The Boat People

I am interning for City of Tempe Parks and Recreation in the Boating Department. If you think of it like a tree diagram, you have the City of Tempe and below that the Parks and Recreation department and branch of the Parks & Rec. department is the Boating department.

"Why on God's green earth does Tempe have the need for a boating department?" You may be asking yourself. Well, even though most people don't think twice about it, Tempe Town Lake is actually quite large and a very active water-way.  I work there with a woman named Alicia who is Director of the lake, and a man named Ryan who's titled as the Assistant Director of the lake. The three of us manage, maintain, and regulate Tempe Town Lake on a daily basis.

 The City offers a variety of programs for all ages. We have Stand Up Paddling (SUP), kayaking, and rowing classes. From these three main forms of boating, we offer fitness, experienced, intro, and competitive classes for each category.  With this class set up we offer about 12 to 15 classes year round for anyone older than 13.  The length that these programs can be months long or only a few weeks. For example, the junior program I coach is a 6 month long program that meets Monday through Friday starting in January and running until late May, but the SUP program runs for 4 weeks and meets only twice a week.

My bosses Alicia and Ryan collect class payments, maintain storage facilities on the lake (there are two!), apply for grants, manage the annual budget given to them, attend City meetings regarding the lake, and ensure that people who are involved with the programs/classes or are storing a boating in one of our facilities have paid their dues.

Where I stand, with respects to my boss Alicia, is the Assistant To The Assistant.  I am the one with the least amount of authority and responsibility but still pull in a fair amount of work. My main jobs are to maintain the facilities (take our trash, repair equipment, clean, organize), check up on registration and let my bosses know if someone is showing up to a program/class but has not paid yet, email participants about their classes with information (maps, times, and best attire for the class), get gas for our safety boats, work special events that happen on the lake (dragon boat/crew races ect.), and mail and email out individual storage fees to people on a monthly basis.

I've been in this position now for several months and I enjoy it very much. The kids I coach are my favorite part of the job, but working with Alicia and Ryan is just something else. It's one of those situations where you know that the way everything is right now is so great, put together, and fun because of the people you're working with. If I could do it, I would take Alicia and Ryan with me wherever and whenever I move away. They are the two best bosses I will probably ever have in my life.

The Beginning

Hi, my name is Alison Mettler and I am a senior Public Administration & Management in Parks & Recreation major! I graduate in the fall and will probably go straight in to starting my masters for Public Administration here at ASU after I graduate. Hopefully I'll be able to work somewhere in the North West (Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho) once I'm done with school and manage a small lake/park. Ultimately my goal is to work somewhere in the National Forest department for the government and continue to help preserve our remaining national parks around the country.

My internship is with the City of Tempe in the boating department on Tempe Town Lake. My job is help with class registration (online computer skills & organization), do the grunt work/maintenance, and sit in on meetings so I can start to learn about government budgeting and what goes in to programming classes/events. I am also being given the responsibility of creating, planning, coaching, and executing a competitive high school rowing team that operates out of the cities boating facilities on Tempe Town Lake.

Three things I hope to get out of my internship are:
1) The knowledge of how much time and effort actually goes in to creating, planning, and executing special events (like Iron Mans, Half Marathons, and races).  Knowing how a city as big as Tempe, that is the host to many programs and special events, handles these things will be very useful for my future. Preparation, patients, delegating, and teamwork will play a very important role I'm sure, and I'm excited to see how it is handled.
2) Networking! Getting my name out there and making connections is definitely something I hope to get out of this experience.
3) Because of my position (which is basically the assistant to the assistant) I will be doing a lot of grunt work. From this, I will definitely be learning how much work goes in to running a facility properly and how much maintenance goes in to ensuring everything is usable for classes and events.