Assignment 3- Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)

As a team we define leisure as any activity that enables you to free your mind and escape reality while in a stress-free environment. In my opinion all of our agencies to a good degree support this definition. Each agency has set goals that all revolve around helping the community. The goals of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes are to give the student-athletes a place where they can socialize, learn team working skills, and combine both their athletic world and outside world with God. Since the FCA is a non-profit organization like the RFG there funding isn’t from the government or campus, most of it comes from donations and fund raisers. The FCA isn’t designed to make money it’s designed to help the athletes, and people within not only our community but the world as well.

FCA is a place where people can come and learn about God and not only that but enjoy fun activities, socialize, and also help give back to the community. Like Reins for Gains, FCA does a lot of work helping with people who can’t afford certain things, and provides programs to help out parents that need it. From the definition of FCA you may think that it is only for student athletes here at the U of I but this is not true it is really open for anyone to come and enjoy the privileges of this great program. The leaders of FCA are open 24/7 and will help in any way possible if there is a problem. All of the agencies really work in ways to serve the community, religiously, health wise, recreation, disabilities, all of our agencies cover pretty much everything.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes does fulfill its purpose as an organization. It brings not only collegiate athletes together but the community as well. It mixes the hectic college athletes lives with religion to make the perfect combination. One main strength to me is that it is addicting, once you go you’re always going to go. You just have such a great time and enjoy the use of your leisure time its well worth the two hours. Also it brings people together, brings the community together, and it teaches many valuable lessons for students and people to know. I really don’t believe there are many weaknesses if any at all. I feel like all of our organizations bring a lot to our community and fulfill their purposes as well.

Assignment # 3

Campus Recreation(CRCE) by Dion Daniels

ddaniel3

Leisure today has so many meanings and a lot of organizations define leisure and provide leisure in a lot of ways as well. Our definition of leisure however relates to all of the agencies that we visited throughout our research. We as a group believe that leisure is freeing our minds and escaping reality while enjoying a stress free environment. All of our agencies from therapeutic recreation to private membership to campus recreation, etc. provide some types of leisure, if not more than one, to adhere to that definition. CRCE provided people of the Champaign-Urbana community and of the college campus a place where they can burn off stress through activity. If a student was stressed out from classes or If a person was just stressed from work they could go to CRCE and jog, play a variety of sports, or just chillax in the hot tub. Same thing for Illini Union with their rec room. They provide games and activity to relieve stress in a central place on a college campus for students. Reins for Gains provided children with disabilities to come there and let them have fun and help with the stress of being disabled. All of these agencies might be different in the types of recreation they provide, but all share a common way of providing leisure to help cope with stress and a place to have fun.

CRCE’s objective is to provide a place where anyone can come and have fun through form of activity. There funding comes from the people of Champaign-Urbana mainly students and the same goes for the Illini rec room. CRCE does everything for their members and make sure that customer satisfaction is number one priority at all times. While Illini rec room and CRCE are mainly serving students, UCC and Reins for Gains are both non profit organizations that serves two different groups of people as well. UCC serves anyone who is a member of that organization and makes sure that they are satisfied because they get their funding directly from the members just like CRCE does. Reins for Gains serves people with disabilities mainly children so all three of these agencies alone serves a large amount of people in a given community.

I believe that CRCE does in fact stick with their objective and really does make a difference for their members’ lives especially the college students. A lot of students visit CRCE to improve their physical self, relieve stress while having fun, or even go to CRCE for a job to help pay for college expenses. They always look out for their members no matter what and always make their members feel appreciated. Whether young or old, student or non, CRCE is the place to go to help relieve stress. Since everything CRCE does is for the best interest for their members and also because they ask for member input before they make any new additions or modifications, I don’t see any weakness in the way they fulfill their objective. The same goes for the other organizations I discussed. If they stick to doing things strictly for the people and help with making life better for those people, these organizations will always be successful.

Assignment 3

Enrique Teran

Illinois Union Rec Room has provided students and families around the community with the opportunity to have a safe-friendly environment to relieve some stress. Again, as mentioned in previous blogs, the rec room is a leisure service and defined by Mr. Brinkmeyer, manager of the Rec Room, "leisure is a mental preperation and focus to get away from work; anything that takes you away from that 'box'". In speaking with the group about what we believe the definition of "leisure" is, we decided that it is any actvity that enables you to free your mind and escape reality while in a stress-free environment. Given the definition, we concluded that every company we blogged on fits the description.


The Rec Room's objective is to create an environment not only for guests, but more specifically for students attending the University of Illinois. Many students cannot or choose not to enter the bar scene at night, thus needing a place to hang out, even after dark. As mentioned in my previous blog, the Rec Room has a broad range of things to do such as shoot some pool to throwing that strike in bowling. It is sure to adapt to any student's preference in sport.
We see that every leisure service in our group, adapts to a certain community. For example, Jamie's research on Reins for Gains is specifically set as a thereupeutic leisure service. The Urbana Country Club is a private organization where fees help keep the Club up and running. CRCE and the Rec Room are funded by the university which includes funding from the government. In reading your comment in my last post, it is very hard to describe what type of leisure service the Rec Room is due to its unique setting in the University of Illinois. Moreover, being on campus has its strengths and weaknesses. Its strength and heart of the Rec Room is definitely the students. Without them, there is no need for the Rec Room; students make up the majority of business and will continue to do so for the years to come. However, one of the weaknesses I see in the Rec Room is lack of advertising and size. Many students do not step into the Rec Room once due to the belief that it is quite expensive, since typical bowling alleys and pool halls are. Another thing would be lack of size. There are about 40,000 students on campus and there is a clustering of students when the weekend comes.

Being a leisure service whether private, commercial, or non-profit is very hard to run. Coming into the class RST 110, I had not realized how leisure systems worked and how hard it is to keep them from going belly-up. Not only that, but the field has possibilities for employment and a decent wage as well. Many take it for granted but I feel that my fellow group students and I have come away with a different opinion of what a leisure service provides and how it excels in providing it. The Illinois Rec Room focus is the students and they make sure one is aware of it. Every service researched has a specific aim, and from the research provided, it seems that every company is fulfilling its goals. I am currently a business major and all I see in companies is the bottom line of course. This course however showed me how some people need these services to relieve stress or get thereupeutic relief. All and all, the Illinois Rec Room is here to stay and continue to provide excellent services in the community, more specifically the students. For more information about the rec room you can visit them online at http://union.illinois.edu/funspots/recroom/ Thank you for your time.

Assignment 3

Tourism and Hospitality-Carnival Cruise Lines-Davison3

Our group has looked into six different agencies throughout the past month. Although these agencies have their own unique characteristics they all have the same purpose. That purpose is to provide the public with a leisure activity that allows them to relax and escape reality in a stress-free environment. Taking a cruise is a great way to escape from the day to day grind of work. Also, many students relieve stress through working out at facilities like CRCE, and they also relax by doing activities in the Rec Room. Reins for Gains is another great leisure system. It allows children with disabilities to participate in activities that normally wouldn't be available to them. These organizations are very diverse but they are united through one common theme: providing relaxation.

Carnival Cruise Lines' main goal is to make sure they provide a vast amount of activities to interest all of its passengers so they can all have fun. CRCE's main goal is to make sure all of its members are satisfied with their experience and provided with sufficient work out equipment. The Rec Room's objective is to provide a space where students can go to temporarily escape their academics. These agencies objectives are slightly different but for the most part very similar. Regarding funding, each of these agencies have their own style. Carnival Cruise Lines is funded through its customers and own corporation, CRCE is funded through its members, the Rec Room is funded through the university, and Reins for Gains is funded through public contribution. They also each serve different areas of the public. Carnival Cruise Lines serves anyone and everyone, CRCE and the Rec Room mainly serve students and faculty, and Reins for Gains serves those with disabilities.

One of the key elements of Carnival Cruise Lines that makes it so different from these other organizations is its travel aspect. Carnival allows its customers to see parts of the world they have never seen. Carnival also offers double the amount of activities that CRCE and the Rec Room offer. One of the weaknesses of Carnival though is its complaint rate, the more things a company offers the more problems it is going to have. For the most part CRCE, the Rec Room and Reins For Gains are problem free. I think all of these organizations fulfill their purpose in their leisure delivery system. They each have their own specific way of accomplishing their goals and attracting specific demographics but they are all very similar. Carnival Cruise Lines proves they are a viable cog in the leisure machine through their profits. The rest of these organizations prove their viability through customer satisfaction. All Together they make a great leisure delivery system.

Assignment 3

Private membership Recreation-Urbana Country Club (kim203)

UCC is a private membership agency that has its' unique characteristics compared to the other five agencies. Despite each agency having different themes, one goal is common to all; it is to provide a leisure activity that enables us to free our minds and escape reality while enjoying in a stress-free environment. Starting with UCC, people who had a rough day at work are willing to get away from the stressful work environment and come to UCC to play nine holes of golf to finish a day in a high note. Same story for students who had disaster day with quizzes or tests might find CRCE or Rec Room to fight off the stresses. Also children with disabilities are treated unfairly and they are often isolated while participating within the norms. Reins for Gains is perfect place for these children to escape from harsh world and experience stress-free environment just for them. Thus when all of the agencies are combined, everyone has right place just for them and they can get benefits from these leisure delivery systems.

The main objective of UCC is to create a community setting in which members can share their interest of sporting activities or participate in social events. Most of people perceive UCC as just a place for the physical activities as CRCE is intended to. But UCC's purpose of leisure service is so multi-dimensional that it is almost considered as small society where all types of social bonding can happen which is the main strength that sets UCC apart from the other agencies. In terms of how the agencies are funded, all 6 agencies have a distinct way of being funded. UCC is organization that is only funded by annual membership from applicants at minimum, in another words, UCC does not accept daily charges from non-members. But place like CRCE does not require the participants to become a member to use their facility; CRCE both accept annual membership and daily charges. Meanwhile, non-profit organizations such as Reins for Gains and Fellowship of Christian Athletes are both funded by public contribution. Additionally these fees are supplemented by membership fees and daily charges from participations.

Overall UCC does fulfill its' objective by providing various social opportunities through banquets, holiday celebrations, sports tournaments and many more throughout the year. The relationship among the members at UCC is so close that it is almost described as second family for them. In fact, most of the members have shared their interest at UCC for a long period of time which proves UCC more than fulfilling its’ main goal. However there are also negative sides of UCC. It is for the people who just want to use UCC’s recreation services for a single day, or people who are from outside of Urbana. Literally these groups of people find no other ways of using UCC’s facilities other than becoming a member. Moreover, since UCC is a private ownership agency, the strict membership application might be another obstacle for the population that does not fulfill UCC’s requirements.

Assignment #3

Therapeutic Recreation-Reins for Gains-notaro1




Each agency our group visited and gathered information on is designed to serve a particular group of people within the population. They all have similar goals in that they wish to successfully aid those members of society that they are targeting. In the case of Reins for Gains, their goals are to spread the benefits of their organization to as many children as possible that have disabilities. They, like all of the agencies that were researched, also want to improve the lives of the people involved in their programs. Although some agencies within the leisure delivery system receive funding from the government or from fees payed by those who are part of their programs like the Urbana Country Club, Carnival Cruise Lines, or Campus Recreation, most nonprofit organizations like Reins for Gains get their funding from donations. It all depends on whether one of the leisure agency's goals is to make a profit, such as a few of the agencies mentioned above. RFG aims to serve people who may not have the economic capabilities to pay for equine therapy, therefore making a profit is not a priority. There are many different types of therapeutic recreation organizations out there for children with disabilities. However, there are certain aspects through working with horses that can help these children in many ways that other programs cannot.




All the different organizations that make up the leisure delivery system combine to serve any and all members of society. This system can be broken down in to countless groups that target smaller and smaller categories present in society. We can see this even through looking at only the six different agencies within our team. Families looking for leisure activities who are able to spend some of their income can utilize the Urbana Country Club or go on a Carnival Cruise, college students have multiple opportunities within Campus Recreation to fulfill their leisure needs, and children with disabilities can benefit tremendously through RFG. Reins for Gains can be categorized as a Therapeutic Recreation agency, and then can be broken down further into an agency that is specifically trying to help children with mental, physical, and social disabilities. Aside from each agency having a unique group of people that they are hoping to serve, they also each provide different employment and volunteer opportunities. Agencies designed to make a profit will most likely be able to offer higher paying jobs, and will probably have a larger quantity of paying jobs to begin with. However, RFG and other nonprofit agencies also provide employment opportunities, with the added benefit helping out those with disabilities. No matter what type of job a person is looking for, or what group within society they are aiming to help, the leisure service delivery system can offer several different career paths.




Through coming up with our different definitions of leisure and then researching a particular branch within the leisure delivery system, it is easy to see that whatever your personal definition of leisure is, it can be applied to all of the different areas of the system. A common thread throughout our groups definitions of leisure is the concept of freeing your mind and being able to escape from reality in a stress-free environment. Reins for Gains does all of this and more for the children and families that it helps. Many persons without disabilities never experience riding or being in the presence of horses, but RFG allows children with disabilities to do so. While riding a horse, the child may not even think or feel like they are participating in a "therapy" program, they could simply be enjoying an activity which they, along with many other people in society, find fun. Being able to participate in a leisurely activity while also receiving the additional physical and mental benefits, proves that Reins for Gains succeeds in fulfilling many of its goals. It also proves that Reins for Gains is an active and constructive part of the leisure delivery system as a whole.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes: By Pat Walker

Introduction:
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a Non-Profit Organization working with athletes of all ages. Since 1954, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has been challenging coaches and athletes on the professional, college, high school, junior high and youth levels to use the powerful medium of athletics to impact the world for Jesus Christ. FCA is located all around the United States and plays a huge role in many people’s lives. FCA is an open place for anyone to come and get in touch with themselves as well as god. FCA in Illinois and mainly here in Champaign is a rising agency that is very much so involved in the community.

Background:
FCA is the largest Christian sports organization in America. FCA focuses on serving local communities by equipping, empowering and encouraging people to make a difference for Christ. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is the largest Christian campus ministry in the world. It is on more campuses than the next three largest campus ministries combined. In the past year, FCA reached more than 356,250 people on 7,125 campuses and worked with more than 46,000 coaches and athletes at camps across the globe. The numbers for this 54-year-old ministry are staggering. Still, though the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a mystery to many. Even the late Tom Landry, legendary Dallas Cowboys’ coach and lifetime trustee of FCA, used to call FCA “America’s best-kept secret.” Most people have at least heard of it, but some of them can’t really say for sure what FCA is all about. FCA’s purpose, at its absolute core, is to combine people’s passion for sports with their passion for Christ, and teach them that those two worlds don’t have to be separate. FCA wants to give meaning to the athletic nature that all of us are born with and use it for something that stretches beyond sports.

Eric Terrazas FCA leader waving durring the FCA golf outing.

Employment Opportunities:

FCA has over 800 employees nationwide. Of these, over 600 serve in the field ministering to athletes and coaches in communities across America. The Field ministering position is responsible for growing the influence of FCA in an assigned area through prayer, and by staffing the schools with huddle coaches. This position is responsible for evangelizing, training, equipping, and encouraging coaches and athletes. The Field Associates ensures the effectiveness and longevity of FCA through supporting the camping ministry. Other from the field, and the business end of FCA there are other contributors to this non-profit organization like sponsors such as Russell Athletic, Advocare and many more.

Current Trends and Issues:
A main trend on our campus today is the weekly huddles on Wednesday nights. On any given Wednesday you will see anywhere between 30-50 of the U of I’s top athletes joining together in talks, games, worship, and even enjoying snacks. This seems to have been the big thing here for a while.
One of the main issues or concerns is to keep FCA growing and expanding all over the world. This is a day to day process and is necessary for the organization. The more people involved the better the organization becomes. That’s why the main priority is to expand the programs we already have from camps to campus to community to community.

FCA: Members getting ready for the social!

Meaning of Leisure in the FCA

FCA is a place for athletes to go and relax, socialize, communicate, work on skills, meet people and become more in touch with God. There are all kinds of social gatherings and activities in place every week for kids to further better themselves in the community. I have recently attended a few Wednesday night huddles and to me there is no better place to enjoy your leisure time then here.

FCA: Huddle, regular meeting

Summary:
After visiting a few FCA meetings here on campus I have learned a lot about this organization and met many new people. This organization has many positives, it combines sports and god in the same world and this makes an awesome combination. Leaders in this organization are very helpful to all and are always around if you need someone to talk to, help you with something, or just to hangout with. I think one of the most important things is not only the relationship you have with god but the people you meet as well. On the negative side this is a non-profit organization meaning working for the FCA does not mean making tons of money. But all and all this is an awesome organization, not only working in Champaign, but all over the world as well.