Rec People has a temporary, mobile workforce. From a 2-week placement to a 12-month placement or for one-off projects, Rec People has a flexible staff member for you
Our mobile workforce
Rec People has, over many years, built a team of talented staff to work in local councils on relief, temporary or project based assignments.
If your council needs one of our superstars to fill a temporary position, skills gap or deliver a project, please contact us, we’re a friendly bunch and only too happy to help.
Meet the team
Kerry Wilson
The leadership guru
Kerry has more than 20 years experience working with local communities within Local Government. Kerry has undertaken management roles predominantly in the areas of Recreation, Community Development and Environment. Kerry has been responsible for the management of recreation, community development, community planning, youth, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, emergency recovery, economic development and tourism.
Kerry joined Rec Relief in 2015. Kerry is passionate about communities and the physical, social and mental benefits gained through participation in community life and ensuring the environments we live in positively impact on quality of life and health and wellbeing.
- Leadership
- Skill and interest identification and planning
- Mentoring
- Work system analysis and improvement
- Strategic work planning and resourcing analysis
- Performance evaluation
- Project development
- Program management
- Policy development
- Funding attraction
- Community development, consultation and engagement
- Health promotion
- Yarra Ranges Shire Council
- Monash City Council
- Knox City Council
- City of Greater Dandenong
- City of Stonnington
- City of Ballarat
- City of Yarra
- Glen Eira City Council
- City of Port Phillip
Kirstie Czarnecki
The projects go to person
Kirstie began her career in sport and recreation as an intern at Frankston CC and continued her development at Casey where she filled various roles over a 9-year career including team leadership and senior strategic planning roles.
- Project management
- Recreation development and planning
- Team leadership
- Bayside City Council
Nigel Smith
The urban strategist
Nigels customer focused career has been characterised by enhancing place quality, pursuing urban innovation and developing evidence based design systems and solutions. This is demonstrated through a track record of increased return on place investment, highly valued infrastructure outcomes and stakeholder relationships of integrity.
Nigel brings with him extensive experience in urban and open space design, project management and community engagement. This ‘think outside the box’ operator will bring new enthusiasm and energy to your team and projects.
- Open space, recreation planning
- Urban design and strategy
- Community consultation and stakeholder engagement
- City of Port Phillip
- Hepburn Shire Council
Richard O’Byrne
Urban and regional planner
Richard is an urban and regional planner with many years’ experience in parks, recreation and community engagement. He has a strong background in dealing with Crown land leases and park tenures and an excellent knowledge of relevant legislation. Richard has previously held senior management roles in state government and is a qualified urban and regional planner.
- Urban planning
- Project management
- Open space planning
- Crown land and parks legislation
- Community consultation and stakeholder engagement
- City of Port Phillip
- Bayside City Council
Jinty Barden
Project planning and delivery
Jinty brings a wealth of experience across many different skill sets and environments to our team. Jinty has managerial and administrative capabilities gained within the State Government and Not for Profit sector. Jinty’s previous experience as an Executive Assistant and Ministerial Liaison within the Department of Infrastructure, Strategic Planning in Victoria has enabled her to hone her project management, communication and strategic planning skills to suit a variety of environments.
- Project planning and delivery
- Stakeholder management and engagement
- Research and evaluation
- Club liaison and support
- Moonee Valley City Council
Bruce Fordham
Experienced leader
An experienced sport and recreation professional with over 30 years of service experience.
Excellent reputation for leading the development and redevelopment of new and emerging services and programs and the development and redevelopment of infrastructure within the community.
Bruce has delivered a number of strategic reports for Council including Leisure Strategies, Open Space Strategies, Indoor Sports Plan, Outdoor Sports Plan and a number of site Master Plans for various sites including both growth and redeveloped sites.
- Infrastructure projects
- Provision and preparation of strategic reports and papers
- Implementation of new projects and programs
- Growth area planning
- Planning and development of new sport and recreation infrastructure in areas of regeneration or growth
- Team Leadership
- Client side management of a range of Sport and Recreation projects
- Senior Projects Officer – Maribyrnong City Council (2022)
Katie McDonald
Passionate about sport and rec
Katie is a highly motivated sport and recreation professional with 25+ years of experience in the sport and recreation industry including Local Government. She is a published writer and passionate supporter of community sport and recreation and has completed a PhD, Honours and undergraduate in Recreation Management. Katie is currently on assignment at City of Boroondara as a Sport Planning and Policy Officer.
- Recreation Policy and Planning
- Leisure centre management
- Implementation of new projects and programs
- Growth area planning
- Planning and development of new sport and recreation infrastructure
- Team Leadership
- Project management
- Project design and inception
- Document analysis
- Property analysis
- Sport Planning and Policy Officer – City of Boroondara (2023)
Jane Kopecek
O wise one…Omm
Jane is a Sports Management Professional with experience in the areas of sport and recreation planning, project management, client liaison and facility management. With experience in a number of Councils in Victoria and Queensland, Jane brings with her extensive knowledge and wisdom across a variety of fields in the recreation and leisure space.
Jane has a mature and well considered outlook on life with a calm and relaxed nature. With a quiet confidence and extensive experience, Jane will add value to your team with minimal effort.
- Recreation and leisure planning
- Project management
- Leisure facility contract management
- Strategy implementation
- Community consultation and stakeholder engagement
- Stonnington City Council
- Hume City Council
- City of Boroondara
- Mornington Peninsula Shire Council
- Cardinia Shire Council
- Banyule City Council
- Mitchell Shire Council
- Manningham City Council
- Monash City Council
- City of Greater Dandenong
Sean Watts
The Prodigal Son
Sean returns to the Rec People team after working in the education sector as a Trainer and Assessor in Horticulture and Landscape Construction.
Sean started with Rec People in 2019 at Nillumbik Shire Council as a Recreation Development Officer and previous to that worked in local government settings at Darebin, City of Melbourne and Kingston City Council. He has many years experience in Recreation and Open Space Development in a local government setting with his latest role involving managing all the maintenance and capital works projects on all sports grounds in the City of Casey.
- Recreation and open space planning
- Coordination and management of capital work projects
- Liaise and manage Contractors and staff associated with each project
- Consultation with internal and external stakeholders (Sporting Clubs, other Departments and Community User Groups)
- Prepare tendering documentation and assign the applicable contractor after reviewing quotation
- Managing budgetary expenses and raising purchase orders
- Report writing and progress updates
- Nillumbik City Council
- City of Casey
- City of Greater Dandenong
Joe Novella
Marketing and Comms Guru
Joe is a Marketing and Communications professional with a passion for the physical activity sector and grassroots sports. As well as being Rec People’s Marketing and I.T guy, he has worked in the marketing departments of private enterprise businesses, government organisations as well as NFPs covering everything from helping organisations build their marketing plans and strategies to content production including articles, newsletters, posts, animated videos, podcasts and more.
As part of Rec People’s mobile workforce Joe’s assignments include as a Recreation Development Officer at Bayside Council helping the team with their newsletter and website functionality and at Whitehorse City Council as Project Officer in the Active Communities team helping deliver the annual Sport and Recreation Awards, seasonal handover meetings as well as club development forums.
- Delivering Club Development Forums
- Club Development and Liaison activities
- Project Managing events and minor capital works
- Producing social media and website content
- Producing newsletters
- Producing flyers and printed material
- Running a marketing campaign
- Whitehorse City Council
- Rec People Marketing and Content Manager
Marcus Cook
Serving the community
Marcus brings leadership skills to the Rec Relief team across different sectors from community-based services to vocational education, including a stint as Senior Manager Education and Training at Berry Street Shepparton. Prior to joining Rec People, Marcus held the position of Aquamoves Centre Manager in the City of Greater Shepparton where he was responsible for the centre’s daily operations, future planning and strategic direction. Aquamoves a regionally significant leisure centre operating and accommodating over 750,000 visits per year and a work force of 120 people.
- Aquatic and leisure facility management
- People and performance management
- Strategic & operational planning & implementation
- Risk mitigation
- Coaching and mentoring
- City of Whittlesea
- Aquatics and Recreation Victoria
Mark Watton
A leader of teams
Self-motivated, professional and versatile, Mark Watton is an experienced Leader and Sports Administrator eager to further his career within Local Government. He has demonstrated knowledge and understanding of state and national sport networks and
experience in the implementation of Strategic Facilities Plans.
With a strong attention to detail and both General Management and administrative experience at State, Club and Venue levels he has a demonstrated ability to plan and manage projects, programs and facilities. He has experience with managing teams to
deliver against organisational objectives and with researching and analysing data to provide clear and concise reports.
Mark’s career trajectory has included senior positions at Hockey WA and Netball WA. His local government experience was as Recreation facilities team leader at City of Kalamunda, Kalamunda, Western Australia. At the time of writing he was on assignment at Whitehorse City Council as Acting Coordinator Program and Customer Service.
- Facility management
- People and performance management
- Strategic & operational planning & implementation
- Risk mitigation
- Coaching and mentoring
- Project and program management
- Team leadership
- City of Whitehorse
Matt Firth
An award winning strategist
Matt is a strategic thinker with over 30 years’ experience in working within the community sport and recreation industry at many different levels. Previous roles have included:
– National Sport and Recreation Planning Director – dwp Australia
– Senior Sport and Recreation Planning Consultant – @leisure Planners
– General Manager – Whitehorse Netball Association
– Recreation Development Officer – Cardinia Shire Council
– Manager YMCA – Mornington Peninsula (2 Recreation facilities within two Municipalities)
Matt’s work experience has included managing various teams and completing various complex and politically challenging projects with positive outcomes. His professionalism was recognised when Matt was awarded Winner of the 2023 Parks and Leisure Australia Strategic and Master Planning Award (Vic/ Tas Region).
- Facility management
- Open Space Planning
- People and performance management
- Strategic & operational planning & implementation
- Risk mitigation
- Project and program management
- Team leadership
- Recreation Development
- Sports Club Liaison
- City of Port Phillip