Well, I resigned from the YWCA and wrote a 2-page letter to the CEO Luz Maria
Frias, explaining exactly why my wife and I were quitting after nearly 20 years
at that facility. I sent the letter three weeks ago, but have received no
reply to date.
In the meantime, we have joined the YMCA at Midtown, which provides exactly the
same benefits as the YWCA, plus $5 per month membership fee, but minus the $15
per month parking fee. So far, I have found the place absolutely wonderful --
friendly and efficient staff, beautiful facilities, interesting fellow members,
and free parking! I could go on at length concerning the foresight in
planning, from full-length lockers to tiled floors that do not mold, and so on.
They are also generous in applying guest passes for my grandchildren, so that
is also a huge savings.
Below I have copied the letter I sent, with parts that might be considered
confidential or private blacked out.
Hope to see many of you at the Midtown YMCA in the next few months, when the
extent of the hubris at the YW sinks in. My former fellow YW members are the
ONLY this I miss; many of you had become good friends over the years.
Charley Underwood, Longfellow/Howe
Charles Underwood
(Address redacted)
Minneapolis, MN 55406
November 16, 2018
Ms. Luz Maria Frias
Y.W.C.A. of Minneapolis
1130 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Dear Ms. Frias:
On November 5 I resigned my membership from the YWCA, effective immediately.
Since I have been a member for nearly two decades (shortly after the Midtown
YWCA opened), I believe I owe you some explanation. Like other members
recently, I was very unhappy with the new pay parking situation. This,
however, was merely the last irritation in a fairly long list. Let me describe
this chain of events to you.
The first situation that bothered me occurred many years ago, when the public
notice bulletin board near the locker room was removed, to be replaced by a
locked and censored board off the lobby and not easily visible to members as
they came and went. I had previously used the bulletin board to post various
community events, which I often observed other members reading as the left the
locker room. Why, I wondered, did the Y management no longer trust members to
post their own notices? What had been the problem with the previous community
expression that had once been so available?
The second situation that troubled me was when (name redacted) was forced out
as night building manager. What I understood then, and what I understand now,
was that (name redacted) was a full-time employee who therefore qualified for
health insurance. So it was a money-saving decision as I understand. What I
had seen during the frequent evenings when I came to the Y was that (name
redacted) had a firm but non-confrontational style. He was extremely likely to
get compliance but without escalating the situation. What I learned at the
time was that (detail of personal situation redacted). In that light, the
decision to force (gender redacted) to find a different job seemed cruel, as
well as disadvantageous for the smooth functioning of the Y.
The third situation that troubled me was with (name redacted), one of the
part-timers who often assumed the evening duties that (name redacted) had been
relieved of. As I understand it, one night (name redacted) had a situation
where (gender redacted) had to ask a guest to leave. Unfortunately, the guest
waited just outside the Y for (gender redacted) at closing time and beat the
crap out of (gender redacted). To my knowledge, no legal or even
administrative action was ever taken against the person who beat (gender
redacted). (Name redacted) resigned immediately and has not been back to the Y
since that evening, in spite of the signage so prominently displayed around the
facilities that proclaim a zero tolerance for violence or even cultural
sensitivity.
There were many lesser situations that bothered me over the years. Multiple
signs used to declare that the lockers were not for overnight use, but I
noticed that often locks remained for weeks on certain lockers without being
removed, a situation I saw often when I was the last one to leave the locker
room at closing time. There are also many signs urging members not to use cell
phones capable of taking pictures, but I have never seen someone asked to put
their cell phone away, unless I was the one doing the asking.
There were many decisions made over the years that seemed more expensive
gestures toward the culture of a private health club rather than a community
facility, like the decision to spend large amounts of money on signage and
television monitors, but the pitiful unchanged salaries of the common employees
who worked at the Y. (When there were so few lifeguards that coverage in the
evening was eliminated, in spite of the many adult novice swimmers, I wondered
if this was not actually an employment plan for tort lawyers who would
eventually sue the Y when someone died.)
Every time there seemed to be a problem, rather than enforcing existing rules,
the decision always made to create yet another rule. For example, rather than
monitor a time limit for children in the hot tub, they were simply banned. And
when that solution seemed unsuccessful, rather than gently reminding children
of the rule, all children were simply banned during long hours in the evening.
(At that point, I sarcastically suggested that the Y be replaced in the name
YWCA, in order to better represent the Old People’s Christian Organization.)
A more recent and fourth major fiasco, in my opinion, was the remodel.
Personally, I did not feel it was necessary at all. It would have been
sufficient to merely have someone order a small number of hooks to replace
those that had fallen off and become lost, then ask a maintenance person to
screw them in. Then, the planning was absolutely ridiculous, asking swimmers
to change on the opposite end of the field house, forcing them to do a virtual
perp walk in their wet swim suits through the basketball and soccer players.
Again, the details of planning seemed to serve image much more than function.
The new carpet looks elegant, but how useful will it be in a year or two when
it gets moldy. The new showers are nice and private, but there is no place
near them to leave glasses or a towel, much less any automatic shut-off which
might save water in showers left running. The new half-height lockers
themselves are actually less functional that the longer ones they replaced,
which you will discover this winter when people have both coats and boots to
store, but not enough vertical room to accommodate them both. Again, this
entire remodel seemed to be an attempt to emulate LifeTime Fitness, rather than
a place which actually reflects the needs of the community it supposedly
serves.
Last, there was the parking situation. For two years, I have faithfully hung
that little plastic marker from my rear-view mirror, but I have never in all my
visits to the Y seen someone posting a parking warning, and certainly I have
never seen a car towed. Again, rather than enforcing the rule you made, you
simply made another one by charging members to park and spending some $200,000
for gates and pay stations. This really makes no sense; it does not prohibit
non-members from using the lot in any way, but merely adds an additional $180
per year to what members must pay. And, of course, you did all this without
consulting the members in any way, instead informing them in August of their
fate and expelling two members when they circulated a petition asking for a
community meeting. (Yes, I know you have asked to meet with those wronged
members privately, but you have still not agreed to a meeting of the community
which we are all supposedly part of.)
Enough is enough. I did not choose to join LifeTime Fitness or Baileys or some
other club. I chose to join the YWCA. But you have increasingly become an
organization that ignores the community in some vain hope, apparently, of
appealing to a more elite clientele. So I resigned and am joining a different
organization that I hope will have a more competent and more democratic
management style. I wish you well, but I predict this will not turn out as you
plan. Rather I believe that you will have lost members with these decisions
and will begin a downward spiral that will only be corrected when you begin to
make different decisions and in a different and less autocratic way.