Bloomington Parks and Recreation runs the kind of programs families build traditions around. But when demand outpaced supply, its decades-old registration system made access feel too dependent on timing, technology, and staff workarounds.

With a new $100 million Community Health and Wellness Center on the horizon, Bloomington chose Rec to make enrollment fairer, connect its facilities and programs, and equip its small team with simpler, AI-powered tools.

The Challenge

When Access Depends on Speed

Camp Kota, Bloomington’s flagship summer camp, has been a local tradition since 1970. Former campers now send their children, and counselors who met on staff decades ago have families who attend today. This loyalty also makes the camp difficult to get into.

For years, registration was first-come, first-served in person. Residents lined up outside the front desk as early as 3 a.m. for a 9 a.m. opening. Moving registration online eliminated the physical line but not the underlying problem. Enrollment still favored families with reliable internet, flexible schedules, and the fastest fingers.

Bloomington began using a lottery for high-demand programs such as Camp Kota, reducing pressure on families and staff. But its legacy platform could not provide the flexibility and connected workflows needed to extend a fair, seamless experience across the department.

Those limitations mattered in a racially, economically, and linguistically diverse city whose population skews older than average. Residents without reliable internet, or those unable to be online at a precise time, often relied on paper forms that staff entered manually. Many older adults depended on the department’s newsletter, and content for residents age 50 and older is consistently its most-clicked section.

Bloomington wanted to offer a more intuitive online experience while preserving phone, paper, and staff-assisted registration for residents who needed or preferred those options.

Strong Programming, Outdated Infrastructure

Demand for Bloomington’s programs is strong. Summer Adventure Playgrounds operates across five to six park sites and stays booked throughout the season. Skate School draws high registration volume year-round, and senior classes fill season after season.

But the infrastructure underneath those programs could no longer keep pace. Bloomington had used the same recreation software since the early 1990s. Webpage updates required hand coding. Email marketing lived outside the platform, forcing staff to piece together each send. Paper forms were entered one at a time.

For a small team without dedicated IT support, maintaining those workarounds had become increasingly difficult.

The Decision

A New Facility Raised the Bar

Bloomington’s new Community Health and Wellness Center will bring aquatics, community center, senior, and other recreation programming into a shared destination. Historically, residents experienced many of these as separate operations, each with its own workflows and registration quirks. The new center created an opportunity to present them as one department.

Through a competitive technology vendor search, Bloomington looked for more than a like-for-like replacement. It needed a platform that could:

• Make enrollment fairer for high-demand programs
• Unify online, paper, phone, and staff-assisted registration
• Connect registration, check-in, facility access, and communications
• Be easy to navigate across ages, languages, and devices
• Use AI and automation to reduce routine staff work

For years, residents have known us as the ice garden, the pool, or the community center, but not as the one department behind them all. Bringing everything together on Rec changes that. It allows us to show up as one connected organization and gives residents a much simpler way to discover and book everything we have to offer.”

— Alison Warren, Strategy & Analytics Manager, City of Bloomington, MN

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Why Bloomington Chose Rec

Fairer Enrollment for High-Demand Programs

Bloomington chose Rec because fair access needed to be built into the system, not managed around it. Built-in lottery and waitlist tools will allow Bloomington to open an enrollment window, give residents time to register, and draw names automatically. A parent working a shift, a household using a shared phone, and a resident submitting a paper form can all enter the same draw on equal footing.

The process will also reduce registration-day traffic spikes and difficult conversations about who got in and why. Staff can instead point to a process that is transparent and fair by design.

Easier Registration and Communication

Bloomington also needed a system that could make online registration more approachable without forcing every resident into the same digital path. Rec will give residents a mobile-first place to discover programs, register, pay, and manage their household accounts. The simpler experience will make online registration more approachable for residents with different levels of digital comfort, while offline assistance will remain available.

Email marketing will also live inside Rec, allowing staff to communicate directly from resident and program data without exporting lists or building campaigns in a separate system. Staff will be able to share relevant information with specific groups, including seniors, and give residents a clearer path from discovering a program to registering for it.

One Connected Department

Bloomington chose Rec to help its recreation system feel like one connected department, not a collection of separate facilities, programs and events. 

Rec will connect registration, check-in, facility access, communications, and website management across Bloomington’s programs and facilities. That gives residents a simpler way to understand what the department offers and gives staff a more unified way to manage the work behind the scenes.

AI is part of that operating model. With Rec, the goal is for staff to spend less time building pages, managing lists, answering repetitive questions, and moving information between systems, and more time helping residents find and participate in the right programs.

What I’m genuinely excited about with Rec is how much easier it makes everything. That extra time and headspace means we can put more programming out there and put our energy where it really matters: making sure every resident in our community, no matter their background or how they need to access our services, gets an incredible and equitable experience instead of getting buried in admin work.”

— Anthony DiBella, Recreation Manager, City of Bloomington, MN

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What’s Ahead

The Community Health and Wellness Center is part of a broader citywide investment that includes the completed $38 million Bloomington Ice Garden renovation, a $20 million natural resources restoration project along Nine Mile Creek, and numerous upgraded and reimagined parks.

For Bloomington, modernization is not just about smoother administration. It is about giving every resident a fair shot to participate.

Interested in building a fairer, more connected recreation experience for your community? Reach out to the Rec team to learn more: https://partner.rec.us/book-a-demo