The Mt. Lebanon (Pa.) Recreation Department had every reason to expand its technology roster. A 2000 community survey showed that nearly half of the city's 34,000 residents had home computers, yet anyone participating in a recreation program had to register and pay in person or by mail. The time had come to give residents more registration options.

“Our surveys showed that we have a computer literate community that is spending time on the Internet,” says Recreation Director Bill Moore. “Everything is going in that direction, so we wanted to make sure we kept pace.”

Moore spearheaded efforts to add online registration to the department's offerings. In 2001, Mt. Lebanon purchased recreation management software from Sacramento, Calif.-based RecWare, and the following spring it purchased the company's hosted Internet registration services.

The online registration component went live in July, initially offering registration for the city's kindergarten soccer program. The Recreation Department added other programs, and, by August, it provided residents with online registration options for 70 programs.

Residents log onto the city's Web site (www.mtlebanon.org) and use the registration service to search activity listings, register for programs and pay online; department staffers use it to monitor reservations, enrollment and payment, and to produce program rosters that can be e-mailed to coaches or instructors. Additionally, the department has access to a database that provides them with registrant information, including contact data, payment history and payment balances.

“We thrive on seeing people come into our office, and we know our customers need personal contact,” Moore says. “[However,] we want to accommodate all types of registration needs. Online registration streamlines the registration process and makes it easier for people accustomed to using a computer.”

Currently, the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Department limits online registration to 25 percent of program capacity. (For example, if a dance class has 20 openings, five spots are listed online.) The remaining openings are reserved for residents using walk-in and mail-in registration. According to Moore, the automated service has given his staff more time to plan programs and manage activities.