NRPA closing regional offices; Johnson to retire.(Newsroom)

The National Recreation and Park Association is closing its five regional offices and will relocate them to the organization's headquarters in a cost-cutting move that also will affect the National Aquatic Branch.

In an unrelated move, Walter C. Johnson, founder of the aquatic branch and a champion for the growth of aquatics over the past two decades, announced his retirement, effective Oct. 31.

The regional offices--including the Great Lakes Service Center, for which Johnson serves as executive secretary and which oversees the aquatic branch--were to be shut down in 30 to 90 days, NRPA's Executive Committee announced at a July 21 meeting in St. Louis.

John A. Thorner, new executive director of the nonprofit NRPA, said there were "several reasons" for the move: "Basically, prompted by an initial financial concern and in a need to save money in salary and benefits across the board, we are looking at all areas of the organization in trying to find out how we can do the same kind of service for less money."

Thorner took over as executive director on March 24 and reports to the 72-person Board of Trustees. He said that "overall, we're looking to cut about 18 percent from our salary and benefits. This is not all going to be achieved in this [relocation] area. We're doing several other things." He declined to attach a dollar figure to the cuts other than to say that it is a "significant difference."

The annual National Aquatic Conference and National Aquatic Management School (whose revenues exceed expenses, Thorner said) will not be affected. The 2004 conference will ...