“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” (Isaac Newton)
I feel safe saying I have never heard anyone claim that the budgeting process was easy; there are always more needs and wants than revenue can address. I also feel confident in saying that the 2023 budget plan was more challenging to build than any other that I can remember, there is more uncertainty heading into 2023 than we have ever encountered. Historically, we have always had a strong degree of predictability in what our membership numbers would be, as well as in our program enrollments, but the past three years have completely disrupted that model. In November we presented the plan to the board of directors, and they requested more documentation as to how we arrived at our projections. It was one of the very few times I have seen the board ask for more discussion before they approved the plan. I appreciate the board did not just approve what we presented. They understand the ramifications of approving a plan without having a greater degree of comfort in the supporting data. They also recognize predictability is difficult, but they wanted us to bring it back to the December meeting.
As I said to the finance committee, I feel we have put our best plan in front of the board. Membership remains our primary component of revenue, we are projecting that it will increase from a current figure of being at 73% of 2019 dollars, to achieve 84% in 2023. I am confident in the strategies we have in place to achieve that target. Last week, Toko, our CFO and Michael Marquez, our Operations Director, placed the order for the new equipment to refresh the Tom Taylor and Gordon weight rooms. This is a significant piece to our plan, responding to the information we received from the Track My Gym study. Nationwide, there has been a strong shift in the fitness industry, away from using cardio equipment to more strength training. Michael did a fantastic job designing the plan. The study predicts we should anticipate a significant amount of growth in membership. We are hoping to build on the anticipated success to format all of our centers, in the meantime, Michael is working to make some smaller adjustments at Haselwood and Korum to position them to accommodate more use as well.
In addition to the Track My Gym strategy, the child care team has been making progress as well. Holly Tedford, Executive Director, has shared we are adding three new sites in the Tacoma district in January, and that in a number of other sites we have been adding youth from the waiting list; this is only made possible because we have a stable team. When we compare where we were a year ago, the biggest difference is having enough staff to deliver services. Having the recruiting team of Noor Bergman, Nat Nabass and Christine Neiman, has completely changed the game for our association, enabling us to have a full team to operate in child care, as well as in every other department in our association. In addition, we added Chantel Ross, as a marketing program manager for child care. Our families have been asking for more communication from us for a long time, and adding Chantel has made an immediate impact on the quality of the program. All of these changes have positioned us to deliver a more consistent service, and the results are already reflecting the changes we have made.
Furthermore, we are experiencing similar improvements in the early learning centers, as Adriana Goldstrom, Early Learning Senior Director, and her team have improved the results in Puyallup, as have Jenn Wroblos, Early Learning Senior Director, and the team in University Place. Child Care and early education play an important part of our anticipated growth in 2023, and they have gotten an early start to the new year, with a renewed momentum. An interesting side note from child care, is we have seen a significant jump in the number of child care families signing up for membership at the centers, increasing from 60 to 273 in just three months. This is the first year we have extended a discount to child care families to have full use of the Y membership. In the past, the child in the program was extended a membership, but now the families can access the centers at a discounted rate. We felt they are already paying a significant fee to our Y, and this would enable us to draw them further into what we have to offer. We also believe that this could open the door to a new way of packaging our services throughout the association. We are excited to explore what that can be. In 2023, we will be conducting a pricing study that will be enable us to assess how we can position us more effectively and to capitalize on all the great services we offer.
When I listen to Michael and Holly share about their plans for 2023, I can feel their excitement and confidence in what lies ahead. I hear that same excitement from Scotty Jackson, Executive Director, and Scott Gjertson, Senior OEE Director, when they share about what they are projecting from Camp Seymour and Camp Lake Helena. Scotty shared last week that there are already 56 families signed up for summer resident camp, something we have not seen for a few years. Scott Gjertson is already reporting an increase in the number of schools signing up for Outdoor Environmental Education. Throughout our association we are seeing greater enrollments in our programs, a clear sign our communities are desiring the services we offer.
Prior to COVID, our no-joining fee promotion efforts were limited to January, September and Healthy Kids’. This year Scott Smith, our VP Chief Marketing Director, and the marketing team have been experimenting with the monthly promo offers, and we have seen incredible success. In December we saw a one- day social media pop-up promo create 453 new joins. This is a very positive result, which does demonstrate that there is strong demand to join our Y, and we are excited to see the impact the no-joining fee promotion produces in January, as well as the subsequent months. Scott and his team are working on a number of things that will position us well for the future. When we hired Matthew Chase to be the Senior Marketing Operations Director, we knew we had added a high quality staff person to advance our online member experience effort. In addition, we recently hired Laure-Michelle Franklin to be our Email Marketing Manager. Scott has shared with me how in just a short time, Laura is already making her impact felt, as she brings a new skilled set to our team. Her addition also allows Jyot to focus more on financial development, to help us improve our ability to raise funds for our Y. Jyot and the financial development team has produced a direct mailer that will be going out this week. Sarah Holman, our Senior Financial Development Specialist, shared with me that there is over $1 million still to be collected from our donors. We are hopeful the mailer will create some urgency with our donors. With less traffic in our centers, we do not see many of our donors, and we have a lot of new staff who do not have the direct relationships with these donors. In just four months, Jeff Weiss, our AO Director of Philanthropy, has put together a great plan to improve our annual campaign fundraising in 2023. We believe that Jyot will be a key part of executing that strategy.
When I was presenting our plan to the board, they could feel my excitement and confidence. I was channeling all the positive work you all are doing. I will say, though the board may appreciate my enthusiasm, they turn to Toko, our VP Chief Financial Officer, to hear her point of view. Toko does a great job translating for the board. I do believe the board feels good about our plan, but will be working with us to monitor the progress we make. 2023 is definitely going to be exciting for our Y. I do believe we are positioned to be successful. The reason for my optimism is, as it always has been, the direct result of the hard work from all of you. It will take all of us leaning into together, working as one. We are ready, poised to have great impact on the communities we serve. Thank you all for your complete commitment. You make the difference.
#OneY #StayStrong #StayWithUs
- Staff Blog by Charlie Davis