Change is inevitable, it occurs without your permission or consent. Changes can be good and they can be bad, they can be welcomed and also unexpected. With every change comes opportunity. The opportunity to grow, learn and embrace the changes. The past year has held a lot of changes for Pine Bluff in many different areas. With the exception of 3 people, we have a completely new Board of Directors, including a new President. We discovered a costly leak in the antiquated drain system of the pool in addition to some skimmer line issues. We have another group of seasoned lifeguards moving on to bigger and better things after years of service. We have fought insurance companies to keep our high dive and slide. We’ve also seen membership numbers at the highest they’ve been in 2 decades. We’ve built new, strong community and corporate relationships. We had our best concessions sales EVER last season, by a HUGE margin. We even had night events at the pool again with swimming, movies, pizza and Kona Ice. It really feels like the pool is returning to its former glory. The spirit of Pine Bluff has been reenergized thanks to both our volunteer board and you, the members.
As we start gearing up for our 58th season, we are almost giddy with anticipation! We have so much in store for you. I cannot even begin to describe the multitude of events, activities and good times planned for this year. We are taking all of these changes and turning them into opportunities. Don’t worry, we aren’t leaving our members out, there are opportunities for all of you too! We are going to need volunteers, and will be asking all of you to help out. If each family would help with just one event sometime during the season, we could have an event just about EVERY SINGLE DAY! If you have ideas, or want to hold or run or sponsor a member event sometime this season, just let me know and I’ll do my best to make it happen. We have a volunteering page under “Opportunities” on our website, sign up! We want your help and ideas! This is your pool and your summer, get involved and let’s make it the best summer ever. If you want to take your volunteering further, you should consider joining the Board of Directors. While we do not currently have any positions open, the commitment requirements vary from 10 hours a year to 10 hours a month. A committed position on the Board of Directors will allow you to help determine the future of our pool and earns you a free annual family membership for every year that you serve. If you have an interest, sign up as a volunteer (volunteers get preference when a position opens up) or come to a board meeting as my personal guest, no expectations, just see what it’s all about. Now is a great time to come find out about serving, with 12 new members this year, you won’t be alone in learning something new. Ok, ok, I know, take off my salesman hat and get back to the topic at hand.
I know you’re hanging on the edge of your seat wondering what’s coming this season. If you read this far, I guess I should probably throw you out some hints and a few teasers. We really listened to everyone last year and made notes. Movie nights, YES!, night swims, YES!, teen nights, YES! more, more, more activities and special days, YES! I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises buttttttt….. What if I told you that unless it’s snowing or a hurricane is blowing through, we will be open? I’ll let you speculate what that could mean besides more days at the pool. As we get closer to opening day, we’ll shoot out more information.
Keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Instagram. We’ve added a countdown timer on our home page and have been doing a complete overhaul of our website. We are bringing everything up to date and conforming to better security practices and basic web standards. We are also making sure that we conform to all the transparency requirements of our 501c7 designation. We have updated our Non-Profit Information page (under About Us) to include our tax returns, bylaws, designation letter, meeting schedules and meeting minutes. We have added an Opportunities section for employment and volunteering. We have redesigned every contact form and added custom tags to help us better organize communication and aid us in our engagement metrics and analytics. We have streamlined all of our membership products (parties, swimming lessons, yoga, etc.) to take some of the confusion out of purchasing an item. We have also made many of the changes suggested by all of you, adjusted the colors, made things more bold and vibrant, fixed fonts that were difficult to read, simplified navigation and reorganized everything. Check it out when you get the chance!
In closing, let me circle back to the beginning. Take a chance and celebrate your changes, turn them into opportunities to rise above. Embrace them all and use them to build strength, character and resilience. Persevere, carry on, transcend, surpass, outshine, triumph, onward and upward!
I’ll leave you with two great quotes on the subject.