Book excerpt: Programming Recreational Services serves as a handbook for recreational practitioners at every level. It clearly presents the methods and materials necessary for the planning, organization, and operation of recreational services. This reader friendly text addresses each of the 12 recreational program categories in detail and includes illustrations to assist with learning. It teaches students a methodology for evaluating recreational programs from the establishment of objectives to the final instrument used, to determine whether or not the program performed in the way that it was intended.