Aquatics supervisors don’t just have to manage staff, they also must stay on top of pool maintenance, uphold standards of care and safety among guards, and ensure proper water quality, not to mention managing marketing and budgets. So having a good schedule in place is essential to keep you grounded. Here, three experts offer advice on what all aquatic facility operations should do in the month of February.
1 Make emergency equipment checks. Janel Twehous, recreation supervisor of aquatics and special events for Columbia, Mo., says this is the time to make sure your AEDs maintain their annual registration. Also check all your first aid equipment and see that it’s all accounted for and still operating properly.
2 Hold lifeguard classes. Adam Peper, aquatic manager for The Pointe at Ballwin Commons in Ballwin, Mo., begins lifeguard classes in February to make sure staff is well prepared before the season goes into high gear. This is also the time to begin drafting new guards at high school swim meets.
3 Begin active recruiting. In January, it may have been enough to put out feelers and contact last year’s favored hires. But now the urgency will begin to build, especially for larger organizations. With about 200 employees, including cashiers, guards and maintenance staff, Alexa Pritchard, the recreation superintendent for city of Roseville, Calif. Parks, Recreation and Libraries Department, says she has to start recruiting in February.
This is the time to put together and act upon your recruitment plan. Pritchard supplies all her supervisors with business cards that they give out whenever they find someone who seems like a good fit. “If we’re not out there selling it, we’re going to get behind,” she says. “And selling lifeguard jobs these days is hard.”
