And for best programming, City of Temple Parks and Leisure Services Department, Temple, Texas, Lois Petrie accepting. We go now from online programming to another huge growth market in the next ten years: older adults. 
In Temple, Texas, the recreation department’s Senior Adult computer classes have grown to where they now have a waiting list. Each course generates around $1000 in income with an Operating Margin or surplus averaging 40%. That’s not why they got the award.

They got this award because they treated the older adult audience as a profitable market segment, not as a discount charity audience. In five years, LERN’s Julie Coates predicts the older baby boom generation will not only be the largest audience for avocational and leisure programs, but it will be THE audience. As Julie says, “seniors are not they. Seniors are us.” By establishing their programs now with the expectation of a financial return, these programs are positioning themselves for the huge enrollments in the baby boom generation of learners that will occur shortly.