Pool Operations 101

by Sandy Kellogg

Aquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair
VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

I started as a pool operator 6 years ago.  Through a lot of on the job training and some certification classes I have slowly gotten pretty good.  One thing has changed significantly though, and maybe not as quickly as it should!

Jesse, Head Lifeguard at Mount Vernon RECenter

I came into aquatics after raising three boys, homeschooling them all up to high school while following my husband to several Army bases around the country.  Becoming a lifeguard at 40 and then an aquatic manager at 45 is not your typical path into parks and recreation!  My management position was the first full time job I ever had, HR was very patient explaining the mysteries of 401k’s and retirement plans.  I was so proud the first time I backwashed by myself, especially since my facility has an open pit DE system where backwashing is not just a chore, it’s an art!  I am very good with mechanical systems, and I learned a lot trouble shooting an older system and getting that last little bit of flow rate.  But…..

I wore the stains and holes in my clothing with pride.  Only real career professionals have chlorine stains, which quickly develop into holes, in all their pants legs.  Blue shirts actually turn a lovely pink when chlorine sprays out of a Stenner, and I thought I looked awesome in my clothes that proclaimed to the world that I was a pool operator, dealing with serious equipment and serious chemicals.

The problem was that I didn’t take it seriously.  PPE was for guards who weren’t as careful as I was, or as much a professional.  Duct tape and improvisation, chemical splashes and drips, that all meant that I was ‘one of the guys’, a pool mechanic and miracle worker.

It wasn’t until I was training my staff that I realized what an idiot I had been.  Splashes on clothes could just as easily be splashes in my face, acid in your eyes is not inconvenient, it is permanent.  Stains on my clothes did proclaim that I’m a pool operator, but I’ve come to understand that it means I’m a bad pool operator.  Every stain proclaims to a staff member that I am not practicing what I preach, and it is a very short leap to them doing the same.  So I bought new pants, threw away stained shirts, and promised to try to never announce that I am a pool operator just by my clothing.  My staff will see me doing what I expect them to do, keeping us all safe and chemical free.

Anthony, Lifeguard at Martin Luther King Jr. Outdoor Pool

Becoming a Lifeguard - Welcome to our World

by Sandy Kellogg

Aquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair
VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

It’s hiring season in the pool world!  This time of year there is a fresh crop of young, enthusiastic lifeguards entering the world of aquatics, ready to save lives and make money doing it.  Some start as brand new employees, learning how to get to work on time and be responsible.  Others come back from their first year of college, ready to earn money to go back in the fall.  All are hoping for a fun, rewarding summer without too much drama.

Interviewing new staff can be very entertaining.  Applicants that couldn’t find a pen and thought a mostly illegible pencil would work are weeded out.  All are swim tested to eliminate candidates that can’t actually swim. Finally we all find ourselves across a table from a slightly nervous young person.  Desperate to sound enthusiastic and hirable most potential lifeguards answer this question the same way.  When asked “Why do you want to be a lifeguard?”  The answer is always two parts; “I like being around the water, and I love kids”.

Instead of moving into the specifics of training and hiring I really want to stop the process right there, and give this young person a hint at the reality of the job they are hoping to get.  Not only will they spend the summer being stressed and nervous at work, they will probably never again relax by a body of water.  They will forever be vigilant and watchful, sometimes without even knowing why.  On a cruise ship last Christmas I found myself scanning the 6 by 8 foot pool, a habit reinforced when I fished out a three year old whose family was busy at the bar.  Going to the beach will never be relaxing and fun, the waves, tides and murkiness make the possibility of someone slipping under and disappearing all too real.  And children?  They go from adorable little things splashing gleefully to tiny monsters desperately trying to drown, wandering into areas they cannot be while their parents binge watch something from the sidelines.  Diving into shallow water, breath holding competitions and our ever present call of “Walk!” will be what lifeguards remember from their summer job.

And yet, they will hopefully spend the summer knowing they made a difference, that the children were safer because they were there, that every reaching assist they did or lifejacket they fitted on a child saved a life.  Children will always be safer around them, they will always remember how quickly and quietly things can go badly at a pool.  Infant CPR will be the same whether they are on duty or a parent five years later.  Maybe that’s the message that I should make sure they get, along with welcome to the team.

Be A Champion!

by Todd Brown

Site Operations Manager, Resource Management Division

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Northern Service Area 2016 Chair

A champion is a leader, and the Northern Service Area is seeking them.  VRPS provides wonderful services that benefit us as Recreation and Park professionals. VRPS is our best resource to share ideas, benchmark progress among our neighbors, and develop profitable working relationships. The strange thing is that, to some agencies and among many folks, it remains a secret. Why?  I think it is because there needs to be more participation. Once you are involved in a service group or resource group, attend a conference or workshop, and simply converse with other professionals, your eyes open to the benefits of VRPS.  I can honestly say that when I got involved in the NSA, I feel my professional career began moving at a higher level.

Todd Brown, 2016 NSA Chair

The Northern Service Area has developed positions called NSA Champions. They are liaisons among the NSA, VRPS and their agency. They are promoters, communicators and supporters. Mostly, they are leaders.  What is their responsibility?  Very simply, they serve as their agency’s representative to NSA. Each Champion reaches out to their agency’s leadership and ask for news, updates, events, and accomplishments to share with the other agencies in VRPS at the NSA meetings. The Champions also relay NSA and VRPS information back to their agencies.

A Champion is a name and a face through which the NSA can communicate to every agency in the service area. The Champion is a critical part of the service area’s leadership, serving as the contact person to transfer information to his or her agency. That information can be distributed in many ways. The Champion does not have to attend every meeting or event. We realize that plates are full and want to accommodate our Champions’ schedule as much as possible.    Each agency needs to be aware of and participate in all of the wonderful things that the NSA and VRPS provide towards developing us as professionals. It is a benefit to us and a responsibility of each agency.

On behalf of the Northern Service Area of VRPS, I ask for your assistance to help NSA reach its strategic goal of increasing membership and participation.  If you are a VRPS member and want to be a NSA Champion, please let your agency director and the NSA know. If you are that agency director, name your next leader and NSA Champion. The goal is for every park agency in the Northern Service Area to be represented and participate.  Please promote NSA participation to your workforce and be a “NSA Champion.” If you need more information, please contact Membership Committee Chair Todd Brown, Fairfax County Park Authority, at 703-324-8676 or todd.brown@fairfaxcounty.gov. 

Notes from the Lifeguard Chair

by Sandy Kellogg

Aquatic Operations Supervisor, Mount Vernon RECenter

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Aquatics Resource Group 2016 Chair

VRPS 2016 Awards Co-Chair

Funny how things look different angles. I spent three years every weekday morning eight feet above a pool deck, watching early patrons swimming back and forth. By midmorning they would switch to older women doing water aerobics, the music taking me back to things my father played on Saturday mornings while Mom was getting groceries. Lunchtime saw the beginning of private lessons, swim instructors coaxing small children into the water while moms or nannies sat nearby. By one-thirty the pool had quieted down again, only a few dedicated retirees with their routines, and it was time for me to go home.

The years I spent on chair were followed by years of management; hiring, training and staffing an aquatic facility. Every once in a while I end up back up there - some crisis with a staff member, unexpected group, or maybe just to reward a lifeguard with an early lunch. When I do, I remember why it is both the hardest and the most boring job we could ever hope to have. At any given second, there is a chance of catastrophe. A guard cannot be ready for disaster without being aware of every pause a swimmer takes, every time a child wanders deeper than they have been before, or a patron that just doesn’t seem like them-self that day. And yet every morning, every shift, every sit, day after day, very little happens.

Mount Vernon RECenter, Fairfax County Park Authority

I have seen a lot of crazy things from up there. After my time as a lifeguard I have taught, demonstrated and explained to a lot of lifeguards what we do and more importantly why we do it. I hope that every minute of every day that my staff is looking at our facility from that angle they remember why they are there, and why they matter.

Time Traveller

by Todd Brown

Site Operations Manager, Resource Management Division

Fairfax County Park Authority

VRPS Northern Service Area 2016 Chair

Barb Ziman travels through time. Actually the truth be told, she makes it possible for others to travel back in time and see what life was like during different historic periods.  As the Special Event Coordinator with the Resource Management Division at the Fairfax County Park Authority, Barb has organized, coordinated, implemented, evaluated (and whatever other verb you want to throw in) over a hundred special events. From antique car shows to civil war reenactments. From fairs to festivals. From quilt shows to Pirate Fest. She also was part of an event at the Lorton Prison that included one-time only wagon ride tours of the maximum security prison and grounds.

Of course, each event comes with its successes and failures and a great story.  She has dealt with angry quilters asking how to show their masterpieces a day after a hurricane came through the park. She has had Civil War reenactors on horseback dodging ruts in the grounds where the car show took place weeks prior. She has smiled and calmed angry parents that felt their kid got the short end of the program stick. She had to relight candles and campfires during rain/snow showers the night of Sully’s Candlelight Tours, all while in period costume.  Her 20 years of special event experience has provided many special memories for the FCPA and the public.

Barb created success.  Barb’s special events have generated hundreds of thousands of park visitors and special event participants. They have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in park revenue. Many of her special events have been continuing for decades. New special events are still being created by the area three inches above her contagious smile.  Barb knows the tricks of the trade, what works and what certainly does not, and how to keep your horror stories to a minimum.

Barb Ziman, Fairfax County Park Authority

The Northern Service Area has asked Barb to provide a workshop this spring called “Special Events from Soup to Nuts” on Thursday, May 19^th from  1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, VA.  This is the last time we can get a chance to learn from Barb’s knowledge and experience as she is retiring in July.  Please visit the VRPS website to register for this workshop. Earlier that same day, the NSA is offering a workshop on "Scout Programming:  Planning and Filling" taught by Tammy Schwab with the FCPA. You may not travel back in time, but you will be better prepared for your future programs and events.