Summer pool rules

[Anonymous]

Our pool in Fair Oaks just sent out messaging that all will be normal this year, zero restrictions except holds on guests until they see how many people are coming in the beginning because membership is up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pool in Fair Oaks just sent out messaging that all will be normal this year, zero restrictions except holds on guests until they see how many people are coming in the beginning because membership is up.

Very similar at our nearby. They are still keeping the snack bar and water fountain closed at start but I’m guessing those open up by end of June. No guests or changing/showering again which doesn’t really impact us. I’m just thrilled that they are going to allow the furniture this year. Having to drag chairs was a PITA last year.

[Anonymous]

I have two friends permanently leaving a membership pool in VA because of the fact that the pool is still being very strict and limiting capacity this year. Apparently it’s already been decided for the whole season the pool isn’t allowing guests, and you have to reserve a time to use the pool. It seems like all the other area pools are operating like 95-100% normally. Makes me wonder if the restrictive pools are going to have membership problems in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two friends permanently leaving a membership pool in VA because of the fact that the pool is still being very strict and limiting capacity this year. Apparently it’s already been decided for the whole season the pool isn’t allowing guests, and you have to reserve a time to use the pool. It seems like all the other area pools are operating like 95-100% normally. Makes me wonder if the restrictive pools are going to have membership problems in the future.

I would love it if my folded that. The pandemic isn’t over. I would prefer a reservation system for this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pool in Fair Oaks just sent out messaging that all will be normal this year, zero restrictions except holds on guests until they see how many people are coming in the beginning because membership is up.

Our pool is allowing guests, but membership is down by about 16% since the end of 2019. 2019 was a very good year, but even then we never had large daily attendance or got anywhere close to capacity.

[Anonymous]

Our HOA in VA just sent an email this afternoon that the pool service company they use is having trouble finding lifeguards.

If they can't find some this week, the pool may not open Memorial Day weekend.

Honestly, it is taking everything in me not to write an irate email back.

Our pool didn't open at all last summer even though those all around us did.

They didn't just rope off equipment during the pandemic - they fully removed it in most cases. Like the basketball hoops and tennis court nets. Then they later came and padlocked the tennis court door because people kept going inside and hitting balls even without nets. The hoops and nets JUST got put back up last week!

The clubhouse gym has been closed since it began & remains that way even though other gyms are open. We've had no summer movie nights or Independence Day fireworks (which I agree, should have been canceled during the pandemic) but the updates for this summer have not been positive. What exactly am I paying for??

These pool service companies should have realized they weren't going to be able to bring in their cheap Eastern European labor for this summer and planned accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HOA in VA just sent an email this afternoon that the pool service company they use is having trouble finding lifeguards.

If they can't find some this week, the pool may not open Memorial Day weekend.

Honestly, it is taking everything in me not to write an irate email back.

Our pool didn't open at all last summer even though those all around us did.

They didn't just rope off equipment during the pandemic - they fully removed it in most cases. Like the basketball hoops and tennis court nets. Then they later came and padlocked the tennis court door because people kept going inside and hitting balls even without nets. The hoops and nets JUST got put back up last week!

The clubhouse gym has been closed since it began & remains that way even though other gyms are open. We've had no summer movie nights or Independence Day fireworks (which I agree, should have been canceled during the pandemic) but the updates for this summer have not been positive. What exactly am I paying for??

These pool service companies should have realized they weren't going to be able to bring in their cheap Eastern European labor for this summer and planned accordingly.

I hadn't heard of any having difficulty staffing, but it makes sense if they rely on hiring from out of the country. Thankfully ours hires locally (I am pretty sure all of our guards this year belong to our pool). Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HOA in VA just sent an email this afternoon that the pool service company they use is having trouble finding lifeguards.

If they can't find some this week, the pool may not open Memorial Day weekend.

Honestly, it is taking everything in me not to write an irate email back.

Our pool didn't open at all last summer even though those all around us did.

They didn't just rope off equipment during the pandemic - they fully removed it in most cases. Like the basketball hoops and tennis court nets. Then they later came and padlocked the tennis court door because people kept going inside and hitting balls even without nets. The hoops and nets JUST got put back up last week!

The clubhouse gym has been closed since it began & remains that way even though other gyms are open. We've had no summer movie nights or Independence Day fireworks (which I agree, should have been canceled during the pandemic) but the updates for this summer have not been positive. What exactly am I paying for??

These pool service companies should have realized they weren't going to be able to bring in their cheap Eastern European labor for this summer and planned accordingly.

I hadn't heard of any having difficulty staffing, but it makes sense if they rely on hiring from out of the country. Thankfully ours hires locally (I am pretty sure all of our guards this year belong to our pool). Good luck.

Yes, many of these pool service companies hire lifeguards from overseas and they can not get a visa to get in to the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope this is true for DH, but I don't have much hope given the fact that they are only allowing 12 families at a time in the pool this weekend (out of 500 family memberships) and restricting people to roped off sections. And sending an email to the entire membership threatening to kick people out of the pool if they revolt was a little much. btw-- one of the only reasons that swim team happened last summer was because there were a number of board members with competitive year-round swimmers (including last year's board president), but most of them decided not to run for re-election. I don't think the DH swim team is as well represented on the board this year as they have been in previous years, and I expect the board may take a heavier hand this year given their conservative stance on social distancing and the fact that most swim team members are too young to be vaccinated. Hopefully I am wrong.

Swim team is still very well represented on the board. They may not be as vocal but a fair number are swim team families. I think it will be closer to normal than last year but I'm just guessing.

It's a 12-person board at DH. I believe 9 of them are swim parents, it was 10 before one board member resigned. These are people who are at the pool a lot both recreating and for swim and dive. Stop acting like they want to keep you from the pool. They took an approach to risk assessment that some agreed with and some didn't. The reminder of the code of conduct was valid - look at McCrazy's posts on the FB page goading one board member to quit because "we don't need you" and saying "screw you". The abusiveness and vitriol heaped on volunteers from among our membership making the best decisions they could was out of control. Many offered constructive feedback, others were downright horrible in their attacks.

I heard back from the governor's office today and they confirmed the intent is to lift all regulations at midnight on 5/28 (Thursday --> Friday). The board knows that and is counting down the days.

McCrazy goes to DH? No wonder the FB page is getting vicious. Right there is the problem.

DH is bananas right now. The board is mad at "McCrazy" although it is not clear why. Her FB posts have been reasonable, at least before things blew up last weekend. She's just been asking what others are asking, which is why the board is trying to police social-distancing with the roped off sections when all other Arlington pools aren't doing that. I think some board members still must be upset at her for actions that happened during the school move debate. But rather than just dealing with her, they are passive aggressively punishing the entire membership base by limiting swimming this weekend to 12 families at a time, first come first served, which is pissing off a lot of people who now have to stand outside in the heat to wait for a spot to open up. And the entire membership got an email warning against bullying behavior towards the board and threatening to terminate memberships if anyone's comments got out of hand. Do other pools have this much drama? It is starting to seem like DH has a board vs member debate every year now. Maybe we should just build a boxing ring in the front yard and settle things Fight Club style.

THAT is crazy. We're at AFC and there is not that much drama... and it's the same demographic of members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two friends permanently leaving a membership pool in VA because of the fact that the pool is still being very strict and limiting capacity this year. Apparently it’s already been decided for the whole season the pool isn’t allowing guests, and you have to reserve a time to use the pool. It seems like all the other area pools are operating like 95-100% normally. Makes me wonder if the restrictive pools are going to have membership problems in the future.

I would love it if my folded that. The pandemic isn’t over. I would prefer a reservation system for this summer.

The pandemic isn't over but at time has gone on we've learned more and gotten smarter about about the means of transmission. This is not last summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope this is true for DH, but I don't have much hope given the fact that they are only allowing 12 families at a time in the pool this weekend (out of 500 family memberships) and restricting people to roped off sections. And sending an email to the entire membership threatening to kick people out of the pool if they revolt was a little much. btw-- one of the only reasons that swim team happened last summer was because there were a number of board members with competitive year-round swimmers (including last year's board president), but most of them decided not to run for re-election. I don't think the DH swim team is as well represented on the board this year as they have been in previous years, and I expect the board may take a heavier hand this year given their conservative stance on social distancing and the fact that most swim team members are too young to be vaccinated. Hopefully I am wrong.

Swim team is still very well represented on the board. They may not be as vocal but a fair number are swim team families. I think it will be closer to normal than last year but I'm just guessing.

It's a 12-person board at DH. I believe 9 of them are swim parents, it was 10 before one board member resigned. These are people who are at the pool a lot both recreating and for swim and dive. Stop acting like they want to keep you from the pool. They took an approach to risk assessment that some agreed with and some didn't. The reminder of the code of conduct was valid - look at McCrazy's posts on the FB page goading one board member to quit because "we don't need you" and saying "screw you". The abusiveness and vitriol heaped on volunteers from among our membership making the best decisions they could was out of control. Many offered constructive feedback, others were downright horrible in their attacks.

I heard back from the governor's office today and they confirmed the intent is to lift all regulations at midnight on 5/28 (Thursday --> Friday). The board knows that and is counting down the days.

McCrazy goes to DH? No wonder the FB page is getting vicious. Right there is the problem.

DH is bananas right now. The board is mad at "McCrazy" although it is not clear why. Her FB posts have been reasonable, at least before things blew up last weekend. She's just been asking what others are asking, which is why the board is trying to police social-distancing with the roped off sections when all other Arlington pools aren't doing that. I think some board members still must be upset at her for actions that happened during the school move debate. But rather than just dealing with her, they are passive aggressively punishing the entire membership base by limiting swimming this weekend to 12 families at a time, first come first served, which is pissing off a lot of people who now have to stand outside in the heat to wait for a spot to open up. And the entire membership got an email warning against bullying behavior towards the board and threatening to terminate memberships if anyone's comments got out of hand. Do other pools have this much drama? It is starting to seem like DH has a board vs member debate every year now. Maybe we should just build a boxing ring in the front yard and settle things Fight Club style.

THAT is crazy. We're at AFC and there is not that much drama... and it's the same demographic of members.

Multiple DH members have posted links to the AFC rules on the DH FB page and are asking why DH isn't following a similar policy. The DH board hasn't even committed yet to going back to fully normal operations when VA's social distancing rules drop on Friday. I expect they may use unvaccinated kids as the excuse to keep restrictions in place, even though kids are far more likely to drown than die of COVID at this point. Per the Arlington Co dashboard, there was 1 new case of COVID on Friday across all of Arlington County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HOA in VA just sent an email this afternoon that the pool service company they use is having trouble finding lifeguards.

If they can't find some this week, the pool may not open Memorial Day weekend.

Honestly, it is taking everything in me not to write an irate email back.

Our pool didn't open at all last summer even though those all around us did.

They didn't just rope off equipment during the pandemic - they fully removed it in most cases. Like the basketball hoops and tennis court nets. Then they later came and padlocked the tennis court door because people kept going inside and hitting balls even without nets. The hoops and nets JUST got put back up last week!

The clubhouse gym has been closed since it began & remains that way even though other gyms are open. We've had no summer movie nights or Independence Day fireworks (which I agree, should have been canceled during the pandemic) but the updates for this summer have not been positive. What exactly am I paying for??

These pool service companies should have realized they weren't going to be able to bring in their cheap Eastern European labor for this summer and planned accordingly.

I hadn't heard of any having difficulty staffing, but it makes sense if they rely on hiring from out of the country. Thankfully ours hires locally (I am pretty sure all of our guards this year belong to our pool). Good luck.

Yes, many of these pool service companies hire lifeguards from overseas and they can not get a visa to get in to the county.

That is a shame. Why don't they hire local kids? Can they get away with paying the Eastern European kids less? When I was a teenager I lifeguarded at the pool I grew up going to. Those were some of the best summers of my life. I think it also helps the pool run more smoothly when the lifeguards enforcing the rules are the "big kids" that the younger ones look up to. I knew all the little kids at my pool and some of them would ask us to get in the pool and play with them on our breaks. We were like their older siblings in some ways.

[Anonymous]

By end of June but maybe beginning, I think all restrictions of any kind will be removed in VA and MD. Our pool has some capacity restrictions but they will go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HOA in VA just sent an email this afternoon that the pool service company they use is having trouble finding lifeguards.

If they can't find some this week, the pool may not open Memorial Day weekend.

Honestly, it is taking everything in me not to write an irate email back.

Our pool didn't open at all last summer even though those all around us did.

They didn't just rope off equipment during the pandemic - they fully removed it in most cases. Like the basketball hoops and tennis court nets. Then they later came and padlocked the tennis court door because people kept going inside and hitting balls even without nets. The hoops and nets JUST got put back up last week!

The clubhouse gym has been closed since it began & remains that way even though other gyms are open. We've had no summer movie nights or Independence Day fireworks (which I agree, should have been canceled during the pandemic) but the updates for this summer have not been positive. What exactly am I paying for??

These pool service companies should have realized they weren't going to be able to bring in their cheap Eastern European labor for this summer and planned accordingly.

I hadn't heard of any having difficulty staffing, but it makes sense if they rely on hiring from out of the country. Thankfully ours hires locally (I am pretty sure all of our guards this year belong to our pool). Good luck.

Yes, many of these pool service companies hire lifeguards from overseas and they can not get a visa to get in to the county.

That is a shame. Why don't they hire local kids? Can they get away with paying the Eastern European kids less? When I was a teenager I lifeguarded at the pool I grew up going to. Those were some of the best summers of my life. I think it also helps the pool run more smoothly when the lifeguards enforcing the rules are the "big kids" that the younger ones look up to. I knew all the little kids at my pool and some of them would ask us to get in the pool and play with them on our breaks. We were like their older siblings in some ways.

I’m sure they would if they could, but I don’t think as many kids train to be lifeguards anymore. They’re working on things that will improve their college apps, or interning for professional jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By end of June but maybe beginning, I think all restrictions of any kind will be removed in VA and MD. Our pool has some capacity restrictions but they will go away.

In VA they are removed May 28.