“Without change there is no innovation, creativity or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”

     -  William Pollard (1828–1893)

This quote by William Pollard, an English Quaker who wrote A Reasonable Faith, might seem like a lofty (and old) quote to describe what someone might simply call a “blog makeover.” However, I think there is a lot of truth in it that can be applied to the process of rebranding and redesigning a blog. And personally, this quote also gives me some assurances on why change can be a good and powerful thing. 

When I was younger, I was terrified of change. I hated moving, I hated my schedule changing, I even hated updating to new a version of software. It just left me unsettled. It wasn’t until my mother said, “You know, your grandmother is afraid of change. You’re going to end up just like her,” that I started to rethink my position. 

Let me be clear — ending up like my grandmother wouldn’t be a tragedy. She’s a wonderful and amazing person. But she’s never flown in an airplane, lived in a different city or moved out of the house she’s been in since 1958. I had envisioned something a little different for my life, and decided from that day forward I would embrace change as much as I could. When we started the process of changing the blog, I didn’t even flinch at the thought. This change was going to be good. 

We’ve been talking about updating the blog for a while now. NRPA Now had already organically started to transform from supporting Parks & Recreation Magazine to more of an open space for the latest thoughts and opinions from around the field. Hence, Open Space came into being. 

While this change started to naturally occur on its own, we unknowingly heeded Pollard’s advice: “Those who initiate the change will have a better opportunity to manage [it].” We took this natural change and used it as an opportunity to really embrace it, push it along, and make the blog into something fresh with a new look and new features. 

Innovation and creativity cannot operate in a vacuum. They have a price, and that price, at the very minimum, is change. Thankfully, we have some great staff members here who were willing to embrace this change and come up with some creative designs, concepts and functionality. 

We hope you like the change to Open Space and that you take advantage of it truly being a platform for park and recreation professionals to discuss the topics of the day. 

We’re always looking for contributors and blog ideas, so please feel free to email me with any ideas you may have. If they align with our goal and mission, we’ll happily accept a new contribution.

Learn about Open Space Radio, NRPA’s biweekly podcast.

Let us know what you think about our new look! Comment or let us know on Twitter @NRPA_News.

Roxanne Sutton is NRPA’s Marketing and Communications Specialist and former metathesiophobic.