Talk about poisoning the Well!

Today we got this letter from Carrie Wall, CEO.  I have three comments:

I suspect before all of this Ms. Wall could've easily raised, simply by asking, 5 figures from YDC Swim families.   Maybe close to 6.  Now?  Good luck getting anything from me, at least.  The well of good will is well and truly poisoned.  There certainly will be no swim team next year;  what family is going to want to stay in these conditions?  (And who is going to run their meets?)

So the Y finds itself in precarious financial straits, and is trying to fix said straits.  That it has reached this nadir in funding reflects very poorly on the leadership of the Y.  If this was known to be occurring when swim team sign-ups were occurring (3 short months ago), it simply was not honest to take our money without mention of the pending changes.  And if this was a sudden change, then the Executive Board has not been doing enough to protect the Y from the vagaries of finances.  Either way, the Y and its leadership comes off looking extremely poorly.  They either have not been honest (one of the core principles of the Y) or they lack foresight.  Perhaps there is a better explanation.  I'm willing to hear one.

Again, the most vexing part of this is the timing.  It simply is not possible to find a new swim team at this time of year.  I feel very badly for the girls, who swam two meets (Turkey Meet and GLO and thus are committed to swim for YDC (ha!) at the State Meets, but now they can do so only under the most horrible conditions!)  Note that Carrie Wall says these decisions were made weeks ago.  But they very dishonestly kept everyone in the dark about it.  She says she knows the timing of this is bad.  I don't think she quite understands just how bad it is.

So we'll be requesting a full refund from the Y.  We signed up for a year, we expect a full year, not something like what we've been given.

Addition:  Ch. 27 talks about it:  Link

November 29, 2013

Dear YMCA of Dane County Swim Team Families,

I am very sorry that many of you are unhappy with the business decisions that we have made that affect you and your children.  While I understand that moving swim team practice times and locations may cause difficulties to some of the families, please understand the Y is also in a difficult position.  The Y is no different than many other businesses in our community needing to balance a budget and find efficiencies.  As a non-profit organization, we must be fiscally responsible so that we can continue to meet our mission focused on core programming related to Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility. 

As we prepare for our 2014 Budget year we had difficult decisions to make and our priorities need to be on all 25,000 kids and adults we serve.  The decisions we will continue to make prioritize our core programming in Youth Development; swim, sports, child care, and camp. We will focus on the early years of youth development, which means instilling our core values while preparing children to be ready for school, teaching them water safety and learning to swim, and teaching them the basics of sports. We will also continue to support the needs of kids and families during out of school time and do our best to balance our facility schedules to meet all these needs.  With 3 full facilities we looked at how we can optimize our space to accommodate everyone without canceling programs like Swim Team. 

I know the timing of this is bad for swim team families.  We needed to make decisions for the 2014 calendar and winter programming sessions as this is our busiest time of the year and demands are highest for all YMCA space.  I heard from some of you that we have plans to stop offering Swim Team after April and I guarantee that it is simply not true.  We will continue to meet the needs of kids and families in this community that fits into our core programming.  Swim is a core program but I do admit our priority is for the youth developmental programs.  Our competitive programs like Swim Team and Tri County Basketball will continue, but as in all healthy Y’s pool and gym time are business challenges we face as they tend to be the highest demand.   

I understand many of you have reached out to my volunteer Board of Directors but please know that the decisions concerning operations are my responsibility with input from my Sr. Leadership, not the Board.  Together we are the responsible servant leaders to assure the mission of this organization continues for future generations.  They are supportive and actually partner with me on the need to find efficiencies which also includes the elimination of a few positions across the association.  The decision to eliminate both Aquatic Director and Swim Team Director positions and create one position at each branch to oversee Swim operations was actually made weeks ago.  The Swim Director position at West was eliminated as part of the reduction and has nothing to do with performance.  Again, I’m sorry that this decision has affected you and your children but it was a necessary business decision and the Swim Directors remaining are very qualified.

I hope that you will give your Swim Director a chance to work with your child and that you continue to be involved with the Y.  We have listened and heard your comments and pushed back the date to the week of January 6, 2014 to help, but I must inform you that this decision is final.  We need to accommodate the needs for Winter 1 session.  We hope you will be able to accept and work with these changes but if that doesn’t fit your family plans then we will refund the unused portion of your season.     

I hope we will to continue to serve you and your family.

Sincerely,