1st comment: Hello and welcome to the Friends of Fremont Pool’s first blog. It’s good to be back with my finger of the pulse of the Fremont Pool. I have heard from all the constituent groups and people seem pretty satisfied. If you want to find a lot of happy people, visit the pool on a warm summer day with a slight breeze or pretty much any day lately. Ahh.
Now for the featured story….’What a Value!’
What a value!
How do we define value? What’s worth its salt in our community? It’s sometimes hardest to define what we value because it is so dear to us. Silver, gold, and precious gems are valuable because we can exchange them for currency, but don’t they also give us pleasure? Jobs give us a paycheck, but don’t they also provide us with a chance to use our skills and a setting to interact with others? Recreation tones our bodies and helps with weight control, but doesn’t it also promote a sense of well-being and provide a chance for socialization?
I would like to think that satisfaction is all we need to measure to determine how happy we are with the aquatic services in the city, but that is of course not realistic. You have to look deeper.
Diversity of programs. The Fremont Pool has all the basic programs that we desired when it was just a dream in 1999, and so much more. Of course, there is lap swimming, masters swimming, swim team (with a focus on U.S. swim teams, but also room for recreational teams, too), swim lessons and open swimming (7 days a week in the summer). The pool also has a robust water exercise program, youth water polo, precompetitive swimming, men’s and women’s water polo, summer swim camps, lifeguard training/CPR and an exciting new youth diving program. Check it out!
Value. So, how do we measure success with numbers and not just smiles? In a recent (Oct 2010) city report, the Fremont Pool had the lowest cost per participant hour of any of the city’s swimming pools. While some were as high as $30.56, the median was about $5 and the Fremont Pool was $1.12. That’s right just $1.12! This means that it costs the city only $1.12 for every person who uses the pool (participant hour). This is largely because of its high popularity.
In short, the Fremont Pool represents the best value to the public of any of the city’s aquatic venues! In an era where it seems everyone is looking for anything good to talk about, we’ve got it. And, some people thought the pool would not be well-used!
Keep Swimming!
– Holly Lofgren, Chairperson, Friends of the Fremont Pool
Look for future blogs about:
The Fremont Pool endowment Pics and flix What! PG&E overbilled us!
Can you help me get out of the parking lot?!
The History. Friends of the Fremont Pool was formed in 1999 when the City of Sunnyvale had an opportunity to partner with the Fremont Union High School District to build a 50-meter swimming pool at Fremont High School. Our group advocated for the pool and raised a substantial endowment for the city of Sunnyvale to reduce future operating subsidies. As you are aware, this program was successful, the pool was built, a partnership was formed and we all enjoy the benefits today.
For the most part, the City has handled the community’s interests in this pool by attending and participating in quarterly meetings with high school district personnel and CSC, managing the contract with California Sports Center, paying the high school district, reviewing annual rate changes, and handling inquiries from the public. Lately, there have been more inquiries from the public (me) than usual.
Additionally, the pool endowment, which we raised, is a substantial sum of money at $915,000. We are also expecting to receive proceeds from a bequest in the near future. With interest rates at a historic low, I am interested in investigating investment strategies for the endowment. And, our Trustee, Mary Bradley has retired so a new Trustee must be officially installed.
My Objective. Since it seems as though there has been a fairly brisk flow of questions, billing discrepancies, parking lot issues, etc, and since it seems as though this activity is increasing and because we should do some work in regards to the endowment, I decided to ask pool enthusiasts and interested parties to stay in contact with me.
Thus, Friends of the Fremont Pool is being reformed to have an engaged citizenship aware and communicating regarding some operational and financial issues for which we might want to provide organized input.
Finally, next June marks the tenth anniversary of the Fremont Pool. This is quite a reason for celebration and there may be some good times to be had that we can look forward to. Please stay tuned for more information on that front in the future.
Thank you for providing your contact information. I will communicate via email for a while and then add a blog. Here is what I am asking you to do: read the emails, ensure I have your current email address and ask others to immediately join by sending me their email addresses. I will use my personal email address: halof@sbcglobal.net
Thank you very much. See you at the pool.
Holly Lofgren
Chairperson, Friends of the Fremont Pool
(408) 737-0875
halof@sbcglobal.net
