Parks staff demonstrate CivicRec platform to simplify online registrations and facility rentals

Parks and Recreation staff demonstrated CivicRec, the division’s new recreation management platform, telling the Parks and Recreation Board that the county switched from RecTrac to CivicRec on March 2 and launched the public-facing site last week. The presenter walked board members through registering for activities and memberships, adding account members, reserving multi-zone facilities and the cart/checkout process.

The system shows class and lesson details, availability calendars and a green/yellow/gray availability marker. ‘‘This will take you to our public platform where you can register for activities and register for, sorry, register for activities, memberships, events, or go rent a facility,’’ the presenter said. She demonstrated renting Ashley Pond (set up in three zones), selecting times and adding recurring events, and noted that fees such as electricity are calculated automatically when users answer form questions.

Why it matters: CivicRec centralizes program listings and facility rental information, embeds relevant policies and waivers, and provides a structured workflow for users and staff—reducing phone calls and manual admin work. The presenter emphasized built-in attachments like the special-event permit for gatherings of 100 or more and said the system requires digital signatures and agreement to photo and code-of-conduct policies before checkout.

Staff also described limits: Fuller Lodge and Betty Ehart have not migrated and still require patrons to contact those facilities directly, and airport permits are managed outside CivicRec. The presenter described an internal admin back end that allows staff to book on callers’ behalf when possible, and said the platform supports Apple Pay on Apple devices and Google Pay on Android.

Board members asked about how recurring or contracted users (for example, league fields or stable users) will be handled; staff said recurring field reservations remain managed on the back end for stable users and some large or contractor-managed facilities. The presenter noted that staff will continue to use back-end controls to enforce facility-specific booking windows (for example, 14 days out for the rodeo arena).

Staff said CivicRec improves transparency by surfacing policies and special-event permit forms directly in the user flow and that receipts and confirmations are available in print and mobile formats. The presenter closed by offering to support board members and staff as the new platform is used.

Next steps: Staff will continue training, respond to user questions, and maintain some legacy reservation workflows for facilities that opted out of migration.