Behind the Scenes: March ‘24
March gets all the perks doesn’t it? – ever improving weather, Easter, and then the little boost of the clocks pulling us an hour forward into Spring-proper right at the end of the month. Forward momentum has been felt at Atlantis too with another busy month of action. Read on to find out what’s been happening at your community-run leisure centre as March marches on:
Centre Life – ‘the pong is gone!’
Maintenance needs maintaining! – Atlantis work through a list of jobs around the Centre each year, we call this ‘planned maintenance’. Scheduling the various jobs through the year helps us to spend responsibly, keep the centre smart and all in a way that allows us to cope with those ‘unplanned’ maintenance items that come along from time to time. One rather unpleasant example of has been a foul smell that has lingered around the building over the last while. It was a great relief to all (not least our noses) when we traced the cause with the help of D&K Lafferty and Scottish Water – sorting out the issue and restoring the Atlantis air to a much more familiar pleasant aroma! Huge thanks to you all for patiently understanding as we worked towards the fix.
Back to ‘planned’ maintenance – recent jobs getting underway have included much-needed works to the dry-side changing area. We’re replacing the wet wall in the ladies shower area as well as giving it a lick of paint and freshen up while we’re there. Elsewhere in the Centre, we’ve added a new Klix vending machine so that after-hours hot drinks are available when Beth and the Café Atlantis team finish up for the day. We’ve also purchased a new pool inflatable! This was an important example of the community working together, with both Otters and Lifesavers contributing £500 each to the purchase cost – huge thanks to the committees of both groups for their donations.
Staff News – ‘the team behind the action’
We were delighted to welcome three new members of staff to the team this month! Aimee Didcock, Mia Mason and Eva MacColl all hit the ground running with their lifeguard training, having already passed their Royal Life Saving Society NPLQ in February. Our three new teammates are already part of the gang having all volunteered at Atlantis previously. Welcome to the gang folks!
Activities Programme – ‘feel that ‘Atlantis buzz’’
It was a very warm welcome back to Dance at Atlantis this month as we held the first classes since our return from COVID. The classes are being run in partnership with Oban High School, whose Higher Dance students are offering free classes to primary school pupils. The classes run over a 4-week period and include styles that range between Commercial Dance, Hip Hop, Modern Dance, Jazz and Highlands Style.
This month we also launched a two-week trial of Toddler Football. The trial went really well and looks set to become a permanent class after a first week's attendance of 27! The class is a loosely structured play for under 3s.
Funding – ‘money talks’
Did you know that Atlantis is a charity? – we’re entirely community-run and, as a charity, we’re led by a group of volunteer trustees who all give of their time and knowledge for free. As a charity, each year’s funding is an ever-present concern and something we’ve worked hard on over the last number of years. We’ve sought to build systems and approaches that allow Atlantis to look to the future, rather than worrying about one year to the next. A big part of these BTS articles is helping you as the community get to know what we do, why we do it and how we go about doing it. When it comes to funding, we have a dedicated funding subgroup who report into and are accountable to our board of trustees. This also means they work closely with the finance and accounting team to make sure everything is properly taken care of. The funding group is primarily concerned with building capacity for Atlantis. This means they work with projects that secure a future for the charity – sometimes looking 3 or 5 years ahead at a time. Prioritising this kind of strategic approach to how we apply for and manage funding has enabled us to grow in confidence as we continue to develop Atlantis to meet our community’s needs in the most dynamic, interesting and relevant ways.