Boulder Aquatic Masters

BAM Holiday Party - How did they do that?

Larry — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:21:51 +0000

The BAM holiday party ended up catching many members by surprise in a positive sort of way. There have been a few inquiries about how BAM was able to have a party for 150 people with free drinks and sushi yet there was no charge to the attendees. In case you were wondering here is a little behind the scenes information.

It would be nice to chalk it up to a handful of magic dust from St. Nick; unfortunately this was not the case. There was a lot of hard work and a little arm twisting on the part of our social committee team: Dianne Gleason, Scott Burrow (above), and Christina Tangora Schlachter.

This threesome worked hard enough to put some of Santa’s elves to shame. Each one called in favors from their extensive list of contacts and procured the refreshments and appetizers for free or at cost. A swift drive by Costco filled in the little details needed to give the party some polish without breaking the bank. Finally, the swanky downtown location was provided courtesy of Dianne Gleason’s business Enfuego Strategic Communications so again this was at no cost to BAM.

It was good to see such an enthusiastic turnout for the event*. The next one is already being talked about. We hope you were able to make it. If not, please plan on attending the next event. It is a good chance to actually talk to people with their clothes on!

We also hope you consider supporting those businesses that helped make the event a reality:

The Registry Office Suites & Helix Property Management for the location
Sushi Zanmai/Sushi Spot both downtown and on the Hill - Sushi appetizers and chef Joe Simonet
Jamie Markin & Buttercream Bakery - provided desserts
Miller/Coors & Alaskan Brewing Company - the main keg was Alaskan Amber
Wine Source of Colorado and their donation of select wines

Tell them you’re from BAM and you appreciate their business.

*apologies for the acoustics, attendance was nearly double what was expected - which was awesome!

2010 Membership Drive

Larry — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:04:03 +0000

New Year

• 2009 Review

• 2010 Details

2009 was a great year and BAM is proud of what we accomplished:

- Membership numbers have improved to some of the best that they have been in several years
- A new web site was launched with some enhanced features. (More improvements are on the way)
- We had another successful season of open water swimming, and added a second Bare Bones race
- BAM members made generous donations to our community, including donations to a couple of BAM families in need
- Several popular social events were sponsored, revitalizing BAM’s historical party reputation
+ Tons of quality workouts, clinics, and technique training throughout the year

Did you maximize your membership in 2009? If not, we have all this and more in store for 2010.

The 2010 membership drive runs December 7th through December 28th. For the fourth year in a row, BAM is pleased to offer the same pre-season discount rate of $699. In light of the economic conditions BAM is also offering its own limited economic stimulus package. For more details on this and the various membership offerings please click here

We look forward to having everyone join BAM in 2010 for another great year!

Adopt a Road Update

Larry — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:34:46 +0000

BAM Road Sign

Just a quick update for those that were looking to help clean up Boulder - the stretch of road BAM has adopted recently underwent reconstruction. For this reason, it was cleaned and manicured. Rather than getting a bunch of people out there to fight over the one peice of trash we will hold off on the clean up party until spring.

More information coming early in 2010.

Thanks for your interest.

View Larger Map

BAM Adopts a Road

Larry — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:08:04 +0000

What?

In the last post it was mentioned that BAM has gained some positive momentum and how we are getting out and doing great things in the community. This week’s update shares with you about the latest addition and charge of BAM - A Road.

Most people that have been driving have at one point seen those little signs indicating a certain portion of the road is being tended to by a company or organization. Well, BAM is now responsible for the 2 mile stretch of road on 63rd between Niwot and Nelson roads. The sign is up. Look for it in your travels along 63rd St.

Why?

Good for the community.
Good for the organization.
and we’d be lying if we didn’t say it was good PR and marketing as well.

When?

The first session will occur in a few weeks after we get some of the details worked out. Plan on helping out if you can. We can guarantee to make it a good time! Stay tuned for more information.

Also, thanks to Jane Fetig for the idea, filling out the paperwork and making this happen.

Summer Review

Larry — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:13:19 +0000

Sitting here enduring the turn in the weather gives me the opportunity to reflect on the summer that has just passed. From an organizational standpoint BAM continued to break new ground which we can all be proud of and will all reap the rewards of our efforts. Let me address a few of the achievements that occurred this summer -

Reservoir Swims

Now in their third year, the reservoir swims have turned into a huge hit not only with the BAM swimmers but with the larger swim community. We had nearly 400 swimmers (both member & non-member) visit us out at the Reservoir. Cumulatively, they swam over 2400 hours during our 36 swim series. The ability to swim in an open water environment is unique. Many visitors marvel that we are able to have these swims.

Special thanks to the all-volunteer contingent. Their tireless dedication and willingness to help out make these swims possible. Our guards all have been certified by the Red Cross for lifesaving, first aid, and open water rescue. They are: Jiri Mracek, Stan Benson, Lauren Wenzl, Anna Carvill, Tanya Saarva, Kat Leitzell, James Gray, Melissa Iverson, Larry McKeogh, John Gratz and Carolyn Roche. Know that your safety is their first concern when you swim at the reservoir. Course setup and admission was handled by Johan Erasmus, Fiona Garvin and Paul Rapinz.

Talk to any of these volunteers about their experience and consider joining the elite Rez Crew next year. We will need more volunteers.

Bare Bones Swims

In our second year we have expanded to a second Bare Bones swim. The combined swims drew over 300 people out to the reservoir. BAM’s sponsorship of these swims and the cult t-shirts that have resulted are getting us some notoriety. The swims have become some of our best advertising. Again thanks to all the members that have made these swims possible through their volunteer efforts. This cannot be said enough.

Fundraising

A few years ago BAM was in a tough financial situation. The above events and other activities have helped alleviate this enough that we were able to have a fundraiser. A couple of BAM families have been challenged by children with cancer. Given their past participation and support for the BAM organization, now seemed to be the time for BAM to help them out. Three year old, Cullen McReynolds is being aggressively treated at Children’s Hospital. Cullen’s parents Laura McKeever, a BAM coach, and Chip McReynolds met through BAM. Six year old Klaus Heiman, with BAM parents, Tracy and Tim Heiman, have been tackling another rare cancer.

Proceeds from the Bare Bones Swims were pooled with a silent auction that was held as part of the BAM Summerfest. We are very proud to say that BAM will be donating approximately $6,300 to each family to assist with their mounting medical bills. This is a huge turnaround for the BAM organization. It also speaks volumes about the BAM community. During one of the most severe recessions in memory the swim community has pulled together to provide a generous donation to a couple of families in need.

Reading their posts about the highs and lows of the treatments is almost unfathomable for an adult much less two children. The BAM contribution is but a drop in the bucket for what these families are or have faced. For the latest information check out http://www.caringbridge.org and visit cullenmcreynolds or klausdragonheiman. Also, they can use more blood donations. The Children’s Hospital Blood mobile will be at Monarch K-8 on Oct. 29 from 9 - 1. Anyone can donate blood for Cullen.

Looking back on the achievements of the summer I hope that everyone in BAM takes some pride in our organization. We have gathered some very positive momentum and doing great things in our community. The remainder of the year is shaping up to build upon this summer’s success. More on that in future articles though. Stay tuned.

Conversation with Tom Kramer

Larry — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:26:07 +0000

There are a lot of changes occurring within the City Parks and Recreation Department. Some of this is business as usual, some of it is due to the economic conditions of the past year. At the top a new Director of Parks and Recreation, Kirk Kincannon, started on May 11th. The Aquatics and Reservoir position under Stacy Cole was split in April or early May. Reservoir operations continues under Stacy and Aquatics is now under an old timer named Tom Kramer.

I sat down and had a very good chat with Tom yesterday (6/11). As an old timer with over 30 years experience in Parks and Rec, Tom has seen numerous administrations come and go. He has also witnessed BAM from the inception. Tom sees the bigger picture associated with the Rec centers and the part that BAM plays within them. Tom summarized his philosophy about aquatics in three simple statements that I believe would ring true with everyone in the BAM organization which are:

Aquatics has got to be safe
Aquatics has got to be clean
Aquatics has got to be well maintained.

While simple in concept he and his team have been having some issues living up to them this summer. Tom recognizes this and is working with his team to diligently correct the issues and improve the overall quality of the program. He values BAM and the benefit it brings to the system.

We got to talking about the future a little bit as well. Tom would like BAM to help inform the department about the swimmer’s needs. The current economic conditions make it hard to say for sure what the future will hold but with honest conversations between BAM and the City Parks & Recreation Department we can ensure it meets all our patron’s needs.

How do you view the City’s aquatic services? Are there areas you would like to see improved? Are you generally happy swimming at City facilities? Let me hear your opinion.

BAM Board Meeting - June 2009

Larry — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:31:44 +0000

For those that are not aware, the BAM Board meets each month on the first Wednesday of the month. There are occasional variations due to member schedules but it has been pretty consistent.

This month’s meeting is at Larry McKeogh’s house. If you are interested in attending he can send you directions by e-mailing him.

The June agenda is below.

AGENDA

June 3rd, 2009 Meeting, 6:30 pm

1. City/Workouts Update (Larry/Jane):

- Workout schedule updates: monitoring attendance at all workouts…

- Boat registration update (reservoir)

- Reservoir update: swim series (Jane), lifeguards (Larry)

2. Treasurer’s Update (Paul)

3. Manager’s Report (Hermine)

- Summer memberships

- Non-member punch card - # purchased

4. Committee Reports

Competition:

- Bare Bones sub-committee update: budget, t-shirts, publicity, registration, volunteers, flyers, food

Marketing:

Membership Committee:

5. New Business:

6. Old Business

- Letterhead update (Fiona)

- Adopt-a-Road program (Jane F)

7. Next meeting:

If there is a topic you would like to see raised or addressed by the Board or a comment you would like to make, please make a comment below.

Also note, the Board’s annual election occurs in July. If you are interested in assisting or being a board member e-mail Jane or Larry. We can use all the assistance we can get.

Thanks!

PRAB Report - May 2009

Larry — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:15:05 +0000

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) meeting was held this past week. In order to stay in tune with what the Parks and Recreation Department sees as their top issues as well as what the Advisory Board is seeing and hearing from the public I have attended some portion of these meetings. My presence along with Todd Bryan’s membership on the board helps to keep the BAM interests in the front of Department and Board members minds.

Scott Carpenter Pool

I had gone to this week’s meeting specifically to introduce BAM to the new Parks & Recreation Department director and new PRAB members which were seated in April. Unfortunately, the new director, Kirk Kincannon, and a new PRAB member, Marcelee Gralapp were not in attendance. So rather than reiterating what many in the room currently knew, I held off the BAM introduction until the June meeting.

I did want to report that there was an interesting discussion between the PRAB and Sadra Llanes of the City Attorney’s office on the Roles and Authority of PRAB. In short, PRAB has limited authority to raise issues from the public unless directed by City Council. This is an unfortunate interpretation that has been existence since the PRAB creation circa 1960’s. Unfortunate since several groups like BAM, AquaTeens, Boulder Swimming or Boulder Rowing Club have come to PRAB to request assistance with City Parks and Recreation issues. PRAB in turn has had to instruct these user groups to gain the attention of City Council and request for a PRAB recommendation.

This is a relatively mundane detail until a group’s user fees are increased or their practice time becomes limited. Such was the case for my initial attendance at the PRAB meetings back in 2006. BAM’s user fees were being increased by an extraordinary amount. Over time the amounts were moderated a bit. Additionally, the allowance for the all BAM volunteer open water swims at the Reservoir which have provided an additional revenue source. Fee reductions at Scott Carpenter and the open water swims have offset the traditionally higher summer expenses enabling BAM to maintain our user membership rates flat for the past three years.

2010 may be a different story in terms of user fees since the City is feeling the economic pinch. A couple of public budget meetings have been held to discuss areas for cutbacks. I am taking a wait and see approach to what this will mean for our 2010 rates and facility availability. I will keep everyone informed as more is learned.

What’s this Twitter thing?

Larry — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:03:32 +0000

Twitter

I am sure that you have heard about this thing called Twitter. Now you open up the new BAM web site only to find BAM has jumped on the bandwagon with Demi Moore, Ashton Kutchner and Oprah! What is this organization coming to?

In a nutshell, Twitter is a one to many messaging service. “Followers” receive updates which are called tweets. These keep you informed about what is going on in someone’s or some organization’s world.

Now you may ask, why do I care? Well, it is a way of increasing the information flow as well as form of having a conversation. Many BAM members have expressed problems getting the latest information on when pools are available or if workouts have changed. Twittering such updates addresses these problems in 3 ways.

BAM - Twitter Linkage - The BAM web site (www.bamswimteam.org) now displays the last two tweets that were sent along with how long ago it was sent. This will give you a rough idea of how current this information is. For example, a tweet may read “Friday 6 -7 PM practice canceled due to lightening 10 min ago“ If you were planning on attending the Friday 6 -7PM practice and it is 5:40 PM you may want to rethink your plans.
BAMSwimTeam twitter page - http://twitter.com/bamswimteam. This page has a history of recent tweets beyond the last two. This is a useful place to easily find information on that swim meet information you may have forgotten about or that canceled practice announcement from a few days ago.
BAM Tweets via text message - This is where Twitter’s power really stands out. If you are registered on Twitter and are following BAMSwimTeam you can elect to get text messages of the latest information sent directly to your phone (if text capable). So when you are out running your daily errands and there is a schedule change you will get that information automatically if you choose to.

We plan to make use of the capabilities of Twitter to keep our members informed about events, schedule changes, and general information. Are you following BAMSwimTeam on Twitter? How else would you like to see BAM using this technology or others? (e.g. facebook?) Let us know in the comments.

New Boulder Aquatic Masters Web Site

Larry — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:40:25 +0000

New BAM web site

Welcome to the New Boulder Aquatic Masters web site. After 5 years of the old site we decided to try and bring BAM a little more up to date. As you can see the site has a fresh new look and feel with the following features:

Images
Social media using both Twitter and a blog

Newsletter and email capabilities - still pending

Images
The photos you see were taken from the BAM Beginner’s Swim Meet last December. Andrew Webb helped BAM out at the meet (after Amy twisted his arm a little). Thanks to Andrew for his time and expert eye in capturing these moments. We will be adding additional images at future BAM events.

Social Media
We heard many people complain about not getting information about pool closings or workout cancelations. BAM will be using Twitter to help overcome this. Twitter is a short one-to-many way of communicating. Text’s are limited to 140 characters to allow delivery via text message. Updates about BAM workouts will be available from either a cell phone or via the web. This should help getting the information out much quicker. Several people will also have access to update the Twitter information. This should also alleviate any bottlenecks that occurred in the past.

New BAM blog. Many people have inquired about BAM’s status. The last most people heard was three years ago when the organization was not sure of its future. In short, BAM is doing fine. The blog will be a mechanism to communicate more about what is happening behind the scenes. This should keep everyone better informed. It will also allow you a mechanism to voice your questions or concerns.

Newsletter & E-mail
The new site will have the ability to produce a web (HTML) based newsletter. It will also enable us to send out HTML based e-mails. Our current e-mail process goes through Club Assistant and we can only send e-mail in textual format with PDF attachments. While this gets the information out, it has its limitations. We will be moving to more web based e-mail information along with using the web for publishing more information.

Thanks
Finally, kudos need to be extended to Randy Cox for the old site’s layout and MJ McCoy for its maintenance during this time. Also, thanks to BJ Gumkowski at Clear Pixel Design for the new site’s layout and design.

We hope you enjoy the change. Let us know what you think of the new site