Today, I received in the mail, from the Y, a fund raising solicitation.
I can't think I'm going to reply to it.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
News you won't see about the Dane County Y
In addition to snapping the neck off the swim team, the Dane County Y Executives have also stomped the Basketball League.
So you won't see stories like this about the Dane County Y Teams.
So you won't see stories like this about the Dane County Y Teams.
Friday, January 3, 2014
One less coach
I have heard through the Grapevine that another coach has left the Y team today. I'm not sure at all who is left.
I'm officiating a meet this weekend, so I'm going to listen. Maybe I'll find stuff out.
I'm officiating a meet this weekend, so I'm going to listen. Maybe I'll find stuff out.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Channel 3 Editorial
Link.
I like that he agrees that the method of the Y's madness is incredibly ham-fisted. But he has buried (or completely missed) the lede among concern for refocusing the Y's mission. Refocusing is something you do after seeing to your obligations (legal and moral) to dues-paying members. You don't become aware of a problem in September, allow hundreds of families to sign up in good faith in September, and then rearrange the deck chairs on your sinking ship in November.
Again I have to ask: Why are dues-paying members of the swim team not actually treated with respect due all Y members? It's like they have two tiers of members: Swim Team (who pay for the service) and Others (who may or may not).
Incidentally, I've heard from more than one person that this is typical Y behavior, in that every ten or so years, the swim team is decimated because the swim team claims too much pool time. In due time, after Carrie Wall "retires" with a generous pension, a new Executive Director will come on board, and the swim team will increase in size (after all, the pool now languishes, empty, and what better way to fill it?), and then yet another Executive Director will arrive, and perhaps that one will feel threatened by the success of the swim team; after all, it doesn't reflect well on them (they didn't build it), and will the incredible ego of that new Executive Director be able to tolerate the success of a swim team when three or four people are complaining that they can't do 10 minutes of lap swim at night?
Monday, December 23, 2013
Cutting the cord
Today I stopped at the YMCA at 7:40 PM, and terminated the boy's membership. The parking lot was quite empty. There was no energy in the building. And there was 1 person swimming in the pool.
The Cap Times post that vanished
Late last week, the Cap Times ran a piece quoting both Carrie Wall and Betsy Huebel about the "unexpected" consequences of shifting around practice times that every dues-paying family on the Y bought and paid for and planned for. (They didn't think people would object?)
I can't find the article at the Cap Times anymore, but this being the internet and all, it's still findable in Google's cache, so I thought I'd reproduce the text here. This was written by Steve Elbow, and I'm not sure why it's gone. It's an interesting piece on an organization in full damage-control mode. I'm still waiting to see all the working families who have been clamoring for pool time, as Wall claims in the article.
I can't find the article at the Cap Times anymore, but this being the internet and all, it's still findable in Google's cache, so I thought I'd reproduce the text here. This was written by Steve Elbow, and I'm not sure why it's gone. It's an interesting piece on an organization in full damage-control mode. I'm still waiting to see all the working families who have been clamoring for pool time, as Wall claims in the article.
In an ironic set of unintended consequences, the exodus of 120 kids from the West YMCA swim team has allowed the organization to go back to its original practice schedule.
"Because it’s a reduced program now, there’s more availability in the pool to accommodate everyone," said YMCA of Dane County board chair Betsy Huebel.
Last month YMCA officials set off a firestorm of complaints from parents of kids in the 300-member swim team program by switching practice times for some kids from evenings to early mornings, which parents say made it difficult for kids to get to school on time. Other parents were faced with practices being moved from the west side facility to the east side one, which would have required a 20-minute after-school dash across town.
Animosity was magnified by the fact that the changes were to take place in early January — right in the middle of the swim season.
YMCA officials say the changes were necessary because members were not able to swim laps and kids were not able to take swimming lessons during the 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. "prime time" hours.
"All the lanes were being taken up by the swim team," Huebel said.
But because nearly half the swimmers left the team, the YMCA can keep lanes open for lap swimmers and for swimming lessons.
The YMCA has been caught in a fusillade of criticism from both swim team parents and members who say the swim team dominates the pool. When the Y changed practice schedules, angry swim team parents retaliated by pointing to problems with the YMCA's childcare programs, some of which have racked up a large number of violations in recent years.
YMCA officials and city regulators say the childcare problems have been addressed. But lingering resentment at the swim team changes — as well as the firing of 13 management staffers — still festers. A series of stories on the Cap Times website over the past couple of weeks continues to draw phone calls and emails from angry parents and former and current staffers.
"Her incompetence and God-like attitude is shocking," writes one swim-team parent, referring to YMCA president and CEO Carrie Wall in an email to the Cap Times on Friday. "She seems to answer to no one."
In an interview on Friday, Wall said the organization does all it can to support competitive sports programs. But she said the Y's core values of healthy living, youth development and social responsibliity come first. That means its sports programs need more of an emphasis on basic skills, like swimming lessons, instead of competition.
"We do it by teaching kids basic level sports so they can play the rest of their lives and be active," she said. "That’s really our goal. What they do beyond that, we’ll support it as much as we can."
Wall said the organization has geared itself toward tackling current issues, like youth obesity, academic readiness and promoting family health.
The swim team, she said, "is not our number one goal and mission."
"We did it, and we became this big entity because we have pools and we had the room to do it," Wall said. "But it grew to a point where having all those prime-time hours, we couldn’t just have the swim team have it."
The program changes come while the YMCA is reeling from a $500,000 deficit, which Wall said is attributable in part to members who have quit, or prospective members who won't join, because gym and pool space is limited.
"Why we did it is because we needed to do it," she said.
Wall said some of the deficit is due to a slow economy, which led to disappointing camp enrollments last summer as budget conscious parents, some out of work, kept kids at home. The Y also saw an increase in requests for scholarships, awarded to needy families, which amounted to $900,000 this year, up from $400,000 three years ago.
In addition, debt on the northeast YMCA of Dane County facility in Sun Prairie, which opened in 2007, continues to be a burden. The YMCA, which has an annual budget of about $13 million, still owes $6 million on the building, said Wall.
To balance the books, the YMCA cut 13 positions in November, including its vice president of business services, who earned nearly $140,000 last year, according to federal tax records. Wall said the staff cuts amounted to a total of $600,000 in savings.
She said changes were made to several programs, not just the swim team. And she said that they had to be made immediately so the organization could entice new members in its start-of-the-year membership drive.
"We’re always in the middle of somebody’s season, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s camp, whatever," Wall said. "We had to make the decision based on our budget year. And our budget year and our busiest time of the year starts in January."
She said the impact of members not having access to facilities last year was "devastating," and if left to continue could hamper efforts by the Y to right its financial ship.
"We had our members just clamoring, 'We don’t have lap swim time, we don’t have open swim time. That's why we joined the YMCA,'" she said. "And when it comes to working families, prime time is prime time."
"Because it’s a reduced program now, there’s more availability in the pool to accommodate everyone," said YMCA of Dane County board chair Betsy Huebel.
Last month YMCA officials set off a firestorm of complaints from parents of kids in the 300-member swim team program by switching practice times for some kids from evenings to early mornings, which parents say made it difficult for kids to get to school on time. Other parents were faced with practices being moved from the west side facility to the east side one, which would have required a 20-minute after-school dash across town.
Animosity was magnified by the fact that the changes were to take place in early January — right in the middle of the swim season.
YMCA officials say the changes were necessary because members were not able to swim laps and kids were not able to take swimming lessons during the 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. "prime time" hours.
"All the lanes were being taken up by the swim team," Huebel said.
But because nearly half the swimmers left the team, the YMCA can keep lanes open for lap swimmers and for swimming lessons.
The YMCA has been caught in a fusillade of criticism from both swim team parents and members who say the swim team dominates the pool. When the Y changed practice schedules, angry swim team parents retaliated by pointing to problems with the YMCA's childcare programs, some of which have racked up a large number of violations in recent years.
YMCA officials and city regulators say the childcare problems have been addressed. But lingering resentment at the swim team changes — as well as the firing of 13 management staffers — still festers. A series of stories on the Cap Times website over the past couple of weeks continues to draw phone calls and emails from angry parents and former and current staffers.
"Her incompetence and God-like attitude is shocking," writes one swim-team parent, referring to YMCA president and CEO Carrie Wall in an email to the Cap Times on Friday. "She seems to answer to no one."
In an interview on Friday, Wall said the organization does all it can to support competitive sports programs. But she said the Y's core values of healthy living, youth development and social responsibliity come first. That means its sports programs need more of an emphasis on basic skills, like swimming lessons, instead of competition.
"We do it by teaching kids basic level sports so they can play the rest of their lives and be active," she said. "That’s really our goal. What they do beyond that, we’ll support it as much as we can."
Wall said the organization has geared itself toward tackling current issues, like youth obesity, academic readiness and promoting family health.
The swim team, she said, "is not our number one goal and mission."
"We did it, and we became this big entity because we have pools and we had the room to do it," Wall said. "But it grew to a point where having all those prime-time hours, we couldn’t just have the swim team have it."
The program changes come while the YMCA is reeling from a $500,000 deficit, which Wall said is attributable in part to members who have quit, or prospective members who won't join, because gym and pool space is limited.
"Why we did it is because we needed to do it," she said.
Wall said some of the deficit is due to a slow economy, which led to disappointing camp enrollments last summer as budget conscious parents, some out of work, kept kids at home. The Y also saw an increase in requests for scholarships, awarded to needy families, which amounted to $900,000 this year, up from $400,000 three years ago.
In addition, debt on the northeast YMCA of Dane County facility in Sun Prairie, which opened in 2007, continues to be a burden. The YMCA, which has an annual budget of about $13 million, still owes $6 million on the building, said Wall.
To balance the books, the YMCA cut 13 positions in November, including its vice president of business services, who earned nearly $140,000 last year, according to federal tax records. Wall said the staff cuts amounted to a total of $600,000 in savings.
She said changes were made to several programs, not just the swim team. And she said that they had to be made immediately so the organization could entice new members in its start-of-the-year membership drive.
"We’re always in the middle of somebody’s season, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s camp, whatever," Wall said. "We had to make the decision based on our budget year. And our budget year and our busiest time of the year starts in January."
She said the impact of members not having access to facilities last year was "devastating," and if left to continue could hamper efforts by the Y to right its financial ship.
"We had our members just clamoring, 'We don’t have lap swim time, we don’t have open swim time. That's why we joined the YMCA,'" she said. "And when it comes to working families, prime time is prime time."
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Channel 15 story
Channel 15 is running a story tonight that says the practice schedule is back to normal.
To recap: Ms. Wall has driven away families, antagonized donors, and demonstrated (in my opinion) very very poor leadership.
It seems to me that a better tack would have been to raise swim fees. I think that will happen next year because the Y team cannot raise money by having meets because no one is left behind to run them! So either they will raise fees or families left behind will have to do things like sell magazines or cookware to find the extra money.
How NOT to do things. That is what we've seen of late.
The good news to come out of this is that Shane is back coaching Madison-area swimmers!
To recap: Ms. Wall has driven away families, antagonized donors, and demonstrated (in my opinion) very very poor leadership.
It seems to me that a better tack would have been to raise swim fees. I think that will happen next year because the Y team cannot raise money by having meets because no one is left behind to run them! So either they will raise fees or families left behind will have to do things like sell magazines or cookware to find the extra money.
How NOT to do things. That is what we've seen of late.
The good news to come out of this is that Shane is back coaching Madison-area swimmers!
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