RMR 2024 Kickoff Meetings Are Underway

The 2024 Risk Management Review (RMR) Kickoff might not be as exciting as a Super Bowl kickoff, but the RMR Kickoff certainly has more impact on PDRMA members and visitors to their parks and facilities.

By now, all agencies have received their 2024 RMR Kickoff Form — the first step in determining each agency’s risk management needs and creating short- and long-term Action Plans.

“There’s a lot at stake, and timing is vital,” notes Tim Lenac, PDRMA Risk Management Services Supervisor. “Members have a 30-day deadline to complete the form, followed by an April 1 deadline to have a meeting with their Risk Management Consultant — and earn the first financial incentive of 2024.”

If you’re looking for a game plan for a successful 2024 RMR Kickoff process, here’s what DeKalb Park District and Bolingbrook Park District did to meet with success — and earn the full RMR incentive — in 2023.

DeKalb Park District

Mark Copple, Human Resource and Payroll Manager at DeKalb Park District, says it all starts with a good safety culture. “Employees understand everything our Safety Committee works on ultimately benefits them. So we have a pretty high level of cooperation from employees when we ask them to participate in a safety-related project.”

However, Copple notes, an early start is also an important factor. “Our Safety Committee met to review the overall RMR process, due dates and expectations before we started work on the forms. That way, everyone had a good understanding of what we needed to do to meet the deadlines.”

Copple also stresses the importance of communication. “Our employees trust that our Safety Committee and PDRMA are working for their benefit, so if we communicate the plan effectively, they usually support it. Make sure everyone has a good understanding of the RMR process, goals and deadlines, and then follow up to make sure they complete tasks on time.

“We’re very proud of everyone’s efforts in 2023 to reduce stains, sprains and back injuries among our park and golf maintenance employees,” Copple adds. 

Bolingbrook Park District

Chris Corbett, Superintendent of Projects and Loss Prevention at Bolingbrook Park District, tried something a bit different in 2023 — and it resulted in being able to move up a roofing project.

“I made the Kickoff process a part of our Safety Committee meeting and called in key employees who were willing to participate,” Corbett recalls, “In the past, outside of the Loss Prevention team, no one else participated in the RMR. But last year, I wanted as many employees as possible to get involved, which resulted in more buy-in. I believe we made positive strides following that idea.”

Corbett also says the new iLearning (iLE) platform made a difference in 2023. “I used iLE to keep current records of all my agency’s information and review it throughout the year. Having it all in one place meant I could quickly analyze the data and provide accurate information to help fill out and submit the Kickoff Form to PDRMA.”

Buy-in among employees was quite simple for Corbett to achieve. “Once I could provide accurate, real-life loss data from iLE along with other Kickoff materials, our team accepted the information and acknowledged where our losses were occurring.” 

The benefits of using iLE went beyond just a more efficient RMR. “I was able to manage my agency’s capital asset replacement plan to see where our losses connected to property. When budgeting and analyzing our future capital budget, I used our loss data to eliminate future losses by replacing the roof sooner in a facility where we experienced losses previously.” Corbett urges other members to use the iLE platform to track losses and see where your agency needs additional support.