Farewell

 

August 5, 2016

 

Today was all about marketing. Of course, I still have a million other things to do so I found myself in the branch at 5:30 am. This morning I had to finish multiple reports including my variance report for the month of July, my end of year plan with my goals and objectives, my driver diagrams, and many more things. I am finally getting somewhere on my journal entries for the Elevate program. I have had missing income and accounts in my budget reports for months now. This will be my last day recording for this externship; it has been a long process, but I wanted to challenge myself by using software (wix) that I had never heard of because it gave me an opportunity to learn more during this process. I am very grateful for my mentor; she has been great in giving me the necessary tools to advance my career.

 

Progress Is a process

 

August 4, 2016

 

Today was a very productive day in Vermilion. We are getting very close to finishing our branch plan. As I mentioned earlier, we are working on increasing our memberships and usage for families. Today as a leadership staff we conducted an idea tree where we put our main ideas to the test and make sure they line up with what we discussed in our SOAR analysis. My biggest concern is that I won’t have the time, with all of my other tasks, to follow through at the level I would like too. I am the only person on the staff who is in charge of multiple branches as a Director, and I don’t think the understand the complexity of that situation.

 

Next Man Up

 

August 3, 2016

 

Updates at French Creek were great; we did a great activity that helps the leadership staff learn more about each other. Today was my first meeting without my right-hand man, my Lead Wellness Consultant who left for a better opportunity. It’s always tuff to lose a person because not only have you developed them and want to see them succeed with you but you also have to replace them. I once read that turning over staff is one of the highest cost that most companies don’t budget for. The amount of time that I will spend to get the right person in place is something that I am not enthusiastic about.

 

Money, Money, Money

 

August 2, 2016

 

The first week in the new month always is crazy and today was no exception. I immediately get slammed with budget questions and have to track down answers for what is usually other people’s mistakes. At this point, I am used to it. Therefore it does not bother me much. This time, I have an unauthorized entry in my department line that should not be there, but I got it figured out. Today I also worked on putting together the journal entries for pay that was unauthorized for my department.

 

New Lead

 

August 1, 2016

 

Today is the first Monday that my new lead Wellness Consultant has taken over. I have full faith that he will do a good job as he held the position before for a short time. He has a tall task to fill all of the open positions that we have now that we are a staff member short but he is a great communicator so I have no doubt that he will do well. Today is the first day of the new group exercise schedule, but there were not many changes, so there was not much member feedback. This month will mark the end of our summer wellness series for youth.

 

No Days Off

 

July 31, 2016

 

I came into the branch 4 hours before we opened and ended up staying for most of the day. My plan was to come in, address an equipment issue and leave but due to a call off I worked almost the whole day. Today I was very disappointed in my staff as they all know the emergency call off procedure yet no one responded to my calls and text until it was too late. I spent the entire day working at the wellness desk and while I received many compliments about how good I was and how much members wished I could work at the desk more, it was not the most pleasant day for me, I was not able to get all that I had hoped done, and I still have the rest of the work week ahead of me.

 

Exceeding Goals

 

July 29, 2016

 

Today was a long day. I started my day by updating the new personal training Google Drive with all of the numbers for the month of July. We have decided to end our financial month today, and any new revenue would go toward next month in the next few days because we have already exceeded our monthly budget by $3,500. I am working on training my Personal Training Coordinator to have more of an active role, so I am assigning him some specific tasks to work on. When I was hired a took an active role in Personal Training as it was the area that suffered the most, I have the staff on a good path, so I am ready to ingratiate myself in the next task, group exercise.    

 

New Day, New Problems

 

July 28, 2016

 

There was no meeting in Vermilion today due to our Executive Director and Senior Membership Director being in a different meeting. I was able to get to Vermilion and get some things done that were an issue. Many of the things that I am called upon to handle are insignificant, yet the staff makes a huge deal out of it. I can usually tackle almost all of the issues within a few hours which I was able to do today. There were complaints that some equipment was broken when it just needed a reset. There were complaints that our punching bag had been hanging too long, so all of the sand rushed to the bottom when in fact it got wet and clunked and now need to be replaced. I finished off my day interviewing a candidate for open Wellness Consultant positions.

 

If Your Happy and You Know It

 

July 27, 2016

 

Today was a great day. It did not start off great because I had to drive one hour to get to an 8:30 am meeting in Richmond Heights, Ohio then drive back to my branch. We had another training that was pretty useless to me, but I did learn some things about the new labor law that is going into effect later this year. I do not think that my supervisor wanted to tip his hand, but I picked up on the fact that they are not going to pay us the minimum for full-time salary employee, and we are probably going to be hourly.  At French Creek, the personal training is rolling in at a rapid rate. I was very proud to praise my staff for jobs well done at my update meeting, and this made for a great day.

 

Budget is No Fun

 

July 26, 2016

 

The budget talks and concerns are in full effect today. I have discovered more than a few budget discrepancies in my department throughout this year. The fact that the budget was done incorrectly bothers me because, at a time where we are having a record year in several areas, it does not appear that we are doing as well as we are. It also sucks that even though I know the budget for this year was not correct, there is nothing that I can do about it.

 

Training The Trainers

 

July 25, 2016

 

Following last week’s meeting, I took the time out today to work with my Personal Training staff on some techniques to help be better trainers. Also in Last week’s meeting, we went over several things with a heavy focus till being on motivational interviewing. My staff is underdeveloped in the sales aspect of training, and that’s the case with many trainers. Personal confidence and passion are what makes a great salesperson, to be a great trainer one would need those skills as well as the content knowledge and the ability to coach others. I spent my whole day working on my staff with these skills.

 

In and Out

 

July 22, 2016

 

Today was a very short day for me. I had some prior engagements, so I did not get much done. I reviewed the August schedule for Vermilion and okayed it, fixed some payroll issues with an instructor, and worked on an exit strategy for my Wellness Consultant lead who is resigning.

 

No Meeting?

 

July 21, 2016

 

With our Executive Director being on vacation there was no Vermilion meeting today. I showed up prepared with my meeting notes, but no one informed that we were not going to conduct the meeting. Today I went live with the new marketing materials for Y-Games at the Vermilion branch. I am hoping to get at least one team to represent the Vermilion branch. It may be a far-fetched goal to hope for representation from this branch, but I would like for them to become more involved with what we do on an Association level.

 

Marketing Plans

 

July 20, 2016

 

No updates today at French Creek with our executive being on vacation. Today I was able to work on some marketing strategies for upcoming fall programs. I am also working on fundraising ideas for our annual campaign. The Membership Director and I are working on corporate wellness as well, so we are brainstorming ways to link the two focuses together. So far everything is preliminary, but we are getting close to some actionable items to take up the ladder. I am also working on creating a revenue generating proposal for my wellness department which would include giving members the opportunity to have more classes for a small fee.

 

And So It Starts

 

July 19, 2016

 

The new schedule came out yesterday, and premium classes opened for registration today. There is always a huge rush for class registration for many of our classes. I spent half of my day fielding calls, questions, and concerns about why some classes are already full on the day the open, today was no different.  

 

New Schedule, New Opportunities

 

July 18, 2016

 

Today the August schedule for French Creek was officially out. Not a ton of changes but we are winding down to our last few weeks of summer youth wellness programming so that will open up some opportunities to add some additional programming for the fall. I am debating if we make August the last month that we run outdoor fitness classes of if I should keep them going through September. Our schedule is huge. We run over 100 classes per week and managing them all is hard, but we make it work. Today I had to cancel a class because a sub instructor did not show. Normally in these cases, I would teach the class, but I had a meeting during the time the class was set to run.

 

Mission Focus

 

July 15, 2016

 

Today was CST. CST was very interesting. We spent time sharing stories about our branch and its successful stories, as well as things that we would like to improve. I spoke for my branch in which we talked about how our facility brings people together and builds community relationships. We also talked about being able to improve our time management because many of us work weird hours and often don’t have the time to get all of our tasks completed. We had catered lunch from Chipotle and played volleyball and did line dancing as a team building experience following the meeting.

 

Big Meeting, Big Plans

 

July 14, 2016

 

Today was a big mid-year meeting with my Personal training staff. I wanted to reflect on the first half of the year in which we are on a record pace for selling personal training. I decided to treat the group to lunch and discuss several action items for the upcoming months. The meeting went very well; it lasted about an hour and a half. There was not much feedback from the staff because I am a full disclosure leader, I have nothing to hide, so there is not much that goes unaddressed with me. There were some key people missing in the meeting that is out for different reasons, and I had to write one person up for missing without an excuse.

 

So Hard To Say Goodbye

 

July 13, 2016

 

Today was a sad day I had to inform the team during the update meeting that our lead wellness consultant is leaving to take on a different role. Everyone was saddened because you’re all going to miss the staff member he was with the company before I got here and had been a huge help in changing the culture and the way that I wanted to do things. He never complained, and he always did his best I work very closely with him on developing his leadership skills, and I am proud that you got a job as a manager with another company as a salaried employee. We also started doing icebreaker activity during our updates, and I think this was a great idea by our executive director as it will help the team grow closer and help us work better together.

 

Number Crunching

 

July 12, 2016

 

Today I had to make my way to the Association office to discuss financial terms of an upcoming event that I am helping to coordinate a plan. The team and I decided that we did not want to use the normal registration software for this particular event because we wanted it to be open to the community. The software we use in-house only allows us to register individuals who are members of our facility for programs and this particular event is open to all members of the public. I was in charge of doing this, and I decided to go with the vent smart as the registration software for our event. Our financial team agreed that this would be a good idea and approved our usage of the site for this event.

 

Find The Motivation Within

 

July 11, 2016

 

I’m starting to get the mid-summer blues because I have not taken any time off since I started the job. Everyone else is planning and taking vacations, but I am stuck here all summer with nothing planned, so I had to self-motivate today to get some work done. It’s never a shortage of activities to do in my position and its never enough time to get all the things done that I need too. Nevertheless, I was able to make today productive day. I started analyzing the data from our summer wellness programs to see how effective they have been in the Numbers are impressive. We have served over 50 used with our summer wellness programs and made over $500 in drop-in fees.

 

Not my Favorite

 

July 8, 2016

 

Variance reports and attendance was due today. I dread this day every month because I have to sit at a desk for 5+ hours straight compiling data and running reports then write a 4-page report for both facilities, not my favorite day of the month. For the first time all year, we didn’t reach our personal training go, but it wasn’t because we were down in sales, it was just a reflection of the timing of certain sales. For example, at the end of May and at the beginning of July we seem very high sales numbers and both months we were well above our budget projection

 

We are Good at Personal Training

 

July 7, 2016

 

Today was another meeting led by our new personal training director, and I must say thus far the meetings have not done anything for me. I have tons of experience in personal training sales, therefore, my branches are outselling every other branch by double digit thousands and everything that they have decided to go over I’ve perfected already. My supervisor knows and understands this but likes me there for moral support. I always include some information if it’s left out and help validate some of the points that are brought up, but I don’t come away with any information that I did not already know and that I have not already told my staff. I’m thinking of sending my personal trainer coordinator to these meetings in the future rather than go myself as my time can be used more sufficiently elsewhere.

 

SOAR PT. 2

 

July 6, 2016

 

Today marks the second time we work on our SOAR analysis at the French Creek Family YMCA. So far so good in my opinion because we had some great ideas and had very good input from all of the directors but I am a little disappointed that it seems to be routine for one of our branch leaders to miss an important meeting. Some of the common things coming out of this meeting seem to be training for our employee’s, communication between the executive leader and our course service leaders, facility upgrades, and engaging our members’.

 

There Back

 

July 5, 2016

 

First day back from the holiday weekend even though it didn’t feel like a holiday weekend for me because I had to work. As expected the gym is packed with people trying to get a workout in who may not have worked out all weekend or who have eaten and drank excessively. We have a lot of things going on today, and I have to help my staff manage the sheer volume in the branch today, so I did not get much administrative work done however I did get a chance to conduct a few facility tours and sign a few new members up for personal training.

 

A Slow day

 

July 2, 2016

 

Due to me being the new director of the facility I’m the low man on the totem pole when it comes to picking DOD holiday weekends. Unfortunately, I am stuck with the slowest DOD weekend of the year, and I had nothing to do for the whole day. I spent some time familiarizing myself with the aquatics staff. Even on days like this, the gym and usually have some young people playing basketball, but there were not many compared to the usual volume. I bought all the staff who were working with me today coffee just because I knew what kind of a day it will be and I wanted to let them know that I appreciated them giving up a holiday weekend to work.

 

A Gift and a Curse

 

July 1, 2016

 

Today was an interesting day. I fully expected a ton of call offs given that the holiday weekend is upon us, but it was not that bad at all. I was able to get a lot of work done today which makes me nervous because I fear I will have nothing to do tomorrow when I am DOD for the holiday weekend. I decided to get an early start on my variance report for Vermilion because there’s not much to report that requires data analysis research. I also ordered new squat racks for the branch which we will also use for why games. We are finally seeing a bit of a slow down due to the summer months upon us but from my understanding, it is not as bad as usual.

 

An Aging Facility

 

June 30, 2016

 

Updates at Vermilion went okay. I spent about an hour fixing a sound system that many thoughts was broke. It’s a good thing that I am very savvy when it comes to electrical installation because I was able to find out that it was simply a wiring problem that caused the issues. The very old building of the Vermilion family YMCA slowly but surely falling apart we have doors that are breaking off of the hinges equipment that is hanging on the wall that’s falling apart and a flood in the men’s bathroom. I don’t know how the YMCA plans to keep his branch of float when it’s only getting worse which will make it harder to sell memberships and services.

 

SOAR Analysis

 

June 29, 2016

 

We finally got to the point where we can start our sore analysis at French Creek. We have been trying to get this thing started for a few weeks now, but something has always come up with one of the directors. I was fortunate enough to go through this last week at Vermilion, so I know what I have to look forward to. One of the positives that come out of working at two separate branches is the fact that I can often do things twice making it easier the second time I have to do it. Today also marks the day where for the first time all year we have no equipment on the fitness floor broken because we finally got our cable machine which has been down since January back up and working.

 

 

 

Getting Nervous

 

June 28, 2016

 

As the month winds down I’m getting nervous about our personal training revenue line. We have not had a month all year where we did not exceed our projected go, but we are $1300 under our goal with only a few days left in the month. Today I talked with my personal training coordinator and discussed what we could get done to hit his goal within these last few days. He seems to think that it’s doable I’m not so sure, but I am also not concerned because we have a positive thousand-dollar variance for the year to fall back on. At this point, most of our summer premium classes are full with just a few exceptions, so it’s shaping up to be a very good month in July.

 

Always Working

 

June 27, 2016

 

Technically I’m supposed to be off today because the week that a director has to DOD the upcoming weekend they are technically allowed to take a day off but I have elected not to take that day off just because taking a day off often puts me behind given the fact that I have to breakfast to worry about. Vermilion is struggling right now with very little staff and my staff, continues to drop like flies. There has been nothing that has worked for recruiting stuff out of there. I have exhausted many personal options job postings across multiple platforms and many other things, and I cannot find staff for the Vermilion YMCA. Given the fact that our martial arts program drop off significantly during the summer it is imperative that I get a Personal Trainer at Vermilion ASAP.

 

My Passion for Giving Back

 

June 17, 2016

 

Today marks the day that I finally get his old equipment picked up by the organization that I donated it too. I donated several pieces of equipment to volunteers of America and organization that I used to work for who serve veterans trying to better their lifestyle. The dumb as we call it which stands for Veterans Domiciliary was the first place that I thought of when I realize that I had the equipment to donate. My former colleagues there and the person that I hand-picked to take over my road there as recreation coordinator was very grateful for the equipment that they received but it has been a long time coming for them to pick it up. I have many individuals interested in receiving the equipment that I had to donate, and I’m very upset for some of the gas on the way however I am glad someone was able to benefit from what we no longer need.

 

Donations

 

June 16, 2016

 

It seems like I’ve been at Vermilion every day this week. I am working with a few organizations to pick up some old equipment that we are donating. They’ve been out to our facility every day this week either to take it apart or to try to take it away and there’s always something that stops them. My staff has been of no help because every time they show up they call me to come to the branch, and sometimes it issues that they should be able to take care of themselves. With the Vermilion branch membership director being away on vacation, the staff has not stopped calling me. Even though Thursday is my day to be a Vermilion I feel like I’ve been neglecting my home branch all week.

 

Lunch Meeting Again

 

June 15, 2016

 

Updates went well at French Creek today. We were not able to do our SOAR analysis. However, we did go to lunch and bounce different ideas off of each other. We were supposed to go to an Indians game today as a team building experience, but we were not able to go because of a miscommunication. I also had a meeting today with my collaborative group for uniting we switch we discuss some very good ideas for the fall of this year. My team will aid in creating a schedule for things that we will run at French Creek, and we have decided to expand our territory to a few places in Lorain County that the collaborative has not served yet.

 

Sorry, but Not Sorry

 

June 14, 2016

 

Today in Vermilion there were a few issues with some equipment arrangements that has recently taken place. Members in Vermilion do not like change. Because they have not had any significant positive changes at the branch in some time, the members feel like they own the process. However, this is not the case. One of the toughest jobs I have at this branch is to increase the change capacity of the members. Today I had a tough time with this because even though we have some new pieces of equipment that upgrade, the members as the old things and would like them back. I understand their concerns, but I also have to do what’s best for the branch long term, so I had to continuously explain that we were comfortable with our equipment decision and we will do our best to make sure the members have a positive experience.

 

Slammed

 

June 13, 2016

 

Today was a typical Monday for me I was slammed with many different things. Both of my new hires missed training meetings that I now have to reschedule, and my group exercise coordinator is on vacation. I don’t think that the group exercise department will cause us much trouble this week. However, there are over 100 chances for something to go wrong with the number of classes that we run, but I’m hoping for a smooth week and today was a smooth day. Upon other things on my agenda was recognizing a few staff members for a job well done recently I did a few reviews and one staff member in particular to the constructive criticism him and got better and areas that he could use improvement I was very proud of That.

 

Long Travel for a Long Meeting

 

June 10, 2016

 

To cap off a long week I had Y-games meeting today and I had to drive all the way across town to attend the meeting. The travel time cost me two hours out of my day, and the meeting was an hour and a half so other than that there was not much else that I was able to get done. I have my usual day-to-day work which consists of checking personal training numbers group exercise issues, responding to the slew of emails that I get every day, and going out on the floor and interacting with members And staff.

 

Shout Out to Youth Sports

 

June 9, 2016

 

At the Vermilion update meeting, I discovered that there are some interesting things going on in the youth sports department. Our youth sports leaders do a great job getting good numbers in an underprivileged city and always do a good job organizing you sports activities. Our youth sports program at Vermilion has the highest participation numbers in the Association yet represents the smallest branch of the Association. Things seem to be pretty calm and steady at Vermilion. We still lack staff, but our group exercise participation numbers are higher than they were at this time in 2015.

 

Meetings On Top of Meetings

 

June 8, 2016

 

Today I was in meetings for the whole day I did not even get a chance to make the French Creek updates however I had some of my staff presents on my behalf. I first had an individual meeting with the New Personal Training Director of the Association. That meeting was followed by an interview for a Personal Trainer that I am looking to bring on at French Creek. I also had meetings with the title sponsor for our Y games program and following that I had to do some equipment shopping for the Actives program.

 

Details

 

June 6, 2016

 

Given the fact that I have a lot of things going on this week, I wanted to get an early start on my variance report and my attendance report, so I completed those today. We reached our personal training goal for the month of May by a few thousand dollars, and attendance was up in the month of May for group exercise. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful day as that took up most of my time. The remainder of my day I worked with my cleaning person on getting better at cleaning our machines and logging the information so that we can keep better track of what was cleaned and when it gets done.

 

It Getting Hot in Here

 

June 3, 2016

 

We are having a miserable week with member complaints and today was no different. Our new cooling unit for our cycle room does not seem to be effectively removing moisture causing humidity levels to be a constant problem. We have several very vocal members especially during the day when a lot of them are stay-at-home moms or older individuals. To make matters worse, our head maintenance guy is on vacation, and I do not have access to regulate the temperature in the room. I have been getting feedback where many people tell me this happens around summertime every year because the building doesn’t want to crank up the air to save on operation costs. I hope this is not a common theme throughout the summer.

 

A Cleaning Meeting?

 

June 2, 2016

 

At Vermilion we had our meeting while we cleaned the outside grounds of the branch. Someone put on clothes trash bag on top of the dumpster and of course it's all over, and all the trash f soon clothes trash bag on top of the dumpster and of course, it’s all over, and all the trash fell out. This was not how I want to spend my booty time, but nonetheless, I am a team player love no problem doing things liMe this. We are starting to wrap up our fundraising efforts for the branch and working with our board members on getting more individuals involved who are from the community or live in the community. I am planning to take some group fitness classes on the road to help promote community relations.

 

Welcome To The Team

 

June 1, 2016

 

Wow, today is technically the first day of the month. We opted to start our new group exercise schedule a few days early just to have a full week of classes under the new schedule format. Everything went well on Monday so there should be no hick ups today being that we have been running the schedule for a few days. We have some new staff members on the team but none for my department, the new staff members come from aquatics. One of the staff members I used to coach when I was a strength and conditioning coach at Cleveland State University, so it was fun to see a familiar face. Ironically enough the other staff member I’ve interviewed for a wellness position, but she decided that based on the need for flexibility in her schedule she would rather work in aquatics. I think she is a good person and will be a good addition. I wish I could have her on my team, but as long as we have her in the building, it's okay with me.      

 

Working On a Holiday

 

May 30, 2016

 

Even though today was a holiday, I still found myself at work. I am completely slammed with work. I have now eclipsed the 90 employee mark, and there is no shortage of work. I went in today to do some admin work and ended up having to work on the floor because we were short staffed. Our building does not close on many holidays and surprisingly the holidays are some of the busiest days. Working on the floor today was not bad, I got to interact with a lot of the members, and some of them don’t know that I am the director so it’s unfiltered conversation which I like because I can get a sense of how the members truly feel.

 

I Got This

 

May 27, 2016

 

Today was another big call off day for a lot of my staff I was much more prepared for it this time as I understood with the holiday weekend coming up and the weather starting to get better, people want to take the first holiday weekend of the year and spend some time outdoors in with their family. Today the branch reflected the staff because there were not many people here. For a place that normally see’s over 1500 people in and out every day, we were noticeably thin in our group exercise classes today, there was not much personal training going on, and there was a not a lot going on the fitness floor either. Being that it was so thin today, I had time to work on running some data to prepare for the summer.

 

Action Plans    

 

May 26, 2016

 

At my Vermilion meeting today there was not much going on. I worked on the plan with the other branch leaders to move around some group exercise classes so that childcare could have a preschool graduation in the main community room which is where I hold my largest group fitness classes. I also worked on a plan with the senior membership director about finding other creative ways to recruit staff in the area. We worked on some social media ideas as well as posting ads in the local paper; we are hoping that this yields better responses from job candidates than just posting to job websites.

 

Lunch Meeting

 

May 25, 2016

 

Today at French-creek we did our updates then the leadership team took off to eat lunch while we had our leadership meeting. I think it’s great that our executive director likes to get us away from the branch because while we’re at the branch, it’s so hard to get anything done with staff members who always want or need something and members who always want to talk to a manager. There’s just something about being able to think more clearly when you’re away from the branch. I know I have had my best ideas about work when I am not at the branch. Once I got back to the branch, I worked on finding an online registration site for Y-Games.

 

The Challenge That is Vermilion

 

May 24, 2016

 

Today at Vermilion I worked on finalizing the June group exercise schedule. It’s hard to know what to expect in Vermilion during the summer because unlike at French Creek, I don’t have a lot of resources that has been there for a while to let me know what the branch looks like during the summer months. I tried to rely on the staff that has been there for some time as much as possible, but they are not of much help. Not to beat a dead drum but Vermilion is a very tough place to work, and I’m starting to understand why it’s so hard to keep staff members there. Something has to be done to change the culture not just in the building, but in the area. I think it’s much more of a community issue then a branch issue which would explain why for so long the branch has been failing.

 

Evals

 

May 23, 2016

 

As we get closer and closer to actual summer, the branch is busy right now. We have our college members in the building who have gotten out of school and needed a place to work out. We still have our regular membership base in the building, and we also are seeing an influx of corporate memberships coming up for the summer as well, this made for a very long day at the branch. A lot of staff members are on vacation this week with the holiday being next week; it was a great time for them to get some extended time off. Today I completed two staff evaluations, and they went very well. All of my staff has been very receptive to my constructive criticism and also like the fact that I praise them for jobs well done. Nothing in the staff evaluations has been a surprise as I try my best to continuously communicate with my staff at all times.

 

DOD, Fun Times, or Not

 

May 21, 2016

 

Today was my Director on Duty (DOD) weekend day, we have to rotate weekends as directors of the entire facility at French Creek YMCA. DOD weekends are not especially fun as they usually consist of making continuous rounds of the building, cleaning up after members and the occasional weird incident. Today there was an incident where a woman mistakenly locked her child in the car; she busts the car window to get the kid out leaving glass everywhere that I had to clean up. I also had to fill out my first incident report for the situation; all was well that ended well.

 

TGIF    

 

May 20, 2016

 

This stressful week is coming to a close and I usually stay at the branch all day on Fridays but today I have a meeting downtown, and it could not come at a better Time. While I don't necessarily enjoy driving to work 20 miles and then having to leave and drop another 25 miles to get to another branch for one-hour meeting today the time on the road served as an escape from the branch and all of the craziness that I have endured this week.  

 

Fish Fest

 

May 19, 2016

 

Updates at the Vermilion Family YMCA today. Most of our updates centered around getting prepared for the Fish Festival 5K race that the Vermilion YMCA runs every year. Our main focus of discussion soon around funding for the event, sponsors, and event set up and coordination. At Vermilion I am also prepping for a huge equipment overhaul. While the equipment that I am getting in is not new, it is in much better shape than the equipment that we currently have. Due to the opening of the Parker Hannifin YMCA, I’m getting a lot of old equipment from the previous Downtown YMCA refurbished and brought to Vermilion. I’m hoping that this is a positive for the Vermilion community because thus far there has not been much that has excited the members.

 

Still Not My Day

 

May 18, 2016

 

Updates were not fun at all today most of my update centered around broken equipment or faulty equipment that has not been addressed. While our maintenance crew is very good, they are stretched very thin which makes it very difficult for them to get around to all of the branches in a timely matter to get broken equipment repaired. Today I spent much of my day before the meeting trying to get equipment repaired, I even went out and did some of the repairs myself. After the update meeting, we had our leadership meeting, and we talked mostly about the direction of the branch for the rest of this year and going into next year. Over the next few months were going to work on some things that help us get to a point where we are all on the same page on the direction of the branch with a plan to implement the things in which we agree.

 

Not My Day

 

May 17, 2016

 

What a day. The complaints were rolling in today about our sound system in the cycle room. The system is six years old and needs to be replaced there’s no way around it. My main focus today is to find at least three companies who I can get to come in over the next week or two and provide me with quotes to upgrade our sound system so that it is back running efficiently and effectively. It appears that members have not had much success with previous wellness directors when it comes to getting things like this done in a timely fashion, I plan on changing that perception however I realize for some the damage has been done so until they actually see the progress, there will not be much that I can do to change their minds.

 

Revenue Goals

 

May 16, 2016

 

At the French Creek YMCA while we’re doing excellent a personal training we’re still not meeting my personal goal of $11,000 in revenue per month consistently, but we have a few times. I still have a few trainers on my staff who are stragglers this week it is my goal to address any issues and provide any opportunities for growth and development for the staff members. I’m putting together staff evaluations for all of the personal training staff with the goal of understanding why certain trainers do very well and how there’s not so Well. It is at this time that I am putting together action plans for any personnel that is under-performing.

 

CST

 

May 13, 2016

 

Today was CST stands for course service team. CST is a huge meeting that happens once a month on the second or third Friday of the month. The meeting is of all of the branch leaders throughout the association with updates from the association about each core service department and updates from the branch leaders in the association. The theme of CST since I’ve gotten to the Y has been about the mission, and I am glad that they have stayed on par with that and not deviating from their original plan. Talking about the mission of the Y with the branch leaders is very important and serves as a helpful tool for those of us who get caught up in the day-to-day tasks and can sometimes forget why we are here. I try to make it a point to go back to my branch and communicate mission stories with the rest of my staff so that they can get the perspective of the Association.

 

Vermilion Struggles

 

May 12, 2016

 

Today was update day at the Vermilion Family YMCA. There’s not much to update from wellness at Vermilion I continue my thorough search for group exercise instructors and personal trainers, but I must say I am not having very much luck. In Vermilion there is a large poverty rate which makes fitness and wellness something that the community is not as educated nor interested in, and it’s hard to establish a productive and profitable fitness program in the community which makes finding the right staff members more important. I’m specifically looking for people who have a connection to the community because I feel they give me the best opportunity to change the perception of wellness and fitness in Vermilion. So far I have not found that person, but I will continue my search.

 

Updates

 

May 11, 2016

 

Updates went well today with my variance report complete I was able to communicate some record-breaking numbers for the French Creek family YMCA. Year to date we had done more personal training than ever before at this branch and eclipsed our revenue goal four months in a row, which has never been done. As a leadership group, you were tasked with holding our staff accountable by writing out clear expectations for our staff. Some of my expectations for my staff included promptness, timeliness, the ability to communicate effectively, and providing a friendly and fun atmosphere. One of my other main objectives is something that has been a problem at my branch in the past which is staying busy maintaining your workload.

 

Vermilion Goals

May 10, 2016

 

The Vermilion Y is a difficult situation. Today there’s a lot to get done. The biggest challenge thus far is communication with the members at the being that I cannot be there every day as I have a much larger branch to attend to as well. Today my goal was to work on training the staff how to properly communicate with members what’s going on within the facility. During this training, it became obvious that there was not much accountability from the front line staff in the past which is one of the major reasons accountability has been a big part of the communication issues. My goal is to make my staff as self-sufficient as possible by being able to handle small questions and minor issues which are most of the issues that occur at a branch the size of Vermilion. The training just consisted of me sitting down and talking to the staff about how things operate so that they have a better understanding of how to handle things when I cannot be there.

 

Summer is Coming

 

May 9, 2016

 

Every day at the branch present challenges and this Monday was no different. I have several staff members who called off today leaving us short staffed. Scrambling to cover group exercise classes is always hard, but canceling classes is not an option. I like to try to cover them myself if possible, but it’s not always an option. As we gear up for the summer months’ participation is still really high in group exercise and personal training but while that’s a good thing, the number of calls off are starting to increase due to children being out of school and other variables. As I look at last week’s financials, it was another strong week. If we continue with last week’s rate, we will be on pace for one of the highest revenue months of the year.

 

Early Mornings

 

May 6, 2016

 

Today I got into work at 5 am. I like to get into work early on Friday because it is the only time that I can sit down and do admin work in peace without being distracted or pulled away from my desk for day to day issues. Today I am working on my variance reports for the month of April. We had a great financial month in personal training and martial arts. I am still currently working on a strategy to increase revenue for group exercise. It is a tough task the ways group exercise is run at the Y because every class is free and I run over 100 per week. Senior management and I have to work on either changing the goal or change the expectations group exercise

financials.

 

Planning a 5K

 

May 5, 2016

 

Thursday’s look a lot like Wednesday for me as I have the same meeting schedule at Vermilion as I do on Wednesday. I started my morning at French Creek getting quotes for equipment that needs to be updated responding to comment cards and pulling applications for vacancies that I have. Once I completed these tasks, I drove to Vermilion to prepare for meetings which run for two hours. We are currently in the planning stages for a 5K in Vermilion so much of our meeting was working out some of the details. Thursdays are slow at Vermilion so post meets I have an opportunity to check on the job that my maintenance crew and my cleaning crew are doing. I also pulled all of the group exercise class data on Thursdays and tackle and staffing issues.

 

Hump Day

 

May 4, 2016

 

Wednesday is always one of my busiest days. I have update meetings at French Creek. Update meetings are where each department leader goes through and updates the rest of the staff on what is going on in their respective department. I cover all of the wellness updates and being that it is the beginning of the month my updates are about the progress of the new schedule that just started Monday. Immediately the following update, we have Directors meeting where just the directors meet to discuss strategy and progress of strategies. Wednesday I am also the facility operations manager on duty, so I am responsible for the building overall. This day was extremely busy because, in addition to everything I already had to do, I also have to do payroll as well.

 

Vermilion Challenges

 

May 3. 2016

 

On Tuesday's I try to make my way over to the other branch I manage, Vermilion, which I did today. Vermilion is much different from French Creek in so many ways because there are fewer members, the facility is very old and kind of run-down, and the culture is very negative. I am working to change that by adding a positive perspective and putting staff in Vermilion who will represent what the YMCA has to offer. Today I am still in the processes of organizing all personnel files and organizing all of the information that I have such as attendance for classes, marketing materials, and member data.

 

Monday Blues

 

May 2, 2016

 

Mondays are always one of my busiest days. Monday is the day that I check all of the data that I track to make sure that my department is being productive. Some of the data that I track is financials for personal training, group exercise, employee wages, and martial arts. I am usually most concerned with revenue as before I took over as the director my department consistently had trouble meeting their budget. Monday I also pull all new member data so my staff can reach out to new members and help them have a positive experience at my facility. Monday I also make sure that all the equipment remained in working order over the weekend, and I go through all of the mail that I may have received over the weekend, and follow up with anyone that I need to connect with. Monday is also the busiest day at the Y, so there are always small tasks to be completed.