Recreation News
 

I see that this mornings insert has implemented more of the reductions. This has gone from its usual 64 pages to 56 last week to 36 this week. All of the eliminations have come from the clubs pages and I'm left wondering who is now deciding what makes the cut. Just comparing this week's to the previous week, I see that art groups, billiards, bridge,mah-jongg, pickleball and swimming are the big losers.

While I agree that the weekly insert in the paper is a huge waste and would prefer to see either a monthly, or an online version with copies made available at rec centers, this new approach is totally unacceptable.

I noticed the announcement in today's paper about the changes said nothing about how they were reducing the size nor how they were now deciding which groups deserved promotion and which did not.

It is my understanding that all groups must have a responsible villager to volunteer to head a group or club and to take responsibility for the room. I have always been told that the recreation department doesn't pay the people who teach the classes. I know that is true of my art group, my ceramics group and my craft group. They are all kindly volunteering their time. If the group becomes too small, they can lose "possession" of the room for which there is no charge as long as only villagers are involved. People are not supposed to use the room to make money or to accept money. But generally groups of grateful members try to honor them with a gift.

Not exactly true. You can collect money to fund the costs of running the club.

But it isn't supposed to be a "money maker", right?

In other words a Tupperware sales person can't rent the room to have profits to sell her wares.

Yes, that is correct. However, you can collect money that would not be considered a gift. Many of the clubs have expenses associated with running the club.

I agree with the OP. The point is that MANY activities information have been eliminated from the publication. I have just learned to play MahJongg and am truly enjoying it. I found a class with lessons and beginners in the Rec News (RN) several weeks ago. If I were going to try and find this today, I'd be totally out of luck. This is very disappointing in that I would like to find new things to try/learn, but so much has been omitted.

New Rec Guide
 

Very disappointed in the new version of the Rec Guide. How do you find out what the recreation activities are without going through every rec center looking for it. How do you find out where to play Samba and whether it's for beginners or not? How do you find out about clubs that used to be listed in the Rec Guide but are not listed in "Other Locations". I agree with the other comment to put the complete, full of detail Rec Guide on line. The Villages advertises and boasts of hundreds of clubs. Where is the information found about these hundreds of clubs because it's not in the Rec Guide.

A listing of the clubs/classes in on-line at districtgov.org.

It is on-line at districtgov.org.

What is on the district.org site is the current Rec Guide that doesn't have the descriptive write-ups that Francie commented on.

I agree with Francie.

Jayhawk - Thank you! This is fantastic!

The full descriptions of the monthly clubs will continue to be published in the Thursday rec guide but they won't publish them every week since the monthly clubs are mostly not changing.

I hope that the small listing this week was due to the transition and is not an on-going plan. Essentially none of the resident performance groups were listed; Pops Chorus, Village Voices, the Bands of the Villages, Music in Motion, Evolution Dance, Villages Musical Theater, Villages Theater Company, on and on. The Activities Link that Jayhawk provided is helpful but doesn;t give any info other than the name and meeting time and location. Better than nothing, but not as helpful as the Rec News has been.

I believe the upshot is that you would need to hold onto the latest 2 copies of the rec guide (instead of just the latest) to see a full description of all the clubs. I believe they are trying to reduce the amount of printed material. We shall see if this is in fact true within a week or so. I have asked them if they could put the complete descriptions of all clubs on-line in addition to the current on-line listing of just the club names (with contact info).

Here is another kink to Clubs. Put in the club type (example: cards) then click on the one you are interested in. A new window will open with details.

The Villages Activities

Disappointed with rec news
 

Thursday was always the day I most looked forward to with the paper as I loved looking thru all the clubs, their descriptions, contact info, etc. it was great to send home with visitors to help explain what we have here. Today I actually checked the page numbers of the insert thinking they must have lost pages somehow. Very disappointing. If they wanted to save print paper,keep the club listing and descriptions (can’t cut out or circle things when it’s only online) and drop the schedule at every rec center. Now you get to see tons of things at the rec. centers but no information on them. (Unless you go online searching).

I totally agree. It was great to show visitors all the club listings with descriptions. And for me, I now can’t figure out which walk away the pounds, or tap dance, or R&B line dance or crafts classes are which! I need the descriptions. This move was terrible, IMHO.

I suspect we are typical of the majority that shakes the paper in the morning and tosses out all the inserts.....the recreation news being the largest of them.

It could easily be converted to TV web site or the newspapers website.

It could also be converted to a subscription basis and be delivered with the paper to those who want it and pay for it.
That would sort out very quickly how many really need it!

Why do we have most of the Rec News devoted to pools and regularly scheduled Rec Center activities. Seems like local club info is far more important. Put that other stuff on the web, and another place for clubs, or just print the clubs. The pool stuff never changes.

Yes, this has more info, but you have to know the name of the club to look for. As an example, The Villages Pops Chorus is listed under Pops Chorus, while THe Villages Musical Theater is under The Villages Musical Theater. The info in both listings are at least 3 years old. I must have sent them the Pops Chorus info, but I don;t remember what inspired me to do so, or even how I did it. There is no attempt to keep this info up to date on the part of the recreation dept. It would be pretty efficient, however, if the info we send to the Rec News weekly (or periodically) could be added to this site. That might be a good option.

The Rec News is never thrown out until the next one comes.

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As reported heavily in the Online New there seemed to be a huge outcry against the rec news and the cost of its printing.
Unfortunately it looks like we are seeing the results of their effort to cut costs. And that results in less info I guess.
Obviously the majority of us on TOTV would be absolutely comfortable with an online-only version. We’re already fairly tech capable. But TOTV users are a small percentage of our 100k population. I would bet the loyal readers of the print product currently outnumber us. And they didn’t grab pitchforks over its cost so their voice was never heard.

Sports pool activities do change, depending on the season.

Well said.

They have limited announcements of activities to 45 or 50 words now, so not as much info can be given.

[emoji1303]


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EVERYTHING!!!! with the morri$ family is about making $$, that is the reason for the reduction in the size of the rec news, and raising the price of the paper,,, as older non computer litterate villlgers die off , i am sure u will see the rec news be completely on line,, but for now to pacify those that refuse to acknowledge progress we get the wasteful weekly paper update

I respectfully and completely disagree with your asessment. For profit businesses do make a profit. THAT is a given. In this case they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. For some people negativity is their fixed attitude toward any successful large business.


And you responded to my post that talked about the use of rec center facilities and rooms. They aren't supposed to be used for business if they are used for free. People can use them if they are available for functions including out of village people, if they pay for their use.

Everything about any business, owner, company or entity is always....ALWAYS....about making $$$$.

Who would have it any other way??

Do you suppose they will pass the cost saving to subscribers? I kind of doubt it.

I don’t believe it is a question of cost savings. Rather, it is a matter of cost avoidance. If I recall correctly the cost of printing the Rec news was going to increase approx. $750k this year. (I could be off $100k +/-)

In any event that additional cost would have been borne by us residents. So, contrary to some opinions I believe there is nothing nefarious going on here. It’s more likely that what we have here is an effort at being good stewards with our money.


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God Help us the day the Morriisseess Morses are not involved in our operation. The way they handle our money, it is just good business nothing more.

Correctomundo!!!

And we never, ever, EVER want the developer out and TV run by the residents.....

Never, ever!!!

Yes, but they kept the option to keep it in the paper? Who owns the paper? who's making the decisions? Well placed career developer regime. The rec guide should be in the Rec centers published once month and should be contract to the lowest bidder. This in the only way to stop the Monopoly money.

As I understand it, the recreation department pays for the the rec news. The Sun is under contract to to print and distribute it. Much like any advertising insert you find in the paper. If anything, a reduction in size would result in a reduction in profit for producing it. So it would only drive up the cost of a subscription.

Hardcopy vs. Online
 

Has the size/content of the online Rec News been reduced as well? I assume most, if not all, of us who use TOTV would be better off with a more complete online Rec News than a limited scope hard copy. While saying this I fully recognize that many here will prefer to continue with the hardcopy version arriving in each Thursday's Daily Sun.

P.S. The most current online version is just 36 pages - exactly the same as the hardcopy version.

All good comments...

One of the things that made me buy here was the Thursday paper packed with activities (listed in the Rec. News) to do.

Instead of giving feedback here, write to the Daily Sun editors AND the Rec. Department and tell them how you feel about the declining value of the paper and how hard it is to find an activity that fits your skills and schedule. John Rohan always wants to know what you think.

As for the District.Gov site, and the TOTV Activities site, it's too hard to find the clubs because of all the abbreviations they use.

Skip

I’ve called. The Sun points you straight to the Rec Department. They only print it.

At the risk of being flamed, why not add $1 per month to the amenity fee? That would easily cover the cost of a full every week Rec News in the paper. After all, aren't all the activities here amenities?