Recreation Programming: Designing and Staging Leisure Experiences is a 480 page text book used in university curricula in parks, recreation, tourism and sport management programs. The 2018 edition is the eighth edition. The book is divided into four sections and includes twenty-two chapters. From the third edition (2000) onward the book has been co-authored by Dr. Barbara E. Schlatter.
Primary purchasers of this book are students enrolled in the curricula named above. However, many practitioners report using the book as an important desk reference to completing their job responsibilities. The book is considered a "classic" in the field.
Regardless of the titling of your job, if you need to organize and develop recreation, leisure, sport, or events of any kind, the book has information that will help you get this done. The book has been used for over 30 years to inform practitioners with these responsibilities.
J. Robert Rossman, Ph.D. has been a practitioner and academic for over 44 years. He holds the title of Professor and Dean Emeritus at Illinois State University. His work has improved programmingpractices by integrating the results of social science research on experiencewith the practice of programming.
Dr. Rossman has given keynote addresses andeducational workshops on programming to a variety of organizations in the U.S.and abroad including the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation operations for the USAir Force, Navy, and Army. He has delivered key note addresses to groupsin Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand including keynoting the New ZealandRecreation Association Annual Conference and the annual conference of the NewZealand Association of Event Professionals.
He has staged a variety of events and experiences including university commencements, balloon ascensions, Science and Technology Week at Illinois State University, church dinners, music concerts and others. His writings are informed by his own experiences as program designer and stager.
Dr.Rossman's work has been lauded by several organizations. He received theNational Literary Award (1996) from the National Recreation and ParkAssociation for his writings that support development of a theory basedpractice of recreation and parks. He has been elected a Fellow by the AmericanAcademy for Park and Recreation Administration (1996) who has also designatedhim a Legend (2015) for outstanding contributions to the field. He is anelected Fellow in the Academy of Leisure Sciences (2012) who has designated himas a Distinguished Colleague (2016).
He haswritten about leisure and recreation programs as experiences since 1989 whenhis first volume was published.
