Frustrated with how our swim team takes over the pool

[Anonymous]

There should be a happy medium somewhere. My kids have been on swim team since 2018. We’ve been pool members since 2012.

In that time there are 2 or 3 home A meets - depending on the year. Pool opens an hour late on those days (12 vs 11). Same for B meets either 2 of 5 or 3 of 5 meets at home. Pool closes at 5:00 those Wednesdays.

Evening swim team is restricted to 2 lanes and only for kids who work or in camp that week. You cannot miss morning practice bc you slept in etc and come at night. Space is ltd. People respect this. We have approximately 200 kids on the team.

Pep rallies are held after practice on Friday b/f the pool opens. Never seen a bull horn but that would annoy me since the pool sits the middle of our neighborhood.

I’ve been on both sides having team members and not. There are ways to respect everyone’s needs.

I am getting pretty tired of the recent phenomenon of people not picking up after their kids when they leave though. Doubtful those are swim team parents based on the toddler food items and the fact that any parent whose had to do set up for a B meet would never leave their trash for someone else to cleanup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP and maybe a few others should be looking for a new pool. There are so many pools to pick from. Maybe you need to trade proximity for a pool that better meets your needs.

It took us 7 years to get off the waitlist at the closest pool to us, which is still 20-30 min drive away, depending on traffic Where are you that it’s so easy to just join another pool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP and maybe a few others should be looking for a new pool. There are so many pools to pick from. Maybe you need to trade proximity for a pool that better meets your needs.

See the OP’s comment about “community” only being available to swim team families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should have posted this in Recent Topics. You have all the fanatical swim team parents weighing in because you put it in Swimming and Diving.

I am with you. I am fed up with it, frankly.

Our pool is 345 to 615 Mon to Fri plus morning swim, plus most Saturday mornings and some Sunday mornings it shuts for meets. AND Wednesday afternoons and evenings. And yes, they will shut the pool down for annoying stuff like the Swim Team Banquet.

Here is what really annoys me - they are talking about instituting a volunteer requirement! Including for people who aren't on swim team. So swim team parents can get their volunteer hours in by volunteering for swim team but the rest of us - who financially subsidize swim team since it only costs something like 150 a season to be on swim team so it's not like the pool is making money of it - are supposed to do stupid shit like plant flowers I don't care about and plan dumb events I don't even want to go to.

I'm there to swim, period. And now the pool has been overtaken by PTA type parents who are trying to make demands on the rest of us.

I'd drop out and go to the Y instead but this pool is a short walk to my house. Otherwise, I'd be out of there.

Um…you know that Recent Topics isn’t its own forum, right? It pulls from all the other forums, except for a few. Please tell me you aren’t so stupid that you thought it was its own forum.

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood pool in DC does not have a swim team. It’s beautiful, shaded, and quiet. Kids bike there, but it’s never terribly busy. Adult swim every 45 mins for 15 mins. Pool also has a mix of activities like bbqs and beer tastings.

Beauvoir pool also does not have a swim team. If anyone is close enough that this is a convenient option.

[Anonymous]

Breton Woods is a less expensive county club.

[Anonymous]

Hotel pools sometimes have memberships. For example, the Omni has one.

[Anonymous]

Pool membership is a privilege and a choice, not a right. If you don't like what you are purchasing you are free to take your money elsewhere. If you don't like the policies you are free to run for the board to help change them. If you don't like the facilities you are free to volunteer to help improve them. If you don't like it when other people are there exercising their right to use the pool.according to the rules, you are free to adjust your own schedule in response. But you can't expect all of these factors to self-adjust to match your tastes, especially when one of these factors is a permitted activity organized by volunteers for other people's children. What if someday there is an activity there for your child that inconveniences someone else? Should it give way just because I don't like it? Community means everyone gives a little and forgives a little. If you feel like you are being asked to give too much, maybe you would be happier in a different community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breton Woods is a less expensive county club.

We need a new Bretton Wooeds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should have posted this in Recent Topics. You have all the fanatical swim team parents weighing in because you put it in Swimming and Diving.

I am with you. I am fed up with it, frankly.

Our pool is 345 to 615 Mon to Fri plus morning swim, plus most Saturday mornings and some Sunday mornings it shuts for meets. AND Wednesday afternoons and evenings. And yes, they will shut the pool down for annoying stuff like the Swim Team Banquet.

Here is what really annoys me - they are talking about instituting a volunteer requirement! Including for people who aren't on swim team. So swim team parents can get their volunteer hours in by volunteering for swim team but the rest of us - who financially subsidize swim team since it only costs something like 150 a season to be on swim team so it's not like the pool is making money of it - are supposed to do stupid shit like plant flowers I don't care about and plan dumb events I don't even want to go to.

I'm there to swim, period. And now the pool has been overtaken by PTA type parents who are trying to make demands on the rest of us.

I'd drop out and go to the Y instead but this pool is a short walk to my house. Otherwise, I'd be out of there.

Um…you know that Recent Topics isn’t its own forum, right? It pulls from all the other forums, except for a few. Please tell me you aren’t so stupid that you thought it was its own forum.

Oh true I meant off topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood pool in DC does not have a swim team. It’s beautiful, shaded, and quiet. Kids bike there, but it’s never terribly busy. Adult swim every 45 mins for 15 mins. Pool also has a mix of activities like bbqs and beer tastings.

Beauvoir pool also does not have a swim team. If anyone is close enough that this is a convenient option.

What neighborhood pool are you referring to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pool membership is a privilege and a choice, not a right. If you don't like what you are purchasing you are free to take your money elsewhere. If you don't like the policies you are free to run for the board to help change them. If you don't like the facilities you are free to volunteer to help improve them. If you don't like it when other people are there exercising their right to use the pool.according to the rules, you are free to adjust your own schedule in response. But you can't expect all of these factors to self-adjust to match your tastes, especially when one of these factors is a permitted activity organized by volunteers for other people's children. What if someday there is an activity there for your child that inconveniences someone else? Should it give way just because I don't like it? Community means everyone gives a little and forgives a little. If you feel like you are being asked to give too much, maybe you would be happier in a different community.

Well said! As a former pool board member, I can tell you that serving ion the board really shows you another side of humanity, and usually not a good one.

[Anonymous]

I am totally shocked that so many people are telling the OP to just get over it!

She's not asking for swim team to disappear, but it really sounds like her team is taking over the pool way too often in some really annoying ways.

Morning practice and pool not opening until 11? Totally normal.
Afternoon practices when the kids are still in school? Again totally normal.
A handful of pool closures for meets and maybe one big end of season party? Totally normal.

Afternoon practices once school is out? Definitely not normal at any of the pools with which I'm familiar. I'd find that unacceptable.
Bullhorns for swim team activities when the pool is open to everyone? Definitely not normal.
Closures for team building events throughout the season? Definitely not normal.

OP, like someone else said, I'd pick one or two things (for me, it would be bullhorns during open hours and afternoon practices after school is out) and go push for those things.

[Anonymous]

Yes- OP, by posting here you get the fanatical swim team parents chiming in. A community pool ought to be able to balance the needs of swim team families and everyone else.

[Anonymous]

This whole thread shows the importance of doing your research before deciding what pool to join/get on the waitlist for. For every pool where afternoon swim practice is unacceptable to members, there are pools where afternoon practices are the norm because they are trying to accommodate as many kids that want to join as possible. If you are anti-swim team you should probably pick a pool where the swim team doesn’t dominate the pool.