Regarding behavior and supervision, these concerns are not based on isolated incidents, nor are…read morethey issues that we have simply observed without reporting. We have reported problems to YMCA staff when they occurred. On several occasions, we spoke with front desk employees and were referred to staff members working in the particular area involved. We have also stopped and spoken directly with Zach, the facility director, about our concerns.
Unfortunately, despite reporting these issues, we have continued to see many of the same problems.
Some examples have included children holding other children underwater for concerning lengths of time in the pool, children running through and creating problems in the locker rooms, fighting and frequent profanity on the basketball courts, individuals standing on top of equipment in the weight area, and groups of kids congregating around the walking area and making inappropriate comments to patrons about their weight or physical abilities.
Some of these behaviors are simply disruptive, but others have caused us legitimate safety concerns.
For that reason, being asked to report these incidents when they happen is somewhat frustrating, because that is exactly what we have been doing. At some point, we would hope that repeated reports would result in greater staff presence, supervision, and consistent enforcement of facility rules rather than requiring individual members to continually identify the same types of problems.
We also wanted to clarify our concern regarding classes. We understand from your response that additional classes have recently been added. However, from what we can see, only two additional evening classes were added. While increased daytime programming may benefit some members, it does not substantially address the concern of a working family that primarily needs programming during evening hours.
When we originally joined Westview, our experience was quite different. There seemed to be more class opportunities, and the swimming area in particular felt much more controlled and supervised.
The frequent unavailability of facilities has also played a part in our frustration. There have been many occasions when areas we would like to use, particularly the pool or gym, have been closed or unavailable. When combined with limited evening programming, it can make it difficult for our family to consistently use the membership in the way we originally anticipated.
We have increasingly found ourselves going to other YMCA locations when possible, including Gretna, Armbrust, and Southwest. What is especially noticeable to us is that we do not routinely encounter these same behavioral and supervision issues at those facilities. We certainly understand that children will be children and that no public facility can prevent every incident. Our concern is the frequency of the behavior at Westview and what appears to be a difference in supervision and enforcement compared with other YMCA locations.
We genuinely want Westview to be successful. It is the location we should be able to use most conveniently, and our survey feedback was intended to explain why our family's experience has declined rather than simply to criticize the facility.
We appreciate you taking our concerns seriously and hope this additional information better explains why we gave the ratings that we did
