CRC History

In the late 1970's Al Reed, a heavy equipment operator for Cornell, envisioned an organization created by and for the Cornell employees. He promoted the idea strongly. In the early 1980's the two Employee-Elected Trustees (George Peter and Dominic Versage) visited Senior Vice President William Herbster with the proposal to create the Cornell Recreation Club. Organizers spoke with Trustee Sam Johnson of Johnson Wax and patterned the Cornell plan after the Johnson Wax program. At that time, other local institutions, such as Borg Warner, NYSEG and Axiom all had well-established club programs.

Vice President Herbster encouraged the development of a recreation club and requested the organizers develop a statement of purpose. He also suggested contacting the Employee Assembly to obtain their support. The Employee Assembly embraced the idea and continues to support CRC, working side by side with CRC to offer programs for the Cornell community. The statement of purpose was established, and continues to be, a program to promote a sense of belonging to the institution - a sense of community.

Land was given to the club by Cornell for a park and club members volunteered their time and expertise to build a beautiful pavilion. Before the construction was completed, faculty researchers, who were studying bee behavior in the same area, expressed concern that the excess traffic would destroy their research. The result was the administration paid to have the pavilion moved to its present site on Monkey Run Road off Hanshaw Road. To help add additional facilities, CRC held a very successful fundraising drive. Employees donated several thousands of dollars for the construction of the park facility. Names of donors and categories of giving are permanently displayed on plaques in the pavilion. Plaques also display names of individuals that contributed their time. These lists are updated as more and more financial contributors are recognized and more and more individuals volunteer their personal time.

Originally membership required the payment of annual dues in the amount of $15. This entitled the member to a free summer barbecue and a holiday dinner dance. Over the years the dues were restructured to recognize different levels: retiree, family, single with children, and single. Today there are NO dues. This came about as a result of CRC becoming a part of the Office of Human Resources.

The problem of insurance for CRC activities and trips has always been a big concern in developing our program. The Cornell’s Risk Management office issued guidelines for the university, which CRC is expected to follow. In the early days of CRC, it was believed that we were covered by the university's insurance but as time went on and litigation's became a larger part of society, the university felt they could not cover the "club" under its blanket insurance policy unless every person was automatically a member. This prompted discussion between the CRC Board of Directors and the Office of Human Resources. After much deliberation the two groups arrived at a solution. The Cornell Recreation Club would become the Cornell Recreation Community. With this, every Cornell employee (staff, faculty, and graduate students) became a member by virtue of being employed at Cornell. CRC came under the university's insurance "umbrella" and was a part of Work and Family Services.

With this move the CRC Board of Directors also changed names to the Council of Directors and maintained the power to make policy decisions. CRC maintains their own financial accounts for general expense and park development and maintenance operations. NO funds are received from the university as a budgeted item in support of CRC. Thus the program continues to be volunteers giving of their time to help raise funds. Our major fundraising events have been as the caterers for Employee Day in the fall and Employee Night at the Court in late winter. Pricing of trips offered is kept as close as possible to the actual total cost of the trip divided by the number of participants. When the park was first established, a NYS grant was received for development of the facilities. Other events, such as the annual summer picnic help raise more funds for development of the Park facility.

In September 1997 the Council of Directors voted unanimously to change the Community part of CRC's name to Connection. It was believed that this represented our group better and tied in with the "tag line" of Together in Work and Play appropriately. With the name officially voted in, the Public Relations committee is able to go ahead with developing a logo.