Swim Clubs like Little Hunting Park - How do they work
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Anonymous
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We are in the process of moving to Virginia - this will be our first time living in Virginia or the USA, so some things that may be very common seem quite foreign to me, so I apologize if any of this is obvious.
How exactly do swimming clubs work? A colleague recommended we join one since very few people have home pools, but the one near our house - Little Hunting Park - seems to have a very long wait time (3-4 years according to the website). Does anyone have experience with this club - is that number mostly accurate or partially marketing? Or is that the wait to become a full member but they may make you a trial member beforehand? I am used to public pools where anyone can go to swim, so the idea that I may need to be on a waitlist for 4 years and may not even live here that long has me very confused. Aren't there a lot of military in the area who get transferred to different places faster than that, so by the time they are off the waitlist they have already moved? Also, how much does a place like Little Hunting Park cost? I can't find any information on the website - is it 100s of dollars or 1000s of dollars? |
Anonymous
| We were members there for years. It goes up and down in popularity but people generally don’t give up their memberships unless they move. We switched to a club with year round tennis and otherwise would have stayed. It’s a well run little club. You might try posting in some neighborhood groups bc people at least used to be able to directly sell memberships or even let you one just for the summer. If you join direct through the pool, there’s an initiation fee. Then the annual fees are maybe $500? We haven’t been members in 6 years so I could be wrong. We just transferred our membership to friends and had them pay the transfer fee of maybe $50 to the club and take over the annual dues, but most try to recoup the initiation which was maybe $1200? I can’t remember |
Anonymous
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The wait list is almost certainly real- but some places might have rental memberships you can join sooner (while on the waitlist) or some places might not have a waitlist at all (and you can join while staying on the waitlist somewhere else).
We aren’t near LHP (the other side of the county) but we have many pools close to us, and the membership fees vary a ton. We pay 800 a year, but there are places near us that are 1500. Higher fees usually goes along with better facilities |
Anonymous
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The waitlist is real. We waited 3 years to join our community pool. Our initiation fee is very high, $8000 and dues are $1000/yr. I feel like most other places are around $2000 initiation and $5/800/yr.
If you’re not planning to live there long there are plenty of local pools you can swim at. There are public indoor and outdoor pools where you just pay per admission or can join monthly. You don’t need to join the neighborhood pool to be able to swim. Several gyms also have pool only memberships with no waitlist, “lifetime” is one of those. |
Anonymous
| There are other pools in the area with a much shorter wait list. Hollin meadows is one. |
Anonymous
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Our closest private pool has a ten year or longer waitlist!
There are public pools. And you can look farther from home for private pools with no or shorter waits. |
Anonymous
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The exact process can differ a lot by pool. At our pool there are “summer memberships” available in addition to joining as real members (paying initiation fee + an annual fee). I believe the initiation fee and summer fee are both around $650 but that’s less expensive than many clubs. We only accept members from a specific geographic area.
Nearby there is another pool that has open membership. Both draw kids from my kids middle school (though not a lot of crossover in elementary) so feel like part of the community. There are also public pools where you can join by the day. The local pool club can be a great way to meet neighbors and spend time in the summer, especially if you have school age kids. You might look around for other options in your neighborhood if there’s no way to get a guest membership while on the wait list. If you contact the pool someone should be able to walk you through the options |
Anonymous
DP Is that for that area? $2,000 initiation plus annual dues seems like a lot for the first year, but if the facilities are really nice and there are a lot of club offerings I understand. |
Anonymous
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The places with his initiation fees are the big division 1 pools like Overlee, Tuckahoe, and Chesterbrook. They also have waitlist that can be 5-10 yrs long.
Most pools these days cost $650-950 for the summer and a 3-4 year waitlist it pretty typical for more popular pools are in areas where there are not as many pools close to one another. I'd email each pool you are interested in to get an idea of waitlist process and length. OP- here is link that has maps to the pools in northern Virginia. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?msa=0&mid=1Mj716UsylIzpt0TOtO5iuIoAW3o&ll=38.8487153052567%2C-77.2635255&z=11 Most pools belong to NVSL which is a summer swim league. Now do you have to join a pool? No. Note everyone does. People I know who travel a lot or have kids in camp don't always join. But if you are around all summer is it nice to have a place to cool off. |
Anonymous
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I would think about your kids’ ages as you plan your waitlist attempts. Here’s a worst-case scenario:
We have been on one waitlist (club 1) since before our DD was born and will probably get off it next year when she is 11. In the meantime, we spent 4 years driving ~30 minutes to an extremely affordable swim-only club (club 2) that at the time was undersubscribed and so there was no waitlist and they waived the initiation fee, so we were only spending $500/summer. Two years in and pre-pandemic, we realized that club 1’s waitlist was going to last longer than our kid’s interest in summer club activities, and so we got on a short waitlist at club 3, which is just 20 minutes away and has tennis and dive in addition to swim, plus a small gym. We have been very happy at club 3 and DD has made summer friends and done all the summer teams, but now it will all come to a head when we get off the waitlist at club 1 next summer. Club 1 is just 5 minutes away but DD doesn’t have friends there because all of the families who have gotten in are much older. They also don’t have dive, which is not unusual. Club 1 has equity memberships, so it will be expensive upfront but we can get our initiation fee back or we can sell it with our house. Do we leave the club where we’re established but have a long drive so we can get to another club more easily? Who knows. Just wanted to share that once you are on waitlists or driving out of the neighborhood it becomes complicated and annoying, so if you have a club close to your house with no waitlist or drama, make that your first choice. |
Anonymous
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$500-$1000 initiation used to be the norm a decade ago at barebones pools, but when we were recently researching things for our board, $1500-$2000 wasn’t atypical. It keeps membership more stable because people are loathe to bail after 2-3 years if they’ve paid that much, and it’s a rare opportunity for the club to increase savings towards necessary facilities projects. Think of summer membership fees as covering the operating budget and initiation fees as paying for long-term facilities costs. |
Anonymous
Ours does something similar. They waive the dues the first year. It’s been that way for at least the last 17 years. |
Anonymous
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LHP members can rent their membership to other during the summer, so ask your real estate agent if they know of any leads.
Most of the pools around the Fort Hunt area have waiting lists (Little Hunting Park, Riverside Gardens, Mount Vernon Park, Waynewood). Note some you have to reside in specific boundaries, while others are open. Hollin Hills and Hollin Meadows typically do not have a waitlist so I would inquire at those pools. Mansion House, which is past Mount Vernon, sometimes has availability or members looking to rent their memberships for the summer due to travel or a temporary move. |
Anonymous
Just to be clear. Little Hunting Park (LHP) is a summer pool, so if you are looking to be involved in a swim team all year long, you will have to add another team. My kids have had friends at LHP over the years so I've been there as a guest and it has a very stuffy, unfriendly vibe. Unless you are a top swimmer or have been members for years, get ready to bring a book and be ignored all summer. Look into other pools in your area. I've found people at Mt. Vernon Park and Waynewood nice and easy to work with at swim meets. Mansion House is much like LHP. Most summer pools have a wait list but you might get lucky this year. With so many people leaving government jobs there might be some significant wait list movement. |
Anonymous
If you look in Burke/Fairfax Station area, you will finding excellent summer pool communities with good swim teams and no waitlist. (I could not tell whether you are definitely landing near LHP or not.) |