Frustrated with how our swim team takes over the pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^and we do host A and B meets, which results in some closures. I get that's annoying, but our pool works hard to at least acknowledge the inconvenience. We do keep tennis and basketball courts open during B meets.

How do you acknowledge it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and we do host A and B meets, which results in some closures. I get that's annoying, but our pool works hard to at least acknowledge the inconvenience. We do keep tennis and basketball courts open during B meets.

How do you acknowledge it?

When the communication is sent to members, it includes something along the lines of, "we realize this is inconvenient and appreciate your understanding. We do our best to run meets efficiently to minimize pool closures."

Maybe that's not working hard, but it is acknowledging it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For our swim team the last practice (minis) is 9:30-10:15 and the pool doesn't open until 12, so there wouldn't be swim team families sticking around anyway. Some do come right back and noon, but we have enough shade it's not a huge issue.

Then our pool has a separate "toddler time" 2 days a week where only the baby pool is open from 11-12 - we're small and can't afford to pay too many life guards, but can have someone on hand to open it. So those toddler families you speak of could have some quiet time with just little kids.

Then our swim team doesn't have afternoon practices, so they aren't taking the pool then. The only area team I know of that does only uses 2 lanes, and it's not a problem at that pool.

The rest is normal at any NVSL pool - morning practice, Saturday meets, Monday evening B meets taking up the pool are all standard. I remember being annoyed by it when I had toddlers. Now I have swim team members. Life moves on.

OP not every pool has an initiation fee. Ours no longer does. Come on over .

I wonder whether we are at the same pool? This describes ours as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently, our swim team has the whole pool for two hours in the morning and half the pool for three hours in the afternoon plus the dive team has the well for two hours every afternoon. It’s a lot for non-team pool members. As a former pool manager, I understand why my family is not the demographic the pool needs so our interests aren’t a priority. We may drop the membership or go for the late summer only option though I would miss going over on the weekends in June and July (during times when there aren’t meets!).

Our swim team has the whole pool for hours in the morning when the pool would otherwise be closed. When swim team ends, does your pool start opening earlier? My guess is that without swim team, which is where they draw their lifeguards, the pool wouldn't be able to cover those extra hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and we do host A and B meets, which results in some closures. I get that's annoying, but our pool works hard to at least acknowledge the inconvenience. We do keep tennis and basketball courts open during B meets.

How do you acknowledge it?

When the communication is sent to members, it includes something along the lines of, "we realize this is inconvenient and appreciate your understanding. We do our best to run meets efficiently to minimize pool closures."

Maybe that's not working hard, but it is acknowledging it.

Thank you for holding. We know your time is valuable but we don't really care and only hired one poorly trained offshore guy with a loose script to address your issues. Please, stay on hold and we'll get to your call (well, tony will), in the order in which it was received.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blame the working parents who were pissy their kids couldn’t do morning swim team. The evening swim practices are a direct result of this.

Why not just do PM practice? Families with young kids could go in the morning, then go home to lunch/nap. Older kids would likely start showing up around noon, as the babies/toddlers are leaving, and stay through swim practice. Kids who are in camp would show up for swim practice, and stay until close.

Because not every family, including those whose parents work, has the same schedule you do.

Our a.m. practice takes the entire pool for 3 hours. Fold in the kids who come to p.m. practice and we'd need to close the pool for 4 or 5 hours. That means that many families wouldn't be able to go at all, to accommodate the small number of SAHM families who want morning.

Plus, we can get lifeguards for morning hours, because they are swim team kids who want to be part of the swim team. But getting teenagers to come at 9 a.m. for lifeguard shifts is going to be hard otherwise.

Finally, there is this weird idea on DCUM that there are two kinds of families, those where both parents work full time exactly 9 - 5 who send their kids to camp, and those with a SAHP. The reality is that the working world is much more diverse than that a.m. practice works for a lot of people. When I think of the families I know who do a.m. practice, we have families whose parents do shift work, or who use grandparents or teenagers as childcare and want that time broken up, or who have parents who are WFH, and kids at an age where a partial day at home works and a full day doesn't, or kids like mine with other significant commitment to a sport or art form or job in the afternoon. Both parents working full time, and using camps all summer is only the norm in a certain UMC bubble.

Sorry to break it to you but swim team is the definition of UMC bubble. Even having a pool membership and everything OP described is peak UMC.

Having parents who work the night shift, or using grandma or a teen sibling babysit to instead of paying for camp each week is UMC bubble?

I think PP meant paying a $1000 “initiation fee”, plus an $800 annual club membership was UMC.

Our pool is a $400 one time membership, and $660 annual, plus $270 for both kids to be on the team. That $930 a year is much less than many people pay for camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^and we do host A and B meets, which results in some closures. I get that's annoying, but our pool works hard to at least acknowledge the inconvenience. We do keep tennis and basketball courts open during B meets.

How do you acknowledge it?

When the communication is sent to members, it includes something along the lines of, "we realize this is inconvenient and appreciate your understanding. We do our best to run meets efficiently to minimize pool closures."

Maybe that's not working hard, but it is acknowledging it.

Thank you for holding. We know your time is valuable but we don't really care and only hired one poorly trained offshore guy with a loose script to address your issues. Please, stay on hold and we'll get to your call (well, tony will), in the order in which it was received.

It's your choice to see the negative in it, PP. It is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Our swim team takes over from 5-8 pm most evenings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blame the working parents who were pissy their kids couldn’t do morning swim team. The evening swim practices are a direct result of this.

Why not just do PM practice? Families with young kids could go in the morning, then go home to lunch/nap. Older kids would likely start showing up around noon, as the babies/toddlers are leaving, and stay through swim practice. Kids who are in camp would show up for swim practice, and stay until close.

Because not every family, including those whose parents work, has the same schedule you do.

Our a.m. practice takes the entire pool for 3 hours. Fold in the kids who come to p.m. practice and we'd need to close the pool for 4 or 5 hours. That means that many families wouldn't be able to go at all, to accommodate the small number of SAHM families who want morning.

Plus, we can get lifeguards for morning hours, because they are swim team kids who want to be part of the swim team. But getting teenagers to come at 9 a.m. for lifeguard shifts is going to be hard otherwise.

Finally, there is this weird idea on DCUM that there are two kinds of families, those where both parents work full time exactly 9 - 5 who send their kids to camp, and those with a SAHP. The reality is that the working world is much more diverse than that a.m. practice works for a lot of people. When I think of the families I know who do a.m. practice, we have families whose parents do shift work, or who use grandparents or teenagers as childcare and want that time broken up, or who have parents who are WFH, and kids at an age where a partial day at home works and a full day doesn't, or kids like mine with other significant commitment to a sport or art form or job in the afternoon. Both parents working full time, and using camps all summer is only the norm in a certain UMC bubble.

Sorry to break it to you but swim team is the definition of UMC bubble. Even having a pool membership and everything OP described is peak UMC.

Having parents who work the night shift, or using grandma or a teen sibling babysit to instead of paying for camp each week is UMC bubble?

I think PP meant paying a $1000 “initiation fee”, plus an $800 annual club membership was UMC.

Our pool is a $400 one time membership, and $660 annual, plus $270 for both kids to be on the team. That $930 a year is much less than many people pay for camps.

Is it $400 plus the annual dues the first year? Our is $675, but no dues on top of that. Then it’s the annual dues which is currently $550.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently, our swim team has the whole pool for two hours in the morning and half the pool for three hours in the afternoon plus the dive team has the well for two hours every afternoon. It’s a lot for non-team pool members. As a former pool manager, I understand why my family is not the demographic the pool needs so our interests aren’t a priority. We may drop the membership or go for the late summer only option though I would miss going over on the weekends in June and July (during times when there aren’t meets!).

Our swim team has the whole pool for hours in the morning when the pool would otherwise be closed. When swim team ends, does your pool start opening earlier? My guess is that without swim team, which is where they draw their lifeguards, the pool wouldn't be able to cover those extra hours.

I don’t think many people are concerned about the morning hours. It’s taking half the pool for three hours and the diving well for two hours every afternoon. That would get very old quickly for most people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blame the working parents who were pissy their kids couldn’t do morning swim team. The evening swim practices are a direct result of this.

Why not just do PM practice? Families with young kids could go in the morning, then go home to lunch/nap. Older kids would likely start showing up around noon, as the babies/toddlers are leaving, and stay through swim practice. Kids who are in camp would show up for swim practice, and stay until close.

Because not every family, including those whose parents work, has the same schedule you do.

Our a.m. practice takes the entire pool for 3 hours. Fold in the kids who come to p.m. practice and we'd need to close the pool for 4 or 5 hours. That means that many families wouldn't be able to go at all, to accommodate the small number of SAHM families who want morning.

Plus, we can get lifeguards for morning hours, because they are swim team kids who want to be part of the swim team. But getting teenagers to come at 9 a.m. for lifeguard shifts is going to be hard otherwise.

Finally, there is this weird idea on DCUM that there are two kinds of families, those where both parents work full time exactly 9 - 5 who send their kids to camp, and those with a SAHP. The reality is that the working world is much more diverse than that a.m. practice works for a lot of people. When I think of the families I know who do a.m. practice, we have families whose parents do shift work, or who use grandparents or teenagers as childcare and want that time broken up, or who have parents who are WFH, and kids at an age where a partial day at home works and a full day doesn't, or kids like mine with other significant commitment to a sport or art form or job in the afternoon. Both parents working full time, and using camps all summer is only the norm in a certain UMC bubble.

Sorry to break it to you but swim team is the definition of UMC bubble. Even having a pool membership and everything OP described is peak UMC.

Having parents who work the night shift, or using grandma or a teen sibling babysit to instead of paying for camp each week is UMC bubble?

I think PP meant paying a $1000 “initiation fee”, plus an $800 annual club membership was UMC.

Our pool is a $400 one time membership, and $660 annual, plus $270 for both kids to be on the team. That $930 a year is much less than many people pay for camps.

Is it $400 plus the annual dues the first year? Our is $675, but no dues on top of that. Then it’s the annual dues which is currently $550.

To be honest, I looked up the annual dues because I assumed it had changed since we joined 16 years ago. I can't imagine that the first year costs less, so my assumption is that it's $400+$675.

[Anonymous]

I must be lucky enough to belong to a unicorn pool. Swim team has 3 practice options per day, but we have two pools and there is always space for families/small kids to play. Pool opens for general population at 10am even if some lanes are closed for swim team. One pool closes early/opens late for swim & dive, but generally the other pool is open. Lots of shade.

Swim team does pep rallies at a separate spot on the property while adults gather for drama-free happy hours. Minis are invited to all swim team events, including to cheer under the tent during A Meets so the team is pretty inclusive. Not big on the bull horn but there is some trashcan banging, but only during A Meets.

Grabbing tables/chairs is always a challenge during busy times but generally not at 10am when families with younger kids arrive.

Swim team can be a lot (we are in a high division) but, by and large, the team tries to be a productive member of pool culture.

[Anonymous]

I'm on a pool board for one of these pools and there are (I'll say this probably unkindly) some cranks who have OP's attitude and I'll say I don't give it any credence. It's a NEIGHBORHOOD pool and we have lots of constituents and we do a really good job of balancing all the competing demands, but here's the rub: About 200 families out of around 400 member families are there BECAUSE OF THE SWIM TEAM. Over half the membership is tied to the swim team, and probably another 20% are older members whose kids went through swim team. So swim team is kind of at the core DNA of the neighborhood pools. The problem we see time and again is the small portion of lap swimmers who want the entirety of the pool to themselves, 8 at a time. And then the few members who expect it to be the quiet pool at a posh resort and don't like the family hustle and bustle. Join a country club if you want to avoid the swim team, but otherwise stop being a crank.

[Anonymous]

If there was a pool that the team didn’t practice in the evening I’d consider switching.

But yeah summer swim dominates all pools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If there was a pool that the team didn’t practice in the evening I’d consider switching.

But yeah summer swim dominates all pools.

Not all pools. Join a different one.