Feeback on our First Official Week

WOW - what an incredible first week of operations within our new facility! As many of you know, we opened on Monday, February 18, which was not only our opening day, but a holiday as well. Additionally, the weather was just perfect for folks to check out our YMCA. We are estimating that we had at least 4,000 people in and out of our building that day and we did our very best to manage an incredible crowd.

We all welcome your feedback as we want to provide excellence in member service. I know that we'll have bumps along the way, but we're working toward improving whatever we can in the short term.

We have had several questions and comments arise this past week and I want to be sure to address them here:

• Will we be adding additional classes? We are reviewing our offerings and as we grow, we will offer additional classes as necessary.
• I am a member of another YMCA, can I use your facility? If you are a full member of another YMCA that is at least 50 miles from our facility, you may use our facility for free whenever you visit. If your home YMCA is within 50 miles of our facility, you will be asked to pay half of the guest fee and may visit up to 5 times within one year. Please bring ID with you when visiting.
• I have noticed that some people have entered the building and have not been scanned and I am concerned about security. All people entering the building should be scanned at the facility access point. We are going to work harder to ensure that people coming into our building have their membership cards scanned.
• Will you be expanding the hours for the youth wellness center and for Kids Zone? Once we get through our opening period (our first 2 weeks) and we're in to a couple weeks of our classes, we are going to review our scheduling for programs and services.
• The building seems crowded and I had to wait with my family to use the pool, will this be the norm? We are the first new YMCA in Delaware in 40 years, so we assumed there would be some crowding in our first few weeks. Many people couldn't wait for us to open and it's clear that there is incredible excitement. Though we expect to be a busy YMCA, we also expect things to settle down once the "newness" wears off and we begin our program schedule (March 3). We reached capacity in our pool twice this week and we must adhere to safety first. When we reach pool capacity, we will alert those in the pool that they are on a time limit and then permit another group of people in as capacity lessens.

Thank you all for being part of our Bear-Glasgow YMCA family. It's been a very exciting week and we look forward to the weeks that lie ahead. I will update this blog routinely, but feel free to call or email me directly at Vsiktar@ymcade.org if you have specific thoughts or questions. Take the best of care and have a great day!