The organization will discuss these and other topics during its annual meeting tomorrow night at the Lakeside Park Garden Center.

The group is working to rejuvenate Raimondi Field and McClymonds Mini-Park, both in West Oakland. Members want to install turf on the sports field, so residents can give it more wear and tear. They also want to install lights, so the community can use it more each day.

"It's not widely used by the community right now," said Kathy Raymond, executive director. She estimates the McClymonds project should cost about $5 million.

At McClymonds Mini-Park, the organization is working with graduate students in the UC Berkeley community planning department on new designs for the park. Raymond said the graduate students are getting input from neighborhood children to find out what they would like to see in the area.

"We're trying to let the students see that their dreams can actually occur," she said.

Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation manage park projects around the city, issues grants and serve as the fiscal agent for other groups who raise money for improvements to public spaces. Raymond said the biggest challenge the Parks and Recreation department faces is maintaining existing parks and fields "with a budget that keeps getting chopped."

Since the city has limited land, Parks and Recreation cannot build new fields, said Donald Walls, a board member with Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation.

The West Oakland sports field project is an example of what Oakland can do with other parks around the city, according to Walls. "It's essentially doubling the playing surfaces without adding new fields," he said.

At the city department, other changes are taking place, including last Thursday's appointment of Audree Jones-Taylor as department director.

Jones-Taylor, who has served on the Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation board, is replacing Jim Ryugo. Ryugo, who has worked for the department for 25 years, had served as interim director since August, when director Harry Edwards resigned.

Reach Bruce Gerstman at (510) 339-4506 or by e-mail at bgerstman@cctimes.com.