YMCA Membership Continues to Grow, but Faces Challenges

YMCA Continues to Grow Membership, but Faces Challenges

October 29, 2024

Membership numbers doubled for the Bedford Center YMCA in its first six months of operation, from 2,947 in January of 2023 to 5,967 in June of 2023, based on this year’s third-quarter report presented to City Council last Tuesday (October 21) by senior staff from the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth. Membership numbers since then, the report shows, continued to increase for the following 15-month period through September of this year, but by a more modest 19%.

Bedford’s YMCA, located at Generations Park at Boys Ranch, opened in January of 2023. The City of Bedford, which owns the recreational facility, contracted with the YMCA, according to the City’s website, to expand programming, reduce membership rates and save operating costs. At the time, in 2022, the website states, the savings were projected at more than $731,000 in the first year, which was 2023.

The facility, the website boasts, features an indoor aquatic facility, an outdoor water park, a gym, two fitness rooms, a second-floor fitness mezzanine and activity rooms.

“So, we’re at about 7,170 [membership] units,” stated Kristin Lee, chief financial officer for the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth as she addressed the City Council. “But,” she clarified, the actual number of individual members within those “units” is about doubled “at 14,000.”

About two-thirds of the membership units (66%), Lee further explained “are Bedford residents and so that’s a big margin. So, when we look for growth,” she emphasized, the Bedford numbers “are pretty stable.”

“Where we’re really going to be looking for growth is in the outer areas or that other 30%” of non-residents, although “we could bump” against the “top” of the growth by “the end of year three,” Lee projected. She added that 2025, that third year, could end up as more of a “year of retention” of membership with seasonal fluctuations.

Financially, revenue from membership dues continued to also grow through this year’s July-through-September third quarter, but the operation of the YMCA facility is showing a projected net loss by the end of the year of $369,000, based on the YMCA’s projected revenue of $3.8 million. That compares to last year’s net loss of $480,000, a 23% improvement and based on revenue of $2.7 million.

This past third quarter’s (July thru September 2024) net loss of $285,000 is nearly twice of this year’s first two quarters combined, which Lee attributed to higher “seasonal” costs of utilities and maintenance, as well as more people taking advantage of the pool to escape the summer heat.

Hiring and employee retention has been a challenge this year, especially with “staffing of life guards,” stated John-Michael Corn, the YMCA’s chief risk and resource officer, as he also addressed the Council. “It’s a national problem,” he stated, “that we are working to overcome” by pursuing high school and college students, as well as through job fairs.

Referring to it as a “big, big, big undertaking,” Corn said the YMCA of Metropolitan Forth Worth, has begun hiring lifeguards year-round, “starting in January” so “we are actually ahead of the game.”

To a question raised from Council Member Steve Farco about the staffing shortage, Corn confirmed the YMCA is also seeking older workers in their 60s and 70s as part of their recruitment program. “Absolutely,” Corn replied, “and life guards as well.”

When it comes to staffing the pool, Mayor Dan Cogan commented to Corn, “I’m glad you are taking the necessary steps. “Aquatics,” Cogan emphasized, “is what makes this building special, that is the driver and that is why we’re seeing an increase in memberships.”

Eddie Dobbins, the YMCA’s vice president of operations, also addressing the Council, added that lifeguard pay was recently increased a dollar per hour to be more competitive and they are looking at raising it another dollar. But, he said, they “are still two dollars less than where we think we need to be.”

Corn added that the YMCA has also hired a “resource expert of aquatics who will “set the program model” for Bedford and all of the Fort Worth YMCAs. “It will be a much more vibrant area,” he explained, “not just in the water, but also on the deck and in the area for families and kids.”

Rear view of The Bedford Center YMCA. Bedford Journal Project file photo.

“Mechanical issues with the pool,” Corn asserted, were resolved this summer with help from Sunbelt Pools and the YMCA taking steps “to ensure that won’t happen again.” Sunbelt is the vendor that designed and built the pool for Bedford, as well as for other cities in the Metroplex, including the Central Aquatics Center, in Hurst.

But, because the pool’s mechanical system is large and sophisticated, Corn said, a pool technician has been hired by the YMCA as a “cure” to collaborate with Sunbelt three days a week for the next three months to monitor the system and then continue working daily.

Sanitation was a point of contention when Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Rob Gagliardi challenged Corn on the “cleanliness of the facility.” Gagliardi said he visited the facility “a year ago” when he saw “low-hanging-fruit issues” and then “a year later the same stuff popped up again.”

Standing his ground, Corn said “I would argue with you a little bit on that.” While admitting there were problems a year ago, he claimed the cleanliness has improved since then to the point of being a “night-and-day” difference. The facility may not be “spotless,” Corn conceded, but “it also has 14,000 people going through that building and it is heavily used.” The standard, he claimed, “is completely different” from what it was “a year and a half ago.”

Gagliardi reasserted his concern that, despite the high traffic levels, there was “visible filth” when he toured the building again last July, just a few months ago, and that it was “unacceptable.” Gagliardi said he wants to “make sure things are being done correctly” and pointed out that the YMCA was brought in because “of the history and how you all know how to run facilities and it’s been bumpy.”

While the YMCA may not be “where we want to be,” Corn contended, “we are getting there” and that he is “confident in our ability to do it.”

The exchange concluded when Gagliardi asked when that goal would be met and Corn responded that it was dependent on the standard of cleanliness provided by Regent Services, the janitorial and maintenance contractor hired by the YMCA.

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