Change is coming to the Vashon Park District. With a new board in place, we, the park board commissioners, are learning to work together in a collaborative, honest, respectful and productive way.

With the VES Field project completed and the levy vote behind us, we have designated 2016 as our “housekeeping” year. Our first task has been to identify our 2016 goals and priorities. These include:

1. Clarifying our roles and structure

We now have three board standing committees: Community Relations, Planning and Finance.

The Community Relations Committee’s purpose is to improve community outreach and community engagement. We will be working with user groups to help better understand the community’s needs and interests. We also want to find ways to encourage involvement with all park users —from the walkers at Wingehaven, to the birdwatchers at Tramp Harbor, to the Frisbee players at Lisabuela.

The Planning Committee’s purpose is to drive both short- and long-range planning and to assure programs and services are aligned with the park district’s mission and values. It will help us move from a reactive to a proactive posture by creating a strategic plan to guide our decisions and priorities.

The Financial Committee’s focus is to work on a monthly reporting format to make it easier to understand and to assure transparency with regard to cash flow and how our actual spending stands in relationship to the budget. Our goal is to have the park district move away from its past reliance on the Tax Anticipation Loan (TAN) and to create a reserve fund.

2. Reviewing and authorizing deferred maintenance projects

We have a lot of deferred maintenance to catch up with, which will take years, but one of our top priorities in this area is getting the pool fully functioning for the 2016 season. Determining the future of the Tramp Harbor Dock is also on the horizon. The other maintenance projects hopefully to be completed this year will have an emphasis on safety and liability requirements. We have limited funds available to us in 2016, so we can’t accomplish everything we would like in this area; however, we are exploring other possible funding sources such as grants.

3. Beginning our strategic planning process

Our planning committee will begin the planning process by conducting a community survey. The results of this survey will help us align our priorities to reflect the needs and interests of Vashon today. We expect the survey will begin in May. We will also be examining other sources of data to gain a fuller understanding of our current state.

4. Developing a parks volunteer program and facilitating the establishment of community outreach efforts

Although we are working hard to develop meaningful goals for the future, it is critical that the community be an active partner with us. We know that community involvement is what makes a great park district. We thank the voters for their support and their understanding that the park district is important to the island, as reflected in the 60 percent approval of the levy last year, despite widespread and legitimate concerns at the time about the district’s direction. We intend to regularly keep the community informed of our plans, activities and progress, but we also need members of the community to attend our board meetings often so we don’t work in a vacuum. We want to hear about the good, the bad and the ugly. Only with your honest input can we, together, move the park district in a direction we can all be proud of.

The board packets (topics that are to be discussed at the next meeting) are posted before scheduled meetings on our website at vashonparks.org/administration. Park board meetings are held every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at Ober Park at 7 p.m. Be there and help us create a park district that truly enriches the quality of life for both residents and visitors.

— Karen Gardner is the chair of the Vashon Park District Board of Commissioners.