In prior years, pool-goers at the Potomac Glen swimming pool had to make a difficult choice: crowd into the scant shade offered by the clubhouse structure, or suffer the unimpeded heat of the sun to stay closer to their children in the swimming pool.
“Because we’re a new pool we don’t have big, old trees that have been around for 30 years,” said Katie Erickson, whose family has gone to the pool since it opened in 1997. To solve that problem, the swim club recently installed shade around the perimeter of the pool. They have offered more than just welcome relief, they have brought out more people to the pool in the first few weeks of the summer season.
“A lot more people are coming this year because the moms aren’t just out there frying,” Erickson said.
The recent addition to Potomac Glen reflects a growing trend among some local pools that have made improvements to their facilities in hope of retaining current members and attracting new ones now and further down the road.
LARGE RENOVATIONS such as new pools and sun shades can help to attract new members, but such substantial investments are not made solely with short-term membership jumps in mind.
“I think some pools will do some refurbishments [with an eye towards increasing memberships], but by and large if a pool is sinking a half-million dollars into its structure, it’s time to rebuild,” said Tim McClive, the president of the Regency Estates Swim Club. “You do it because you want the pool to be there for another 40 years to serve the next generation.”
Local pools compete with the large county pools, country clubs, and summer camps for business, McClive said.
“Another thing perhaps against the local pool is they don’t have the same amenities of a country club,” McClive said. “It really is just a pool [but] a local pool is a lot less expensive.”
Membership patterns at local pools tend to be cyclical, McClive said, and that is something that can’t be changed much by membership drives, neighborhood flyers and open houses.
“It’s a demographic thing — some pools are getting bigger because the neighborhood is getting younger and some pools are getting smaller because the neighborhood is getting older,” said Jonathan Eig, who serves as the team rep for the Inverness Forest Recreation Club.
McClive said that Regency Estates has seen that pattern over the last decade. Many of the original families in the neighborhood moved in in the 1970s, had families that went to the pool, then grew older. As their children left the neighborhood the parents tended to remain for a time before leaving. As a new wave of families has come in, membership has gone up again. Of course, the brand-new pool has helped.
“The membership levels were pretty flat for three or four years and it may have declined for a little while,” McClive said. Since the new pool opened last summer the pool as seen around 90 new families join, and the increased popularity in the pool is most notable just before closing time at 9 p.m.
“There were times last year at 8:30 you’d still have 40 people at pool,” McClive said. “The year before [prior to the renovation] at the same time you might have five people still there.”
THE MANAGEMENT and members alike at Montgomery Square Copenhaver Swim Club would like to be in McClive’s shoes. Three weeks into the summer swim season the pool is still not open because a renovation that began over the winter still is not complete.
“We ran into some trouble with permitting and approvals,” said Rebecca Cornelius. She is the parent rep for the Montgomery Square swim team, which has seen its numbers suffer as a result of the pool being closed.
“We have 53 kids right now [which is] down from about 90 a couple of years ago,” Cornelius said. “We have some kids who are members who aren’t swimming. I think some of it is because of the pool.”
The club's membership has suffered similarly, though Cornelius did not have specific numbers.
“We’re down to just a real core of families that we’ve had for a long time,” Cornelius said. Those families — and the Montgomery Square swim team — are swimming at Country Glen right now through an arrangement between the two clubs. Cornelius said that Montgomery Square hopes to open up by July 4. When that happens things will be back on track.
“We’ll be up and running and then we’ll grow and our team will grow,” said Cornelius. “We’re just in a little bit of a lull right now.”
REGARDLESS OF improvements and membership drives, ultimately the attraction of swimming pools sells themselves to their neighbors, McClive said.
“People will hear all the noise and say to themselves, ‘What’s all that noise behind the fence?’” McClive said.
Regardless of what local pools families choose, McClive said the most important thing is that they choose to swim.
“On a hot day, the pool is a great place to be whether it’s our pool or another pool in the county,” McClive said. “It gives all the kids something to do to stay fit and compete and gives the older kids who might be hanging out at the house a place go to.”
Summer swim teams bring children together from the surrounding neighborhood who often do not attend the same school but quickly become friends, Erickson said. The teams bring together children as young as 6 and as old as 18 in an environment that is fun, but is not overwhelmingly competitive.
“Everybody cares about the score, but only for about five minutes,” Eig said. “It is competitive and we do care, but we don’t care that much.”
“If you think about it, it’s the only sport where all of your kids can be on the same team,” Erickson said.
Parents are also heavily involved in the teams, so they get to know each other too.
“Our neighborhood and our team is 50 percent Asian,” Erickson said. “At first no one [in the neighborhood] really communicated much, but they all talk at swim team. … The swim team is the only thing we really have that unifies the neighborhood.”