January 3, 2025

Dear Y community, 

I hope that you had a lovely holiday season and that 2025 is a year filled with hope and new adventures for you! The year 2024 will certainly be remembered by the Y community as a special year. During its first 12 months of service, the new Y had over 725,000 visits; in comparison, during its final 12 months of service, the previous Y had roughly 225,000 visits! As of year-end, the new Y had around 18,500 members; in comparison, on its final day of operation, the old Y had about 6,100 members. 

It is inspiring to see so many people connecting with the Y and making it a meaningful part of their lives. 

At the Y, we feel a keen sense of responsibility to help our members feel heard, valued and respected. We understand that, as an organization, we are strongest when our members feel a sense of stewardship in helping their communities’ YMCA achieve its goals of mentoring youth, fostering friendships, strengthening health, expanding partnerships and building communities. 
 
Thank you for the thoughtful notes and comments that you have shared over the past several months. I want to take a moment and speak to a few significant updates at the Y (both at the Don Stathos Campus and at the Tennis Center). There is a lot going on at the Y and the details associated with these changes take some time to convey; thanks for your patience on yet another lengthy update from me! 

Expanded hours at our new Y (a.k.a. the Don Stathos Campus) 
On Friday, Dec. 27, I sent out a note regarding our expanded hours at our Don Stathos Campus. We are excited to be providing more services via these expanded hours. 

Renaming of the Tennis Center 
Since your Y has grown to multiple locations, we needed to create two distinct ‘branches’ of the Eugene Family YMCA with YMCA of the USA. Formally, we are still one entity, known as the “Eugene Family YMCA” with two branches:  

  • The “Don Stathos Campus” (our newest Y) 
  • The “Patterson Campus” (the location many simply have called the Tennis Center) 

On the exterior of the Patterson Campus, we will be placing a new Y logo denoting it as the Y’s Patterson Campus – Tennis & Pickleball Center. 

Patterson Campus — Tennis & Pickleball Center Closure 
The Y’s Patterson Campus will be closed Jan. 20 through Jan. 24. During this closure we will make repairs to the bathroom ceilings in preparation for a broader update to the bathrooms once supplies arrive. Additionally, all remaining non-functional lights will be replaced, and the courts will be washed.  

Expanded Hours for Tennis Players 
Starting Feb. 1, the Patterson Campus will open at 7 a.m. Monday to Saturday (currently it does not open until 8 or 8:15 on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays, and Saturdays). It will continue to open at 8:15 a.m. on Sundays. This expansion will add 16 reservable court times each week. 

Elevated Member Service at the Patterson Campus’ Welcome Center 
Beginning Feb. 1, the Patterson Campus’ Welcome Center will be staffed at all hours the Campus is open. 

Expanded Hours for Pickleball Players  
In the mid-1970s, our local communities came together to fundraise for the creation of a tennis center for the Y; opening it in 1977. We are proud of our connection to the tennis community and recognize its historical importance with our Y. We also acknowledge our Y’s nearly 138-year legacy of adjusting our services to meet emerging needs and responding to evolving community requests.

As pickleball has skyrocketed in popularity, our Y has sought to layer pickleball programming into our services while also supporting other program needs in our gymnasium and with an eye toward protecting the interests of tennis players. That is why we have always restricted so much of the current schedule for tennis programs and services. Acknowledging all of this, it is clear pickleball is one of the most robust tools that hundreds of our members use to strengthen their mental, social and physical health; the Y must find a way to help support these needs at a more impactful level.  
 
Beginning Feb. 1, the Patterson Campus will remain open until 10:30 p.m. seven nights per week. Currently, it closes at the following times: Sundays 8:30 p.m., Mondays 9:15 p.m., Tuesdays 10:30 p.m., Wednesdays 9:15 p.m., Thursdays 10:30 p.m., Fridays 6:45 p.m., and Saturdays 5:15 p.m. Each additional hour beyond the current closing times will be set aside solely for pickleball programming. 
 
Additionally, during our closure from Jan. 20 to 24, the courts will be updated to add 8 additional pickleball courts (creating a total of 12 indoor pickleball courts at our Patterson Campus). This will provide for up to 48 pickleball players at one time and create a sweeping increase in the Y’s ability to expand our pickleball programs. 
 
It is critical that our Y’s tennis and pickleball players know and understand that we hear their feedback regarding how difficult it is to get court time. We see this first-hand as we look at the metrics regarding how quickly reservation times are taken.  

This insight is regularly discussed by the Y’s senior staff leaders and our board members. It directly informs discussions relative to our Y’s near-term capital campaign plans and goals. The reality is that 4 indoor courts for tennis and 12 indoor courts for pickleball cannot meet the profound level of demand for these two sports. We hope that by adding an additional 20 hours of programming at the Patterson Campus, and by adding an additional 8 indoor pickleball courts, we can make some small progress on this front. However, to truly move the needle will take an expansion of indoor courts in a more robust way. We could not materially explore these topics while also completing the Y’s Don Stathos Campus’ capital campaign and while the old Y still stood. However, our attention is now able to be on this topic, as well as other capital expansion topics, at a more elevated level. Please stay tuned for future updates on these topics.  
 
Importantly, because all of this pickleball expansion is taking place at the Y’s Patterson Campus, and due to the fact that nearly 90 percent of all Y pickleball programming will be at that Campus, beginning on Feb. 1, members who play pickleball will need to pay an additional “tennis and pickleball” fee, just as our tennis members currently pay. This fee will apply whether folks are interested in playing pickleball at either of our Campuses. This ‘add-on’ fee will match the current tennis add-on fee. For different membership types, these monthly fees are as follows:  

  • Youth: $17 
  • Young Adults: $22 
  • Adults: $27 
  • Seniors: $27 
  • Young Adult Couples: $44 
  • Adult Couples: $54 
  • Senior Couples: $54 
  • 1-Adult Families: $27 
  • 2-Adult Families: $54 

Financial assistance is available to eliminate barriers to membership. 
 
If a household is already paying the tennis add-on fee there will be no additional fee if they are also pickleball players at the Y. 

Sauna Repairs
The new Y’s sauna has experienced significant water damage requiring gutting and rebuilding. To ensure that the sauna remains useable for years to come: 

  • Sauna users must sit on towels. The Y will provide clean towels on a rack within the sauna. 
  • After using the pools or showers, sauna users must dry off before entering sauna. 
  • Sauna users must not dump water on themselves in the sauna. 
  • Ventilation grates must be left open so airflow can help promote the drying out of the sauna. 
  • Lights must not be covered. 
  • Lifeguards will be regularly checking that the sauna is being used in accordance with our guidelines. 
  • Janitorial staff will use specialized equipment each night to clean the sauna, which will be evaluated to keep the sauna operational. 

Swimsuit Dryers
Swimsuit dryers will be installed in all of the locker rooms. The dryers are at the Y and we are simply waiting for the electrician to complete their portion of the work. We anticipate these being installed by the end of February. 

Additional Health & Wellness Equipment 
In the very near future, we will be placing an order for additional pieces of Health & Wellness equipment to address wait times for our most in-demand pieces.
 
These pieces include:

  • A second Hip Ab/Adductor 
  • A second Chest and Reverse Fly  
  • A Seated Row from Matrix  
  • We are also looking into new Functional Cable systems that can be combined into one footprint replacing one of the stand-alone cable pieces.  
  • A third hydromassage chair. We have witnessed very high interest in the recovery suite’s hydromassage and cryotherapy chairs; lines regularly form for the hydromassage chairs. 

Cleanliness of the Y 
Having a clean facility is a top priority and as such we do daily and weekly inspections. Starting Feb. 1, we will:  

  • Purchase additional specialized pieces of cleaning equipment (primarily with a goal of more deeply cleaning floors) 
  • Increase the number of day porter cleaning hours 
  • Increase the number of night porter cleaning hours 
  • Add a night supervisor who helps ensure that the critical deep cleaning tasks are taking place throughout the night 
  • The Y’s cleaning contract is over $500,000 annually. However, no level of investment in this area would ever be enough to overcome the level of usage that high-traffic spaces receive. That is why it is so critical that each of us pick up after ourselves, such as throwing used paper towels in trash receptacles, not discarding trash, gum or nicotine pouches in the parking lot, and placing used towels in towel bins. If you come across an area that doesn’t meet your cleanliness standards, please share that information.  

Locks for the Lockers
We have experienced a rash of locks that are failing. We have inspected each lock within the facility and provided a request for warranty replacements with our vendor. We are awaiting this order and will be replacing any malfunctioning lock in the near future. 

Coffee, Tea, and Hot Chocolate 
We love the sense of community that is fostered as Y members meet up in our lobby for a cup of coffee and the chance to foster friendship. In support of these relationship-building aspects of our Y, we regularly go through several gallons of coffee per hour. The Y’s current commercial-grade coffee equipment has been unable to keep up with demand, so we recently purchased larger pieces of equipment and installed 220-volt power in our Camas Teaching Kitchen. These updates will allow us to increase our coffee production from 7.5 gallons per hour up to 15-20 gallons per hour; this will also help us heat water for tea and hot chocolate more quickly.   

Parking at the Don Stathos Campus 
We are so grateful for the groundswell of interest in the new Y. As noted in some of my previous updates, this high interest has also made parking challenging at peak times. To address this, we are both implementing, and exploring, a few solutions: 
 
Implementing

  • Beginning Feb. 1, our landscapers will no longer be allowed to work at our Y during our busiest hours (M-F 8 a.m. to noon or 4 to 7 p.m.).  
  • When they are currently working at the Y, it is taking up 6-7 parking spaces during peak times. 
  • We have executed a parking agreement with Very Little Theatre for 25 full-time Y employees to park at VLT. Importantly, this is only for designated full-time Y employees (we must supply VLT with a list of each person authorized to park on their property). 
  • The goal with this agreement is to free up 25 parking spaces for Y members. 
  • We are encouraging members to use alternative transportation to get to the Y through transportation options fairs in our lobby, including an upcoming one that helps those 65+ get their free Honored Bus Passes. 

Exploring

  • We are visiting with our architects about the potential of designing more covered bike parking spaces. 
  • We are evaluating an app that will allow staff to track their commute to work at the Y, which could offer incentives for staff who use alternative transportation methods. 

The Y’s App 
Please know we share your frustration and concern with our app. Because the current app developer is not able to materially address our needs, we have been exploring new apps for several months, including some that seem hopeful. The analysis and changeover will take time; however, our goal is to have this fully in place sometime before summer. 

Adjusting/Expanding Group Fitness Classes
We continue to monitor our group fitness classes to identify classes to expand, reduce or remove. The expansion of some of our quickest-to-fill classes requires training of additional instructors. We are laying the groundwork for this. Even before new training, we will have added 20 new classes between December and January. New options include Boot Camp for Runners, Cycle and Sculpt and more times for popular classes like Body Pump and Chair Fitness.   

Adding/Changing/Modifying the Schedule for the Gym or the Aquatics Center
It is very common for us to receive suggestions to either add, change or modify the schedule in the gym and aquatics center. We often receive competing requests in the same day to remove or reduce activities that others are also writing in to advocate that we increase and expand. Please know we review all requests and regularly monitor the specific demands regarding classes, pieces of equipment and various spaces. We have designated teams who review this information regularly and are striving to weigh the competing interests and demands in ways that achieve the most impactful results.  

Television Schedules
We know that there is a shared cultural experience associated with watching various events on TV. We also know that many people come to the Y to escape electronic communication and to feel a bit separated from media content. For these reasons we try and walk a fine line between external programs and the Y’s internal messages on the TVs.  Let me explain our process.  
 
We have a team of Y employees who visit weekly to look at the next week’s program schedule of major events. 
 
They use this lens: 
  • We never show the news channels. 
  • We strive to be inclusive by playing sports programs with athletes of various genders and various backgrounds, such as showing both the Olympics and the Paralympics.  
  • We prioritize Duck games. 
  • If the Ducks are not playing at the same time, we prioritize Beaver games. 
  • If the Ducks and Beavers are not playing, we prioritize the Big 10 games. 
  • We prioritize the most in-demand and/or important large-scale sporting or cultural events, such as the World Series or the Oscars. 
  • Please note that not all of the TVs in our Y are wired to broadcast the programming mentioned above. In general, the TV programming refers to the 2 biggest screens in the PeaceHealth Wellness Center (in front of the cardio equipment) and the lobby and Kalapuya Community Room. 

Facility Usage Patterns
Following my last update to members, I received several notes of appreciation for the table listing the busiest times at the Y. We will regularly share these tables with our members. Below are the usage patterns for the first three weeks of December. If you have a flexible schedule, please try to visit the Y during non-peak hours. 

At the Y, 2025 is set to be a remarkable year as we focus on our recently adopted strategic plan! We will be focused on elevating our impact through an expansion of Y programs and services in the communities we serve. Additionally, we are focused on increasing our partnerships and collaborations to more effectively help our communities address their critical educational, health and social needs.  
 
On April 22, 2025, your Y will celebrate its 138th birthday! Since 1887, the Y has been an ever-evolving hub of innovation, collaboration and determination as we have sought to address the unique needs our communities faced during a wide range of societal changes and challenges. Thank you for helping steward your Y as an important and engaged member during such an exciting era of growth and innovation. 
 
Onward! 

 

 

Brian Steffen
CEO
Eugene Family YMCA

January 3, 2025