Stay-At-Home Order Update
Dear WEST community,
The recent stay-at-home mandate has extended our closure until April 7th. It seems like decisions are being made week-by-week, so we will continue to prepare to reopen but will announce updates as the situation unfolds. Full-time coaches have adjusted and limited our travel to the pool but still need to regularly check on equipment and make sure the pool water is maintained. We are communicating with other coaches, USA Swimming and doing our best to stay informed and engaged through this situation.
As a reminder, WEST is a non-profit and we only budget for a $10k-$20k cushion year-to-year. We have positioned ourselves over the past several years with enough reserves to survive a short-term closure, but each time it is extended our concern grows. We appreciate the patience and support of all our members during the difficult time.
WEST will open when allowed by the state & local governments, and will continue to aggressively follow CDC guidelines to lessen the chance of spreading the virus. Owning our own facility, WEST has greater flexibility to adjust lesson and training schedules to meet the needs of our community. Owning our own facility also means we are solely responsible for continuing to cover our expenses.
We understand that the financial implications of this shutdown are going to impact everyone differently. Here is an overview of how we plan to handle each of our programs at WEST:
Lessons - have been credited (no refunds) for the March classes that were cancelled. We are ready to open back up whenever we are allowed. We will run a shortened session in April and plan to start May as originally planned. If it pushes past May 1st, we will do a modified session that month and start June on schedule - the goal is to get back to our original schedule as quickly as possible. When we have a better idea of when we will be allowed to open, we will open registrations up accordingly.
Precomp, Swim Fit, Club Memberships - we will bill everyone April 1st as normal, but then we will credit everyone back based on how long the closure extends into April. We will do credits on a week-by-week basis and if we end up crediting back all of April we will.
Swim Team - we will bill everyone's team training fees as normal. To give everyone a financial break, we are canceling Swim-A-Thon and waiving all Fundraising Obligations for this year (anyone that still wishes to donate may do so and we may put it towards extended Financial Aid for those in need). We will also cut everyone's Volunteer Hour Requirements for the year, in half. Anyone wanting to quit the team will still need to follow the policies we have in place and pay the Early Termination Fee. We have updated the Financial Aid Policy to include Temporary Financial Aid for those suffering from job loss, etc. Families in need should apply for Temporary Aid as soon as possible, but understand that decisions will not be finalized until this shutdown has ended and we know the duration of closure, how many families are impacted as well as any government assistance that will be available to individuals. Financial Aid may be applied retroactively to the date of application.
Senior and Senior Elite swimmers have been sent login information to use Engineered Sports Dryland App “Swim Strong”. (If you are having trouble finding the app, try searching for “Swimmer’s Performance” instead). Coaches have been working on other at-home workouts for all of our Age Group and Development groups and will be in touch shortly if they haven’t been already.
It is important that we all (not just the swimmers!) maintain our activity levels during the time. Exercise is critical to a healthy immune system and will help cope with the mental stress of these troubled times. This shutdown has forced us all to slow down, breathe, and take a break and I hope everyone is doing some individual personal reflection. It is important to think about what positive changes we have made to our daily lives (whether forced upon us or not) and try to carry those forward once things are allowed to go back to normal. Much of this situation is out of our control but how we react to it, is within our control. As with any hardship, there is opportunity for growth and positive change surrounding this situation, it may just not be obvious at first.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay vigilant.
Coach Nick
