For the second time in a week, Frank P. Phillips YMCA Director Andy Boyd met with members of the New Hope YMCA to answer questions and listen to solutions about the impending closure of the facility.
“I’m not here to make any promises,” Boyd told the gathering of about 40 members. “I’m just the messenger. I work for a board of directors and let me be clear on this point: The decision (to close the facility) has been made. Is there a possibility they might change their minds? I can’t speak for them. But what I do know is you have to give me something to take back to them. I’m here to find a solution.”
The audience, made up primarily of retirement age members, said closing the Y would have a severe negative impact on the community and offered suggestions that might help convince the 27-member board to delay closing the facility, which is set for Aug. 31.
Erica Gruseck, who has emerged as an unofficial leader of the grass-roots group to save the New Hope Y, said two things were necessary to keep the facility open.
“First, we have to raise some money now, something the board will recognize as a good faith effort on our part,” she said. “Second, we’ve got to bring in new members. We need 83 members to make up the shortfall in the budget. We have 300 memberships. If every one of us made a commitment to bring in one new member, that would be something we can do. It’s realistic, even for a small community.”
Boyd said some fund-raising efforts had already started after his first meeting with members last week, noting that eight members had combined to raise approximately $2,000. By the end of Tuesday evening’s meeting Gruseck had collected another nine donations.
While those efforts are laudable, Boyd said it is unlikely the annual deficit of about $50,000 could be made up through donations alone.
“I checked and the average Y in the Southeast gets 7.5 percent of their operating funds through donations,” Boyd said. “Here, we’re doing 15 percent. So we’re doing better than the average and we still have this situation. Look, if each of the 300 memberships made a commitment of $10 per month we could cover that. But you and I both know that’s not going to happen.”
Boyd said for the Y to cover expenses, increasing membership is the most obvious solution. He noted that the trend in not encouraging.
“Membership here is down about 25 percent from five years ago,” he said.
While Gruseck said she is confident a concerted effort to raise funds and increase memberships could make the Y financially viable.
“I do believe it can be done,” she said. “But it’s up to us, the members. If we want our Y to survive, we are the ones who are going to have to breath new life into it.”
Members have organized a “Save the New Hope Y” Facebook page where donations can be made.
“What we’re trying to do is to buy some time,” Gruseck said.
Boyd said he has no idea if the board will reconsider the issue.
The board’s next meeting is Aug. 22, but Boyd said he plans to ask for a special call meeting before then to present the suggestions he has heard from members over the past two weeks.
“Nobody wants this Y to close,” Boyd said. “I don’t and nobody on the board wants it to close. But it comes down to economics. We have to prove it can work financially. There’s no other option.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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