“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7)
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” (Dale Carnegie)
Throughout the pandemic, we have continuously been pressing to adapt to the conditions, and discover new ways to meet the needs of our members. We have maintained the stance our world has changed forever, and we needed to change with it if we were to remain relevant. Right from the start, we determined we would adopt the virtual platform, becoming a founding member of Y360, investing a significant amount of resources toward its development. We built a studio at Tacoma Center so we can produce quality on-demand videos and offer livestream classes. In addition, we committed significant human resources to ensure we stay focused on continuous development. Annie Doyle and Daniel Ly are full-time staff focused entirely on the development of the virtual programming, along with contributions from Bruce Caudill, Michael Marquez, Roseann Young, as well as program directors from around the association, marketing staff, and a task force designed to support further development of the virtual platform. Concurrently, Janele Nelson has been working with an outside partner in an effort to develop the community/small group aspect to the platform, which we believe will add a vital component. Finally, the IT team has done incredible work along the way to build the infrastructure that supports the virtual platform; adding Salesforce put us in the best position to accommodate virtual programming, building a quality studio, and adding the InStudio component throughout association positions us to deliver the very best quality of programming.
Yes, this is a significant amount of resources, but we felt it was necessary. The world has already shifted to more and more digital services, and we believe combining the virtual programming with the in-person, gives us a unique advantage. We are still very new to this world, but we have made incredible advances in a short time, and remain hopeful as to the future.
Last week, Michael Marquez presented his proposal to implement significant changes to our centers, making a significant shift to invest more into strength training, away from the enormous number of cardio machines we have throughout our centers. Michael worked with an outside company, out of England to assess the demand from our members. It was a few months’ study, involving interviews with members, and the use of sensors to monitor the use of all of our machines, both strength and cardio. The results strongly indicated that our members have shifted to wanting more strength equipment, and not desiring as much the use of the cardio equipment. This is a trend seen throughout the country. Michael used the data, and spent hours designing layouts for two of our larger centers. We only had the resources for two centers, and we made the determination that Tom Taylor and Gordon would make the most sense, based on the demand at those two centers. In the study, we assessed the use at Haselwood and Korum, and we will be making some modifications there as well. Our hope is that we will experience success from the changes, and be able to continue making further changes throughout our association. The results experienced by other Y’s and private clubs from around the country have proven to be significant thus far, giving us a great deal of confidence for the investment. Years ago we capitalized on the cardio craze when we fitted our centers with hundreds of treadmills, and elliptical machines. This design proved to be very successful for our centers, but now the demand has shifted, and we need to shift as well. Michael has done a phenomenal job collecting the data and researching the best design for our centers. Michael worked with Toko to fit the investment into the 2023 budget, we were able to shift the lease that as dedicated for the cardio equipment to meet our needs for the strength equipment. Great job by Michael for all your work on this project. We believe this will have a big impact on membership growth in 2023. We should be receiving the new equipment by April.
When Michael and Toko put the final touches on the project and fit it into the 2023 budget, the budget was finally completed to submit to the board of directors, to be voted upon in the December meeting. We feel good about the final product, with everyone leaning in hard to build it. We know that we have presented a plan that exhibits growth, increasing from 70% membership to over 80%. Membership still represents the largest component of our total revenue. There is another area of our budget plan, that is a very significant part of our revenue picture, and that is our fundraising efforts. Jessie Palmer and the financial development team have been working hard to advance the annual campaign, as well as the capital campaigns for the Names Y, and the two sports fields at Tom Taylor and Gordon centers. The fundraising efforts have experienced a great deal of disruption these past three years, with less member traffic in our centers, and a lot of new staff working for our Y, both have impacted our fundraising efforts. This year we raised $1.77 million toward our $3 million annual campaign goal. In 2023, we have recommitted to the $3 million goal, but Jessie and the team have devised a strategy to ensure we achieve our goal. For one, we hired Jeff Weiss to spearhead the campaign. With input from the entire team, which includes staff from around the association, Jeff has built a good plan for 2023. Jeff meets with representatives from each of our centers on a monthly basis to stay focused on the goals. Listening to Jeff share the strategies, I reassured in our ability to be successful.
Like everything else we have encountered these past three years, fundraising has not been easy, however, as we have demonstrated in every other area, we will adapt and advance our Y. We have exhibited tremendous resilience in our ability to navigate the disruption we have faced. I am proud of the effort and the ingenuity we have demonstrated to adapt to the conditions. You are a great team, dedicated and committed to making our communities a better place to live! Thank you all, you are amazing!
#OneY #StayStrong #StayWithUs