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MCC Advisory Board Agenda 11-20-2003COMMUNITY CENTER ADVISORY BOARD MEETING REGULAR MEETING AGENDA NOVEMBER 20, 2003 - 4.30 P.M. - ACADEMYROOM Board Members: Harvey Kendall -Chair, Richard Quick, Tom Neumann, Bruce Thielen and Sandra Theros Staff Members: Kitty Baltos-Director l . Call meeting to order 2. Consideration of approving minutes from the October 23, 2003 regular Advisory Board meeting 3. Consideration of adding items to the agenda 4. Update Items: a. Mississippi Room Fence b. Land of Lakes Choirboys donation 5. Consideration of appointing a new Vice Chair for the Board. 6. Consideration of providing a membership to all current employees of the Community Center at no cost. 7. Discussion on a disabled member rate for the Community Center. Community member's request. 8. Discussion on policy to close pool periodically for swim lessons or gym closings for events or National Guard. 9. Adjourn COMMUNITY CENTER ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING - OCTOBER 23, 2003 4:30 P.M. - ACADEMY ROOM Board Members Present: Harvey Kendall -Chair, Richard Quick, Tom Neumann and Bruce Thielen Board Members Absent: Bob Murray -Vice Chair City Staff Present: Kitty Baltos-Director 1. Meeting called to order at 4:32 p.m. by Harvey Kendall -Chair 2. MOTION by Richard Quick to approve the minutes from the August 7, 2003 regular Advisory Board meeting, SECOND by Tom Neumann, MOTION PASSED with Bruce Thielen abstaining. 3. MOTION by Richard Quick to approve the minutes from the September 25, 2003 regular Advisory Board meeting, SECOND by Tom Neumann, MOTION PASSED with Bruce Thielen abstaining. 4. Consideration of adding items to the agenda: None added 5. Update Items: a. Mississippi Room Fence - Kitty Baltos reported that she has had a difficult time finding a mason who is available. This has held up moving forward with the fence. Fred Patch is assisting Kitty with finding other resources. It is hoped that the fence can still be installed in 2003. b. September 251h meeting follow: Kitty has been working with staff to offer a number of ideas that were suggested at the collabrative meeting. The first event being planned is a middle school dance to be held in November. This will give the staff an idea of how they are run and what can be expected. C. Software Upgrade: Kitty reported that the software upgrade with CSI Software happened the first week of September. The software is easy to use and will make the Guest Service desk faster and more efficient. It also give administrative staff more reporting options. The only thing that has not yet come in are the gift cards. Kitty is hoping they will be in soon for the Holiday buying season. 6. Board Candidates interviewed for replacement of Bob Murray on the Advisory Board. At 4:30 p.m. Bob Grabinski, 5:00 p.m. Betty Holum and 5:30 p.m. Sandra Theros. Each candidate was interviewed for approximately fifteen minutes with time in between interviews to address other agenda items. After the interviews were completed MOTION by Bruce Thielen to offer the appointment to Sandra Theros for the position open due to Bob Murray's resignation and recommend her appointment to the City Council term to expire December 31, 2006, SECOND by Tom Neumann, MOTION PASSED. The Board requested that Kitty Baltos follow up with the other two candidates with their thanks and hope that they will be interested in serving in the future as they were also excellent candidates. 7. Consideration of proposed membership price increase effective 2004. Kitty Baltos presented a proposal to the Board for a price increase for Family passes only. The reasons for a family only increase were (1) currently there is a very small price increase from adult to a family, this would create a greater price gap, (2) we currently are very close to what Life Fitness Centers is selling their adult, junior and senior memberships for, and (3) we would realize a very small amount of revenue from an adult and junior/senior membership increase because 90% or greater of our memberships sold are family. The price increase proposed would be: RESIDENT REGULAR Family Annual Paid -In -Full $300 to $320 $360 to $400 Family Annual paid monthly $30/month to $32/month $35/month to $37/month Family 3 Month Pass $110 to $120 $125 to $135 AaJustments would equally be made to charter memberships and corporate memberships. MOTION by Bruce Thielen to increase membership rates as proposed for family passes only, SECOND by Richard Quick, MOTION PASSED. 8. Review of financial statements through September 2003 for the Community Center. Information was reviewed with no action from the Board. 9. MOTION by Richard Quick to adjourn the meeting at 6:10 p.m. 6. Consideration of providing a membership to all current employees of the Community Center at no cost. When the facility was about to open and again shortly after it opened, I requested of the City Council to make available memberships to current MCC employees. At the time they felt that it would not look good to have the tax payers subsidize a membership for employees and passed on this request. I would like to revisit this possibility again for all the same reasons that I felt it was important previously: l . The Community Center employees sell our memberships. The more they know our facility and its amenities the better they will be able to answer the questions asked of them either on the job or in their personal life. 2. Our employees, because they feel ownership in the building, will help us in terms of building security. As they use the fitness area, pool, locker rooms, etc they will be watching to see if we have any theft, destruction or non paying users. 3. As our employees use the facility they will be able to tell the maintenance department when a particular piece of equipment or a particular area needs attention. Currently, we have to rely on our paying customer to provide us with a lot of this information. Health Clubs always offer free memberships to their employees, however, community centers vary greatly from city to city on their policies for employee memberships. Our policy currently is to allow our employees occasional use of the facility. Occasional is defined as not more than two times per month. When we do sell an employee a membership, we do so at the resident rate. 8. Discussion on policy to close pool periodically for swim lessons or gym closings for events or National Guard. This has been a discussion item in the past, however, it is back with a vengeance. We'd just like a little direction from the Board. For the first two years we were open, we provided swim lessons classes that were full while maintaining an open swim policies. We had a lot (and I mean a lot) of angry parents, both swim lesson parents and open swim parents. They complained that the pool was too crowded and many areas were closed off for lessons. The lesson parents complained that it was noisy, distracting and that people swam through lessons further disrupting lessons. After two years of fighting the good fight, we agreed to close the pool during lessons for the benefit of all users. This, of course, was met with many angry users who felt that their time for open swim was being taken away from them. We compromised by only closing the pool if we had multiple classes that were full and would therefore consume large areas of the pool. This fall we knew our Monday evening classes were full but we felt that since October historically is a slower month, we could maintain open swim times during lessons. Again the complaints started in earnest from the lesson parents. We then advertised that the pool would be closing for lessons on Monday evenings only starting in November. Once the pool closed the complainers were even more vocal and angry. We can't seem to make anyone happy. Last year, we put over a thousand individuals through swim lessons. Our lesson sign up is eagerly anticipated and classes often fill up within a week of registration opening. We know that people want us to provide lessons, however, don't let them interfere with their personal pool enjoyment. We try to communicate and advertise our pool closings well, however, I think because we closed the pool mid session, there was a lot of confusion. We are beginning to have some of the same problems with the gym due to the classes we are offering in there. What are your thoughts with this dilemma? We're tired of getting chewed out and it is creating a bad working environment for staff.