Staff Newsletter | Tuesday, August 30, 2022
“The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” – Proverbs 19:2
As Maura White shared the details of the September promotion during last Friday’s Staying Connected call, I reflected on the importance of the next few months and the efforts we are making to advance our Y. Last week, Scott Smith shared the plan to roll out our Child Care refresh happening as the school year begins. The team has worked hard to fortify the foundation of the before and after school program as well as the early learning centers, recognizing the opportunities they both represent for our Y. The operations team has been focusing on the continued expansion of services for our members, understanding the budgetary constraints we are facing as well as the challenges posed by the labor market. Brian Flattum and his team have done a great job determining the highest-leverage moves, be it bolstering our aquatics teams, youth programming, or health and well-being offerings. The entire association has worked well together to identify the next best move, understanding the importance of each decision.
For the past few weeks, Brian has been talking about the details of our jobs, emphasizing the little things that go into our success. As a Y back in 2005, we spent a great deal of time working on these details and establishing clear expectations for each of our areas. It was one of the most profound periods of our Y’s history. As a result of that work, we grew our membership from 37,000 to 62,000 within a two-year period, without the addition of any new community centers. Greeting members with a smile and, if possible, by name became the foundation of our service, alongside spotless and well-maintained facilities. With so many of our current team being with us for less than a year, Brian has challenged us to recommit to the details that determine quality service. In the coming months, Brian, Loren Johnson, and Ed Bressette, along with executive directors and facility managers, will be touring their respective centers to understand the specific challenges each center faces to be able to be at its very best. Megan Sala and the membership teams will be taking a similar approach to the member service assessments in order to establish the best practices for serving our members. In 2005, we called it, “Company is coming,” preparing ourselves for the members coming into our centers. With the promotion in September and the fee increase being instituted in October, we definitely want to be doing all the little things, attending to the details, to ensure we put our best foot forward to welcome members into our centers.
In addition to the promotion and the Child Care refresh, September will see a number of other efforts within our association. Michael Marquez is working with TrackMyGym, an outside company, to assess the current use of our existing cardio and strength equipment. Based on the results and the success other Ys are seeing, a shift has occurred in the fitness world with members putting a greater emphasis on using more strength equipment in their routines. Based on what we learn from our members, we could be dedicating more resources to our weight rooms to accommodate the expectations of our members. Fitness is still a big part of health and wellness and we constantly need to adapt to the changes we see within the industry. We are excited about the work Michael is leading and we are hopeful about the positive impact it will have on our membership.
Also in September, we will resume our partnership with Tacoma Public Schools known as Beyond the Bell, an expanded learning opportunity (ELO) program that has brought more of our programming into the schools to youth who may not be accessing our centers. We believe this can be an effective means to introduce more youth to the Y as well as integrate our outreach with our centers. Last year, as part of Beyond the Bell, youth spent a day at Camp Seymour and their reviews were extraordinary. As part of our services at the schools, we have offered arts and Outdoor Environmental Education; this year, we are adding gymnastics to the program. There is a great deal of oversight required to operate this program, working with the various agencies as well as supporting our staff at the various sites, and communicating with youth and families. Stephanie Roberts is in the process of identifying a person to fill the role of director to oversee the program and feels we are close to selecting that person.
In addition to hiring the director to oversee Beyond the Bell, there are a number of other new staff joining our Y. This Monday, Matthew Chase joined the marketing team as the new senior marketing operations director. Matthew will be a great addition to the team, bringing a vast wealth of knowledge of the world of digital marketing. The membership team is also growing. Though he has already been with us for a month, Kellen Westering has been bringing great energy as the association member experience director, working alongside the membership teams from around the association. Soon joining Kellen is Lauren Baklund, who is changing roles from senior membership director at the University YMCA Student Center to association member experience director to help support the member engagement team. The addition of Kellen and Lauren allows us to expand our efforts in developing membership and furthering our work with third-party pay as well as expanding our corporate membership efforts.
When we hired Bruce Caudill to be the Vice President of Information Technology, it was with the intent that he would help position our Y to grow into the future, recognizing technology is an integral part of our future. He has amassed a top-notch team, who have built a strong infrastructure for our organization. One component of that infrastructure that Bruce has on his roadmap is to build a unified communications platform, integrating voice, video, and data. To build the platform, SharePoint and Yammer will be integrated into our way of working alongside Teams. Bruce has emphasized the importance of a centralized location for our files, including document retention, which will go a long way to eliminate redundancies and outdated documents. In addition, Yammer will be an enormous step in engaging our entire staff team through internal communities. This is a very big step for our Y, and an important one that will raise the level of our overall communications effort within our Y. As part of this effort, we have identified Kris Jensen to help build this platform with Bruce and his team. Kris has served as the executive assistant for the past 13 years and has played an important role in connecting our association in so many ways. We felt she was best positioned to help our Y develop the unified communications platform. With this step, Kris leaves a huge hole behind her in a very important position. We will post the executive assistant role this week. This is another example of how our Y is continuing to evolve and grow through these turbulent times. We believe there are opportunities in front of us and we need to seize and capitalize on them.
For me, September has always been a starting point. On September 7, 2020, we reopened our community centers after being closed for six months. I will always remember how our team came together amidst the uncertainty to courageously open our centers. September 2022 is another one of those critical starting times for us. It represents an important juncture of hope for our Y. We have been adding a number of new components to our operation with the hope that it will attract greater participation in our Y. I am very confident it will, especially seeing how well our team is working together to ensure that it does. I am excited for this time and, as always, my confidence lies in the strength of our team. I look around and see excitement in all of your eyes, ready to welcome our communities into our Y. You are the heart of this organization and you are the hope for our future. Thank you for your dedication and tireless commitment to making this Y great for the communities we serve.
#OneY #StayStrong #StayWithUs