
implemented to identify the work plan goals, target audience, cost breakdown, sponsorship, marketing
plan, and committee task list. This tool allows the committee to stay on track, create a purposeful event
and use resources wisely. The committee also followed the Tools of Trade Tool Kit when evaluating the
training. An overall training evaluation was created and distributed (attachment 2). With the use of “survey
monkey” the planning committee was able to send out an evaluation post training. Both the Activity
Outline and evaluation tools are modeled after similar documents in the CPRS Tools of Trade Tool Kit.
Attendee Interaction
6. “iChoose” was designed in a multi-session format. Each speaker was selected because of their ability
to connect the theme to their subject and to engage the audience to increase learning. Sessions were
highly energized by group discussion and learning. New this year was the highly interactive “panel”
session. Four well-respected professionals were chosen to participate in a panel discussion focused
around “Building your Career”. The audience asked the questions and the panel provided useful
information to SDSU students and young professionals.
Marketing outside D12
7. “iChoose” Training was marketed to Region 5 and a variety of outside agencies (private and non-
profit) and San Diego State’s Recreation and Tourism Student Association (RTSA) and Recreation and
Tourism Department. Attendance was high due to the efforts to include community partners. As a
result, the training drew close to over 175 attendants. A large part of the D12’s continued success is
attributed to the Boards established relationship with the Directors. Additionally, new this year was the
use of social networking. By using the newly modernized CPRS website and Facebook, District 12 was
able to increase its promotional opportunities and expand its marketing audience.
Collaborative efforts outside D12
8. This training was largely made possible through collaboration with local speakers who had been
originally scheduled to speak at the NRPA Marketing and Revenue Sources Management School, annually
held in San Diego County. This unique collaborative effort to retain the scheduled speakers was a huge
collaborative accomplishment. Additionally, building on last year’s success, the SDSU Partnership with
the Recreation and Tourism Student Association (RTSA) was a component of this workshop. The Student
Mentoring Program, which pairs Recreation Majors with Recreation Professional, kicked off at the
training and provided the first networking opportunity for Mentor and Mentee. The workshop’s positive
theme, the SDSU program component as well as the connection to the NRPA speakers were critical to its
success.
Unique qualities of program
9. (1) low cost/high quality - We kept this training low cost and marketed it to the Region as a way to
get “conference quality” session materials to a wide audience. (2) Collaborations - This training was the
commencement of the 2009 Student Mentoring Program; students and professionals were paired for a
“networking” lunch. It is a fun way to introduce the program and support emerging professionals.
Additionally the unique opportunity to fold the (cancelled) NRPA School scheduled speakers into our
program gave our training a greater professional feel. (3) Going Green - The concept behind the use of
“survey monkey” for evaluation data collection was a green way of gathering information. No paper was
used/wasted to receive the results (4) Panel Session – 2009 was the pilot year for the panel discussion
session. Four professionals were chosen to participate in a panel discussion focused around “Building
your Career”. The audience asked the questions and the panel provided useful information to SDSU
students and young professionals. This was the highest ranking session and drew the largest audience.
The interaction prompted a very productive discussion. At the end time was left for individuals to have
their resume reviewed.
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