Welcome to a basic orientation to the Yardstick
Program.
What is the Yardstick Program?
Yardstick is a qualitative and quantitative benchmarking system owned and operated
collaboratively through partnerships with industry organizations.
The program originated in New Zealand, spread to Australia and is now
present in many other nations. The adoption of this parks and recreation
benchmarking system in Canada is supported by the Alberta Recreation and
Parks Association and the Ontario Parks Association.
The project is owned and operated by Parks organisations across the world.
The main focus of Yardstick in Canada, thus far, is on the Parkcheck aspect of
the program. To better understand Parkcheck, it is possible to access a demo
version of the 2013 questionnaire.
Go to> www.yardstickglobal.org/online/auth/login/
Enter> this Email : [email protected]
Password: demo
The questionnaire will be updated by the end of January 2014, to add specific
Canadian questions requested in 2013 by the Canadian participants. This is an
annual process that ensures the project continues to meet the member’s
needs in Canada.
A couple of survey enhancements to the features of the software have already
been made from last year:
1. The survey questions and responses can now be printed and can also be
saved as a PDF (people also wanted to keep a record of the data/responses
Cliff Lacey, Canada Yardstick
Project Manager
www.xyst.biz | www.yardstickglobal.org
Tel: CAN 01-780-417-6661
Christchurch | Sydney | Auckland | Queenstown | Tauranga | Edmonton
they had entered)
2. For existing members, their responses from last year will now be available
to refer to or copy and paste within the current year’s survey.
The information generated by the communities involved in the program can
produce some striking comparisons between communities in the same
country, and also comparisons to similar sized communities in other nations.
The audit survey is completed in the spring of the year with the assistance of
an on-site visit by a Yardstick consultant. This process is intended to ensure
that similar data is collected from each organisation and that the responses
can be relied upon to be correct.
The data is processed and reports generated by mid-summer. An annual User
Group is hosted usually at the conclusion of the audits in Canada in the
summer. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the outputs of the
benchmarking, identify enhancements for the future and develop specific
Canada based questions for inclusion in the project the following year. The
User Group is combined with Parks visits around the host organisations region
thus providing a networking opportunity for members to enjoy.
Should you wish to access all 2013 annual reports go to:
http://www.yardstickglobal.org/projects_parkcheck
You will need to contact me to gain a temporary access to the reports as this is
a member benefit. We do appreciate that you may wish to view the reports
ahead of participating in the project. Use of the information contained in the
reports is restricted to member organisations.
You can see a list of the organisations participating in the project in Canada
and other countries. The smallest municipality has a population around 5,000
and the largest well in excess 1 million.
From 2014 the software will allow the production of customized reports by
Cliff Lacey, Canada Yardstick
Project Manager
www.xyst.biz | www.yardstickglobal.org
Tel: CAN 01-780-417-6661
Christchurch | Sydney | Auckland | Queenstown | Tauranga | Edmonton
member communities directly from the web page as well as continuing the
annual reporting.
Feel free to look through the entire site. Annual fees are also listed here for
Canada and other regions involved in the program. ARPA/OPA are
responsible for invoicing the fees annually.
Any questions please feel free to contact me at the telephone number listed
below or my email, above. Yardstick has collected the following testimonials
for your information.
“The Yardstick program allows us to more effectively manage our parks system including
benchmarking our progress towards providing better and more innovative response to our
customer needs and wants. With demand for service growing faster than resources we are
able to clearly see success and shortfalls in our organization. Decisions are easier to make
with valid and consistent information and reliable comparisons with others with the same
challenges provides us with helpful insights.
Yardstick is a valuable Parks management tool developed by fellow Parks Managers that
addresses our specific information needs. The benchmarking, performance measures and
comparisons with others in our industry set the stage for more effective delivery of services
and efficiencies.”
Dave Ellis
Parks Manager, City of Lethbridge
Alberta, Canada
“A few years ago a consultant identified that the park maintenance section does not have
good benchmarking data to validate efficiencies within the operations. With the results of the
past two years of Yardstick benchmarking the section has since been able to identify that
the operation are well run and very efficient.”
Don Polinski
Manager, Maintenance and Infrastructure
Recreation, Parks and Culture
2025 Oak Street
Sherwood Park, AB T8A OW9
[email protected]
Cliff Lacey, Canada Yardstick
Project Manager
www.xyst.biz | www.yardstickglobal.org
Tel: CAN 01-780-417-6661
Christchurch | Sydney | Auckland | Queenstown | Tauranga | Edmonton