Rec center calendar a bit overwhelming
 

So I'm trying to get involved in some activities and I'm finding the rec center calendar a bit overwhelming. If you find an activity that you think you might like, do you just show up to the rec center a bit early and see if you can participate? Do you call and ask about it ahead of time? What if you are a newbie to the activity? Is there a more efficient way of searching the rec center calendars?(For instance, you type in mah-jong lessons or July 4th picnics and a list of those activites come up throughout The Villages.) Or do you just have to look at every rec center to find the days and times with those activities? :confused:

You'll get used to looking at it so that it gets less confusing. Each day in the paper there are the activities for the day at the Rec Centers or you can just go thru the Thursday one and write down where and when you want to go. No need to call ahead, just go early and ask people what the procedure is , etc... you'll feel welcome and just follow along as well as you can. Maybe try the same activity at different centers with different instructors til you feel comfortable. Everyone was new once......you'lll be a veteran soon.

Absolutely right and so nicely said!

I disagree! We came for a LSV back in April (my parents just moved into to their home in Tamarind Grove 2 weeks ago)...looked in the paper and went to something called "Mah Jongg Open." We thought that meant it was to open to anyone. There was also something listed called "Mah Jongg Organized." We thought that meant that these were standing/already organized foursomes who play together all the time. It was exactly opposite! So I do think there needs to be a better way to interpret what's listed...it's not always intuitive! Also, why aren't the rec centers listed alphabetically?

They're listed in the order they were built. Ok, I agree, sometimes there is confusion but usually people are happy to help you find the right groups.

I believe they are listed in the order that the regional centers were built. They are clustered by regional center. This works if you are looking for classes in your geographic area - e.g. Colony is listed with Odell, Captiva and Truman Seabreeze with Allamanda, Fish Hawk, Hisbiscus, and Sterling Heights. So there is some logic to the organization.

I submitted an idea in the survey to also have the Rec Calendar in digital form on the website that was keyword searchable. The information must already be digital as it is sent to the printer so why not dump it to a database. They way you could see where ALL the yoga classes are or search for a specific time frame.

wrong word to use= OVERWHELMING
 

that is not the word to use,,, it is a totaly messed up calendar, and that could not be more mis organized!!! it needs to be alphbetcally ,, and who cares when they were built,, they need to put up on the web with daily activity of the times, searchable by time,, or location or activity,,,

Next time call the rec center for clarification.

ummmm. If you step back a couple of paces and look at the whole deal.

What a great problem!!! Too many things to do and too many rec centers to find easily.

Sounds like a good thing to me. And really NOT that hard to figure out.

The calendar clearly has not kept pace with the growth in The Villages. I admit, it's not a terrible problem, but it could be so much more efficient. I think countryboy is onto something. If TV doesn't take that idea and run with, maybe one of the computer clubs will. Maybe I will join a computer club and suggest it! Thanks to Mudder for telling me about the daily calendar in the paper. That helps.

You can go to the Daily Sun link and go to Recreation and download the Recreation News and then use the PDF Find feature to get all of the Yoga classes, etc. I use that approach to look for certain clubs.

I've made this suggestion as well. Would love to see it published online in columns such that user could sort by any column (e.g., activity, time or rec center). For all of TV's wonderful wizardry, high tech is not their thing.

In the meantime, Z's suggestion is an excellent one...

GG's observation that too many activities is a wonderful problem to have is also an excellent one.

Thank you zcaveman. I went to the calendar, went to "find." Typed in beginner and it worked like a charm. 81 instances of the word beginner came up on the calendar. I just kept hitting the down arrow and it took me to the next instance. I now have more activities and clubs than I know what to do with.