Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kimberly Washington
As a decentralized aquatic operation within a large urban recreation and parks department, swimming pools must be operated with a seasonal pool-management team consisting of a manager, assistant manager, and a senior guard. Before budget reductions forced the city of Sacramento, Calif., to close a number of neighborhood pools, the department operated 22 aquatic facilities during the summer. In 2013, it operated eight swimming pools and five stand-alone wading pools.
A large number of municipal parks and recreation organizations operate pools from a seasonal model where facilities are open for a limited time, usually during summer months. The full-time staff may often oversee year-round programs and facilities in addition to aquatic programs. Also, many municipal and community recreation service-delivery models may have one or two staff members who have a variety of programs and facilities to oversee year-round. In these models, a large seasonal summer staff is necessary for these programs and facilities, and full-time staff members may find themselves over-worked in the summer but under-utilized during the school year. For this reason, training tends to be low-level for seasonal workers. Many recreation and leisure organizations cannot afford to pay for pre-service training for seasonal staff, and may make the training non-mandatory.
For more than 40 years, Sacramento’s recreation department has operated within this model. Because the full-time aquatic staff members cannot be in several places at once, 30 to 60 pool-management candidates are hired and trained to operate the swimming pools during the summer. In 2002, a management “school” was created so that second- and third-year lifeguards could attend specialized pre-service training. Because of the size of the aquatic operations, a 16-year-old lifeguard may work his or her way up the ladder to pool manager within 4 to 5 years. It is not unusual for staff members to remain employed with the organization for 8 to 10 years. Developing managers from within has proven to be a valuable investment in staff members.