Closing Weekend 2019

We’re all sad to see summer come to an end, but some of us are excited for the beginning of the school year and the cooler weather that fall brings. The pool will offer a few hours this fall, before shutting down and winterizing the pool deck. Here are the hours for September:

  • Sunday, September 1: 1:00 – 8:00 pm
  • Monday, September 2 (Labor Day): 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Tuesday, September 3 – Friday, September 6: Pool Closed
  • Saturday, September 7: 2:30 – 8:00 pm
  • Sunday, September 8 (closing day): 1:00 – 5:00 pm

We will need help closing weekend to get things cleared off the pool deck, emptied out of the snack bar and barn, and organized in the garage. Not all of this needs to happen on Sunday, but there will be a group working Sunday afternoon just before and after closing to make sure everything is ready for winter. Please see a Board Member if you are available to volunteer a little time to help close things down. The more volunteers we have, the faster it goes.

And keep your eyes on your email for announcements this fall for events such as fire pit nights, trunk-or-treat, and fundraising opportunities!

We Need You (to volunteer for the Board)!

The Colony Recreation and Civic Association (aka Colony Pool) is lead by members of its volunteer Board. What is the Board? Based on the Bylaws, it’s a group of 12-15 members of the Association, with 4 of those individuals serving in the elected positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, and others serving in appointed roles, such as the Membership Chair and Operations Chair.

What does it take to serve on the Board? First and foremost, it’s the volunteer spirit. The time commitment in the fall and winter is fairly minimal, with attendance at a monthly meeting as the only requirement. However, a lot of planning happens in the off season, so sometimes volunteers are sought to pitch in a little extra time. Depending on the role you take, more time may be required in the spring for workdays to get the pool ready. And once the pool is open for the season, you’re already there having fun, so it doesn’t feel like an extra commitment anymore!

If you’re interested in learning more about the positions, here’s a basic rundown of what each elected/appointed position requires:

  • President: Coordinates and develops agenda for monthly Board Meetings and General Membership Meetings; Oversees the management of projects and ensures that necessary tasks are completed (this involves a lot of delegating things to other people and following up with them on the progress); and Interact with members! After completing the term, stay on the Board as an advisor to the next President. And a bonus, you get to write a monthly column in the newsletter.
  • Vice President: Serve as an understudy to the President and help out where needed. This individual will serve as the President the following year unless extenuating circumstances prevent that from happening.
  • Treasurer: Oversee the finances for the organization, including paying bills and taxes, doing payroll for employees, ensuring the accuracy of insurance policies, taking in cash from sales at the snack bar/front desk, and advising the rest of the Board on whether a project is affordable at a given time. Kyle Harrington has been our awesome Treasurer for the last 4 years and a new job means he will be leaving this role on November 1. Anyone interested should talk to him now to gain experience in the role before this transition.
  • Secretary: Records the minutes and takes the records for the Board meetings. Distributes the minutes to the other Board members for review. In the upcoming year, this position may need to help ensure that the Bylaws get updated.
  • Membership Chair: This position works closely with all Board members. They are the one that enters all membership information into a database, updates email lists and responds to, or forwards on, questions from the membership, and ensures that the Treasurer has received the correct payment from each family. The larger our membership, the larger this role, and thus there is an opportunity to have co-chairs of this committee is the board sees fit.
  • Operations Chair: This position oversees the maintenance of the facilities. While it helps to be handy, moreover, this person needs to have an awareness of who to contact for what issue. As a member-run pool, it’s great to know when a member can be contacted to help with a repair, but there will be other instances where it is necessary to bring in someone to complete a task. There are always a lot of things on our to-do list, so here is another opportunity to have co-chairs of this committee is the board sees fit.

August Membership Meeting Recap

Once again the General Membership Meeting forecast brought us thunder and a closed pool deck, but we persevered, occupied the kids, and powered through a meeting. Thanks to everyone who came out, and for anyone that couldn’t make it, here’s a rundown of the discussion:

  • After a quick introduction of the board members, we did a round robin introduction of everyone present. It was great to see both new and returning members gathered in one place to discuss the future of the pool.
  • The Membership Update brought the exciting news that our overall membership has increased again this year, with a total of 213 memberships of all types. Family memberships are the most popular, and this year we had 120 returning families and 44 new ones! We’ve also had 5 new memberships that took advantage of the end of season discounted rates.
  • Don’t forget, we’re running a Membership Raffle for a free 2020 membership! Tickets are on sale at the front desk at the following rates:
    • $1/1 ticket,
    • $10/15 tickets,
    • $20/arm span of tickets.
  • A quick recap of our finances showed that we’re in a slightly better position financially than was anticipated due to the extra memberships. However, it’s been an expensive year with planned repairs to the baby pool and low dive, and the cost for chemicals and water has been higher this year due to repairs that required the pool to be drained.
  • President Denise Palm took a few minutes to open the floor to the membership to talk about what went well this year. Here’s what was said:
    • Communications was much better with solid email messaging, an active Facebook account, an up-to-date website, and the addition of a newsletter.
    • Fellowship and connections among members was stronger than in years past.
    • Better management of problems and issues, with concerns being addressed as soon as they were raised.
    • Great showing at picnics!
    • Lots of great new members and great new volunteers willing to help with anything, as well as individuals that are taking initiative to fix things before a request has to be made. THANK YOU ALL!
  • Swim Team update: Our Cudas had a great season finishing 2nd in the red division and earning 2nd place at the City Meet Championship. Our team had a total of 102 swimmers on the team this season with many new faces! We are so proud of our Cudas and can’t wait to see you all again next summer.
  • What’s on tap for the last two weeks of the season:
    • Pizza and Float Night on Tuesdays from 6:00-8:00 pm.
    • Late nights at the fire pit with bring-your-own-s’mores on Wednesday nights.
    • Labor Day Cookout
    • Closing Day is September 8. The pool will be open from 1:00-5:00 pm. We need your help, so come enjoy the last day at the pool and then help us close up shop for the winter.
  • Volunteers still needed:
    • Food trucks didn’t pan out this season, but we started a little late. Let’s get a head start and try to book them early for next year. We can not pay a minimum, but we need people to help us schedule them for next summer.
    • There are plans to hold a yard sale later this fall, so keep a look out for communications about it. We’ll need stuff to sale, be renting space for anyone that wants to sell their own stuff, and need people to help us run the sale.
    • If you have any other fundraising ideas, please bring them to the board with a willingness to help the idea come to fruition.
    • Plastic bag donations for a Trex bench (https://www.trex.com/recycling/recycling-programs/). Donations will be coordinated during the off season, please watch your email for details.
    • We need volunteers for the Colony Pool Board! The next Board meeting is Tuesday, August 27 at 6:00 pm and we will be electing a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary, as well as at-large members. We also need to fill the positions of Chair of Membership and Chair of Operations. Ask a board member if you have questions — you can come to the meeting without committing to a term on the board!

General Membership Meeting

The next General Membership Meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 20 at 6:30 pm. It’s a float night as well as a pizza night, so bring the kids and have dinner at the pool!

What’s on the agenda?

  • Electing new board members and filling the positions that will soon be vacated (including President and Treasurer).
  • An update on the pool finances.
  • Fundraising in the off season.
  • Preview of what’s happening Labor Day Weekend.
  • Raffle for a 2020 Membership.
  • Volunteers needed for Closing Weekend.

Pool Financial Update

Join the Colony Pool Finance Committee on Wednesday, July 10th at 6:30 at the pool to discuss where we are in 2019 and where we are headed.  All are welcome to come and here about the nuts and bolts of how our Pool takes memberships, guest fees, and snack bar money and turns it into clean water, a working facility, and life guards!

Questions? Contact Kyle Harrington at kylelharr@aol.com.

 

6/18/19 Membership Meeting Recap

Despite the rainy weather, the promise of pizza and ice cream was enough to bring in a healthy crowd for Tuesday’s Membership Meeting. And we managed to have the entire meeting during the temporary weather closure of the pool deck!

Couldn’t make the meeting? Here’s what happened:

IMG_20190618_175834

  • Welcome from President, Denise Palm, and an introduction of those in attendance.
  • State of the Pool:
    • Thanks to a lot of great volunteers, we opened on time!
    • As of this week, we have 192 member families, 36 of which are new. This is an upward trend from where we were at this time last year.
  • Current Projects/Repairs
    • The ice maker in the snack bar broke opening weekend. It has been replaced, but currently we only have the ability to make ice cubes.
    • We have accepted a bid on a replacement diving board and hope to have it installed by the end of June.
    • Repairs are scheduled for the baby pool that will involve the closure of part of the pool deck behind the diving boards. We hope to have this repair complete before the end of June.
    • We’ve replaced and repaired both of the basketball hoops. Please no dunking so we can make these last!
    • We are getting estimates to have tree work done.
    • We’ve replaced one of the doors into the barn.
    • We’ve got several volunteers who are going to work to clean up a volleyball court.
    • The repair over the weekend was to fix a pool light and lane rope hook that had fallen out. THANK YOU for your understanding about our late opening.
  • One of the primary goals of the board has been to improve communication to members. We’ve been working to be more proactive in getting events out on the website and Facebook. We’ve also created a newsletter.
  • Financial Update:
    • We are in a better place financially than we were 5 years ago. The large majority of our income comes from memberships, though it is supplemented by fundraising, snack bar sales, and the swim team. We need to have a larger fundraising impact in order to be able to afford the pool relining project. You will see many messages this year about efforts to support this.
    • We are happy to talk about things you would like done around the pool. Kyle Harrington is our treasurer and has the financial say about the feasibility of projects. We are happy to reimburse for materials, but hope that members will volunteer their expertise when it comes to labor.
  • Swim Team Update:
    • 102 swimmers from 60 families
      • There are 15 new swim team families!
    • Great first meet for the Blue & White meet on June 14 which served as a meet for time trials.
    • Chick-fil-a was served at the Blue & White meet and this was a successful trial. It will be served again at the next meet, Thursday, June 20 against Hidenwood.
    • The swim-a-thon will be on June 29 and likely start about 8:30 am. There will be food, music, and a lot of fun to be had!
    • Swim Team sponsors this year are:
  • Upcoming Events:
    • Tuesdays are Float Night with ice cream and pizza for sale to support the swim team and relining project.
    • Wednesday is going to be a late night with 9 pm closing and the fire pit. When available, we also hope to have food trucks.
    • We’re raffling off a Nintendo Switch. Tickets are now on sale and the drawing will be at noon on July 4. Tickets are $1/1, $10/15, $20/arm span.

Don’t Forget to Volunteer: https://forms.gle/WMDF2Vejia7QBqTr5

General Membership Meeting

On Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 6:00 pm a General Membership Meeting will be held to provide updates on the status of pool projects and give all members an opportunity to interact with the Board Members. The agenda will include:

We’re holding this meeting on a Float Night in hopes that many members will attend. We know there is a lot going on that night, but hope that it will provide additional motivation to come out and support the pool and the swim team with the opportunity to get pizza for dinner and have ice cream for dessert.

Let’s Talk Money! (with the Colony Pool Treasurer)

2018 was a great year. With a final boost from the August/September Membership Special we ended the year with 27 more member families than in 2017! Now that everything is packed up for the winter and the kids are back at school, it’s time to start planning for 2019.

Colony Pool’s resident money man, treasurer Kyle Harrington, is hosting a Pool Finance Meeting at his house on Monday, 10/8 at 6 p.m. He Will grill burgers and hot dogs and asks that anyone interested please RSVP. He also requests that those attending bring a side dish and notes that kids are welcome (with entertainment provided by Tommy 😀).

The conversation will include:

  • the budget process
  • a review of the books
  • a discussion of big ticket items for 2019, including pool relining effort and membership costs.

Can’t attend, but have questions? Send them to us or talk to a Board Member at the September 28 member dinner.

Pool Board Meeting

Come out to the pool on Tuesday, September 18 at 6:00 pm to share your input about the last year with the board. They’re excited to hear from you and look forward to any suggestions that will make 2019 a better year than 2018!

This is also your chance to volunteer to serve on the board as the new board members will be installed this month and a new president will be voted in. Curious what it takes to be a board member? You’ll need to commit to about an hour a month for meetings during the off-season (through April) and then will help get the pool ready for opening day in May. Feel free to reach out to current board members with your questions about the commitment during the summer.

If you’re not able to commit to being on the board, but would still like to pitch in and help this off-season, there are other ways to volunteer and get involved. Also be on the lookout announcements for social events happening at the pool this fall.