From time to time a skatepark activist will have the opportunity to deliver a presentation on skatepark development to their community leaders. At Skaters for Public Skateparks we encounter the same thing on a national level and we never pass on a chance to share our opinions on design and development.

This year we've decided to share our annual presentation with our readers so that they may see what we're telling Parks planners and City officials. You are welcome to use these graphics and language if you like in your local effort to promote skateparks. This presentation can take as little as 45 minutes to fly through or up to 90 minutes if you explore each concept thoroughly.

In this feature you will find an image (JPG) that can be placed right into your Powerpoint, iMovie, or PDF. You may also find this PDF useful which can be printed out beforehand for each of your attendees. It contains all the of the presentation's main points.

sps_presentation_handout

You will also see italic text that indicates the language we have generally used for that slide. You may use it as-is, change it, or use different language altogether.

Enjoy!

This is the entry slide that can be up when people are finding their seats. The three logos are the agencies that contributed content and support for this material. From left to right they are:

International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC), who supports skatepark development through the support of non-profits like Skaters for Public Skateparks.

Skaters for Public Skateparks (SPS), the suppliers of information in this presentation and authors of the Public Skatepark Development Guide.

Tony Hawk Foundation (THF), providing financial, tactical, strategic, and occasionally emotional support to grassroots skatepark organizations.

We've left room for you to include your own organizational or partner logos if you wish.

Thank you for being here. Your initiative and commitment to grassroots efforts like ours is the bedrock of healthy communities.The fact that you take this issue as seriously as we do is testament to the strength of our town's leadership.

We've given a lot of thought over the years to what makes a skatepark succeed or fail. Nobody wants to create a failure but it happens. When it does, it's always an accident and nobody feels that they're making a bad decision; they just think they're offering a small compromise. Sometimes these compromises are okay and sometimes they can stack up until it's too much of a burden and the park turns into a community embarrassment. We're going to look at those factors today and look at how we can plan for success and be prepared for the inevitable compromises that will arise along the way.

Thanking your community and community leaders is an important aspect of this slide. You want them to know that you understand and appreciate that they have other things they might rather be doing. The second paragraph frames the presentation in an interesting way; you're not there to convey absolutes but to actually educate the group on some of the decisions that will arise.

We've identified ten factors that have significant impact on a skatepark's success or failure. Some of these have deep overlap with some of the others, while some are isolated concerns that can be easily avoided. The question remains; What makes a skatepark great?

All of the things we'll be looking at today are within our abilities to influence. None of these factors are off-limits to us. For example, there isn't a factor that says, "Great skateparks all cost more than 2-million dollars"...although I suspect that all skateparks that cost more than 2-million dollars are pretty great.

This slide establishes a navigational framework for the rest of the presentation.