2017 Volume 28 Issue 3

V O L U M E 2 8 | I S S U E 3 2 017

U N I T E D

S T A T E S

S W I M

LET’S DIVE

DEEPER

S C H O O L

A S S O C I A T I O N

DO YOUR CUSTOMERS

TRUST YOU?

Behind the Brand with FINIS! IS MY SWIM SCHOOL FALLING BEHIND?

Photo is courtesy of Swim Snaps.

IN THIS ISSUE 3

Letter from the President

5 From the Desk of the Executive Director 6 Do Your Customers Trust You? 10 IT On The Go is Growing!

International Reports Just In 12 Is My Swim School Falling Behind?

COVER PHOTO CREDIT Swim Snaps

COVER PROP CREDIT: Undersea Treasure Chest Courtesy Really Cool Pool Stuff You can find these fun toys & more at www.reallycoolpoolstuff.com

16 Behind the Brand with FINIS! 19 Q & A with Bob Hubbard 22 Ask Al: Ideas to keep your

facility working well 24 You’re not the Center of

the Web World 26 Thank You to USSSA’s Newest Sponsors 27 New Orlando Conference Feature:

Attendees can take both IT

& SA Workshops

ASSOCIATION HEADQUARTERS 13215 N. Verde River Dr., Suite 10 Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 480.837.5525 usssa@usswimschools.org usswimschools.org Executive Director Lisa M. Zarda, CAE, CNAP Editor Monica Martin ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President Lynn Ledford, Cal Elite Kids Vice President John Kirk, Little Otter Swim School ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS Tracy Koleber, Nitro Swimming Tiernan Murphy, Making Waves Swim School Jeff Purchin, 5 Cities Swim School Casie Shore, Swim to Shore Swim School Matt Young, Hubbard Family Swim School

29 Index of Advertisers USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 1

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT THE PLEASURE HAS BEEN MINE

It seems like yesterday that I joined the board.

And, it seems like a lifetime ago.

Over the last 7 years I have had the pleasure of serving under the presidencies of Tyler Brewer, Mary Reilly Magee and Miren Oca and of serving alongside many amazing board members. As I write my final “Message from the President” I am finding myself a bit reflective. Holy crud we have had a lot of meetings over the years. We’ve had a bit of push and pull.

We’ve researched, listened, measured, argued, strategized, postulated, researched, compromised and solved. Through this, I have made many great friends. Lifelong friends. This is the greatest pleasure of serving the Association.

I have learned that working to lead an organization that serves members who are your friends and whose money is not yours, is fraught with an incredible sense of magnitude and responsibility.

I want to publicly thank every board member, committee member and volunteer with whom I have served as we have shared this responsibility together. Thank you!

Looking back - we have had moments where we moved forward on things that filled us with excitement. I remember reading the first edition of the Special Abilities course in a board meeting in Hawaii. Dave Tonnesen coined the term, “Rock Star Committee” as he most energetically applauded the work of the Special Abilities Committee in creating this course. I have had the pleasure of reading 7 years’ worth of monthly Committee Reports on our Infant Toddler course. I applaud Kathy Hubbard for

being the constant North Star for us in the creation and continuous evolution of this, our signature course. I remember the year when we decided to add a second track of presentations at our conferences. That was a big step for us!

I remember under Mary’s leadership when we created a budget for keynote speakers. Another big step. I remember both Mary and Miren leading us to decisions to support Safer Three/Stop Drowning Now and the National Drowning Prevention Alliance – with dedicated funds to back those decisions. Those were defining moments as our association was now serving beyond our own membership.

Two years ago, we decided to budget and plan for an overhaul of our website.

Your future president, John Kirk, led that charge and invested an incredible amount of time and effort overseeing the project. The website is amazing!

We have also launched our USSSA Webinar series this summer. This has been a long-anticipated goal and we are thrilled that we are now offering this important educational outreach program to our members.

Looking back at the last couple of years, I am proud of our decision to create a heightened focus on the SWIM aspect of the US Swim School Association and to renew our commitment to our staff and the teaching that we do in our businesses. The creation of our tiered membership will help us to engage with and serve our swim staff well and I look forward to seeing our future leaders continue to establish new and important value to our staff and teachers’ membership and affiliation with the Association.

Acknowledging, including and engaging our swim staff will elevate our Association and make us more attractive to important sponsors and partners. Additional partners will create funding sources for us that will allow us to create new business courses, contract with additional keynote speakers, create added value to our communications, focus on our branding and public recognition and a multitude of other goals to do as much as we can for you – for all of us.

We have worked hard at creating two equally strong conferences – each providing a balance of excellent business AND swim topics. I believe this is a

progressive strategy that will enable us to serve ALL of our members better.

I could not end this message without thanking Sue Mackie, who has been a friend and fearless leader for us for 14 years. Sue played a major role in every decision that was made throughout the years and served diligently to make things happen. The Association looks a lot different now than it did 14 years ago and Sue Mackie was instrumental every step of the way.

Looking forward, I am excited to see where our new Executive Director, Lisa Zarda, takes us as we continue to grow and progress. Lisa is incredibly competent. She has jumped right into every function, operation, committee, report and meeting and has added to and improved literally every single thing she has touched. Lisa has great ideas.

She has an incredible work ethic. She provides equitable solutions. She thinks in interesting and creative ways. She is guided by a desire to provide as much value as possible to our members…. and at the same time has a natural propensity toward fiscal responsibility. I have described Lisa over and over again as having a ‘velvety’ approach to her interactions. Watch for Lisa. She will be your friend. She will lead the US Swim School Association to great things.

Lastly, I want to thank John Kirk for all of his service. John is going to be a WONDERFUL President. He is 100% invested and committed to the Association. John always looks at all sides and his decisions are guided by a true and honest desire to do what is best for others. He has so many talents and strengths that will benefit the US Swim School Association and each of us. Thank you, John, for your service and for your friendship.

I am looking forward to seeing you in Orlando. I love the conferences.

Seeing each of you is the greatest pleasure of all!

LYNN LEDFORD President US Swim School Association

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 3

FROM THE DESK OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DIVE DEEP? There are lots of ways that this can be taken, especially in the world of swim. Are we talking about the technique of diving? Not in this case.

In this issue, we wanted to help you look past the surface to what’s really behind or below… as the case may be.

I searched to find what diving deep means for businesses. One definition refers to the Deep-Dive methodology.

“Deep-Dive™ is the name of a technique used to rapidly immerse a group or team into a situation for problem solving or idea creation. This approach is often used for brainstorming product or process development.”* So, this got me thinking. When was the last time you took a deep dive into your business to think about who you are and where you are going? Have you set aside time with your key staff for brainstorming and process development? Do you simply think it’s a good idea to dive deep or have you actually done it and then implemented the ideas generated?

Here at the Association, the USSSA Board of Directors will be having their board meeting in November to do just that. We will be looking for ways to improve our member benefits to better serve you and formulate a direction for

https://www.google.com/amp/s/rapidbi.com/ deepdive-not-deep-dive/amp/

the future. We have started gathering information through our Feedback Friday initiative that will help us get a pulse on our membership. We want to know what matters most to you, where do you focus and where are your pain points. We appreciate those of you that have taken the time to participate and provide us with valuable feedback so that we can in turn make this membership experience better for you.

And I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to acknowledge the dedication with which Lynn Ledford has led this association. In the short time I have been with USSSA I’ve seen the fruits of her labor that will inevitably leave a mark on this association. Lynn has spent hours working with board members and committee members to move this association forward. I’ve truly enjoyed working with her and look forward to connecting with her at our events in the future.

Please enjoy the following articles in this issue as we dive into various areas of the learn-to-swim business. And as always if you ever have any questions or need any assistance from our office please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to continuing to serve you!

LISA M. ZARDA, CAE, CNAP Executive Director US Swim School Association

DO YOUR CUSTOMERS TRUST YOU?

BY MARK MAHONEY JACKRABBIT SWIM

“Do you trust us?” It is a question that you would rarely ask of customers. You may even assume that you know their response. “Sure, I do.” Why else would they do business with you?

How can you uncover this information?

After all, it is important. This level of customer trust can make a difference to your bottom line.

There is a connection between trust and loyalty. You know that it is

6 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

better to have customers that trust you.

But how do you find out what areas of your business are critical to enhancing the level of a customer’s trust in your business?

The connection between trust and loyalty is often debated by marketing professionals and business consultants.

There are several noteworthy articles that shed light on this question.

Research published in the Harvard

Business Review (from work done by Frederick Reichheld and Earl Sasser) shows the connection between these two factors. It also clearly illustrated that just having customers who are “satisfied” is not good enough.

Customers must rate their satisfaction very high to come back and be repeat customers.

Other research from “Customer Satisfaction, Customer Retention,”

by Chatura Ranaweera and Jaideep Prabhu shows that satisfaction and trust have strong positive associations with both customer loyalty and word-of-mouth.

It also shows that trust was only slightly less important than satisfaction when it came to providing a recommendation.

And we all know how important recommendations (or word-of-mouth) is to marketing and growth.

Satisfaction and customer loyalty are so important that an entire system of rating customer satisfaction according to something called a Net Promoter Score was developed around Reichheld’s concepts. This system is based on the correlation between satisfaction and how likely your customer is to recommend your organization to others.

Jackrabbit believes customer trust is so critical that we’ve put several processes in place to monitor and measure our success at keeping our customers satisfied. Using the Net Promoter Score system is one of them.

before they end or learn how to prevent others from taking similar paths.

There are three factors that can help to ensure that you’re building and sustaining your customers’ trust.

Understand your customer expectations. Think about it. When you pay for almost anything, you have a set of expectations. Those expectations are formed from advertising, past experience, word-of-mouth, and several other components of that contribute to the customer experience. Customers compare their actual experience with their expectations of the experience. So when there are disconnects between the two, there is an impact on satisfaction and trust.

Ask your customers what they expect. Make sure you understand what your customers really want from you.

This may surprise you. They may not expect you to build a new facility but do expect to receive a bill that is accurate and understandable.

Understand the customers’ experiences.

While a customer is buying services from you, they are also experiencing a process when they do business with you.

Understand what that process looks like from their perspective.

Why has this system come about?

It’s actually pretty difficult to learn genuine satisfaction levels across all of your customers. Research showed Reichheld that simply asking customers “How loyal are you to our company?” or “What is your level of satisfaction with our company?” didn’t provide an accurate read on this. From the research noted above, Reichheld saw that asking a couple of simple questions about whether a customer would recommend your company to others is a very accurate barometer.

What’s important is that this system also gives you critical information about those who are not satisfied with your business. Sometimes you learn enough that you can improve relationships 8 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

To do this, ask yourself: How easy is it for customers to do business with me? Pretend you’re a parent. You might be surprised at what you find out.

What parts of that process have the biggest impact on customer expectations?

You can call these your critical “trust” points. Even if these points seem small and inconsequential, pay close attention to them. For example, first contact matters, so what kind of experience do customers have when they call your swim school or visit your website?

Do you have a way to tell when you’re meeting expectations and to what degree you’re doing so?

Customer satisfaction surveys (noted above) can be helpful.

Is your company’s value proposition clear and can employees explain it to customers? A clear value proposition answers the question as to “why” the customer should do business with your company.

How do you handle customer problems? The way you resolve issues gives you the opportunity to improve that relationship and that is the way everyone on your staff should approach resolving problems.

Customer trust is critical to your business, but knowledge of the levels of satisfaction and trust your customers are experiencing is perhaps the most critical piece of information that you can possess. Without this information, you don’t know if you’re making good decisions and guiding your business in the best direction.

Two great reads related to this are Frederick Reichheld’s The Loyalty Effect and Matthew Dixon’s The Effortless Experience both available on Amazon.com.

If you’re not using this valuable business data, it’s worth considering the best way that you can capture it and use it. Ask your peers and partners. They’ll most likely be happy to help you!

Mark Mahoney, Co-Founder and CEO of Jackrabbit Technologies, discovered his passion for technology and gymnastics in college (MIS major and member of UGA gymnastics team). After working for several smaller software companies, he decided to combine his passions and launched Jackrabbit Technologies in 2004. Jackrabbit Technologies, (www.Jackrabbittech.com) provides online class management and billing software to more than 5000 children’s activity centers, including gymnastics and cheer gyms, dance studios, child care centers, music schools and swim schools, around the world.

Say Goodbye to Chlorine Odor, Bather Irritation, and Toxic Pool Water!

Proven swim school treatment systems since 1983 including: UV • Saline • Ozone • Chemistry Controls • Drinking Water-Grade filtration Wirelessly control your pump room including chemistry, UV, Heaters.

Choice of leading USSSA Swim Schools!

Proven On-Site Support and Service throughout the US via the SSD™ Network.

Experts in new construction and renovation treatment programs.

Excellence in Water Quality Control

Commercial Energy Specialists • 952 Jupiter Park Lane • Jupiter, Florida 33458 • 800.940.1557 • www.ceswaterquality.com

IT ON THE GO IS GROWING! INTERNATIONAL REPORTS JUST IN

BY DEBBIE SAYERS & LULU CISNERO USSSA INFANT-TODDLER COMMITTEE

10 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

The Infant-Toddler (IT) Education ON THE GO workshop is growing! International interest in this program has been picking up. We are pleased to share these reports from members, Debbie Sayers (DolFUN SWIM Academy) and Lulu Cisneros (LULU CISNEROS Educación Acuática).

Debbie Sayers has recently made multiple trips to China. She reports it was a very successful workshop that took 12-hours over two days, and was part of eight days total training. The instructors and owners had all taken the IT online class prior to her arrival, which involved the extra effort of translating it into Chinese. This dedication was extremely helpful in moving through the concepts and allowing the information to make more sense.

During her visit, she found the facility to be 90% complete in construction, though they had the pool ready with a stellar pool and equipment room. Everyday, Debbie also trained them on how to test and take care of pool chemistry as they have no company there to do so. She took a Taylor Test Kit with her as a gift to give them. This was a great improvement from her first trip where she found NO filter, only a pump and UV, and no sanitation being put in the pool.

CCTV (Central China TV) crew were also there so the USSSA IT Workshop will hopefully be a part of their documentary coming out later this year. In addition, local radio station coverage was there later in the week.

This crew really enjoyed the hands-on learning approach. It was great to see them picking up the material and understanding. The team was incredibly motivated to learn.

They had NO swimming experience, however great attitudes and a willingness to learn.

Recently, Lulu Cisneros presented the Infant-Toddler (IT) Education ON THE GO workshop in Olimpus Natación, in the City of Querétaro, Mexico. She welcomed 68 participants and they were a great group! Some new and some with a lot of expertise but all of them with one common goal…to be the best school and to give a better service to their clients.

One of the more outstanding details from the IT Course is that all their personnel, not just the infant teachers, took the course. They did this because they wanted to assure that all of them will be on the same channel and can promote infant swimming with the same information.

The first day, they covered the classroom course in one of their locations and on the second day, they did the water workshop at their other location. The in-water session impressed how some of the office team didn’t know how to swim well and after they finished with the infant workshop they did some swimming exercises and the teachers helped them to overcome their fears.

At the end, they did a reflection about the course. The participants were really happy with the course material but also how it became a great team building program that brought everyone together!

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 11

IS MY SWIM SCHOOL FALLING BEHIND?

BY JAY FEITLINGER FOUNDER AND CEO OF STRINGCAN INTERACTIVE

In the twenty-first century digital age, marketing a brick-and-mortar service might seem difficult. After all, many people block online advertisements, tune out emails from businesses or worse mark as spam, and need to be highly incentivized to buy something that requires additional commitment on their part (like showing up to swim lessons). When you think about how to reach more parents with information about your swim school, it’s easy to feel yourself getting lost in the swirl of online marketing terminologies and practices. You might look around and see your competitors successfully handling certain marketing approaches, and wonder how you’re supposed to know how you match up.

Maybe you’re making a profit, but seeing a plateau. You might have a decently sized roster of students, but are struggling to bring in anyone new. Your business may not be outright failing, but if it’s not steadily growing, then you might need a reboot on your marketing strategy. There are grassroots efforts like asking current customers to pass out flyers to their friends, but is this even effective in today’s digital age?

When you reach the point in which you want more for your marketing (and ultimately more students and ROI), it’s time to consider how you’re handling yourself digitally.

12 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

Here are a few areas to evaluate.

GET SOCIALLY ACTIVE You’re probably not surprised to see social media as the first item on the list.

But before you discount it (or become annoyed by its prevalence), think about how you’re currently benefiting from social practices. Do you have social media accounts for your swim school?

If not, it’s very likely that your business is falling behind. Case in point: Did you know that 79% of Americans who use the Internet are on Facebook? And your competitors probably are, too.

If you want to yield the best results from an active social media strategy, start small. Begin with one platform (like Instagram or Facebook), and commit to posting content frequently (at least once a week and then increase this to once per day). If you’re unclear about what types of content resonate with your audience, take a peek at your competitors’ social channels. You don’t want to mirror their content exactly, but seeing how they offer promotions, showcase students, and offer information and resources to their followers could inspire you to create some compelling content of your own.

Once you’ve mastered the free side of social media, you may want to look into social advertising. Many businesses are using Facebook and Instagram ads to reach targeted audiences and convert more customers, and you could too.

TAP INTO GOOGLE Another way to use the endless data online to make savvy digital choices for your swim school is by checking out Google Trends. Use this tool to compare searches for your school versus competitors’ schools, and visually (and quickly) see if you’re behind (hint: you want to be the top line on the graph).

You can also set Google Alerts to show you when competitors make new pages or when your swim school is mentioned on other pages. Keep a record of how often you’re mentioned. These two tools can really help you get an idea of where your swim school is in comparison to your competitors.

WHERE DO YOU RANK? Finally, have you delved into your reviews and rankings on websites like Yelp and Angie’s List? These two services in particular can help you gauge your place in the market. Make it a weekly habit to look at your business’ pages on these sites, and review what customers are saying. Then you can make timely decisions about how you can fix the issues (and potentially save some customers in the process).

Also, poke around these sites to see what customers like and dislike about your competitors. This could also give you useful information about how you can excel above the rest. For instance, if you see complaints about your competitors not communicating enough

with swimmers’ parents, you can add a blurb to your website about how your swim school emphasizes communication with parents about their child’s progress.

Or if people are raving about a new advanced level class, see if you have enough high-level students to start one of your own.

This is just the beginning of realizing your place in the market and moving up to the top and these digital avenues are some great places to start. When you market optimally on digital platforms, you will grow and develop your swim school to unimaginable new heights!

Jay Feitlinger is the founder and CEO of StringCan Interactive, a strategic online marketing agency in Scottsdale, Arizona with a regional office in Paris, France. At StringCan, Jay oversees strategy and vision, building culture that makes going into work something his team looks forward to, recruiting additional team members to help exceed clients’ goals, leading the team and allocating where StringCan invests time and money. Jay is also the author of FAMILY 2.0: Harness Business Principles to Reboot your Family in 4 Days where he took the lessons he has learned from his last 8 businesses and created a 4-day family retreat to help entrepreneurs and business executives who desire more out of their family lives.

Helping family-oriented businesses of all types and sizes connect smart to their right audience at the most efficient way possible has been one of his passions for over 15 years. He has had the pleasure of working with entrepreneurs and business executives around the globe advising them how to exceed their business and marketing aspirations.

Jay is called on to speak at many events, webinars and conferences to share advice and educate on various topics around entrepreneurship, business and Internet marketing.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 13

THANK YOU ANNUAL SPONSORS

CALENDAR OF EVENTS OCTOBER 11-13, 2017

USSSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE ORLANDO, FLORIDA usswimschools.org

FEBRUARY 10-11, 2018

USSSA SPRING WORKSHOP DALLAS, TEXAS usswimschools.org APRIL 2-6, 2018

NATIONAL DROWNING PREVENTION ALLIANCE EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE TAMPA, FLORIDA

ndpa.org

JULY 24-27, 2018

SWIM AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL SWIM SCHOOLS CONFERENCE HAMILTON ISLAND, GREAT BARRIER REEF swimaustralia.org.au

JULY 30-AUGUST 1, 2018

AUSTRALIAN SWIM SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL SPECTACULAR AUSTRALIA’S GOLD COAST australianswimschools.org.au

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 15

BEHIND THE BRAND WITH FINIS!

BY JILL DAHLE FINIS INC.

Hello to our USSSA Family! #TeamFINIS here.

As I’m sure many of you can relate, no two days at FINIS are the same. The only thing that remains constant is our love for the people and products that make our job the best in the world… other than teaching children to swim, of course. Join us for a typical day of geeking out and gearing up!

5:00 AM ORDERS IN First large orders of the week start rolling in. Pour the coffee, Compliance Team!

6:30 AM CALLS WITH EUROPE No better way to start your day than a call with friends from across the pond.

Today’s agenda: a 1:1 Check-in between Jill, our Global Director of Sales and Marketing, and Martin, our EU Director of Sales & Marketing in Hamburg.

6:30 am 16 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

9:00 AM MONDAY MORNING MEETING We start every week together with a team meeting led by CEO and Cofounder John Mix. During this time, John celebrates wins from the previous week and sends us off with a dose of inspiration for the week ahead.

9:00 am

10:00 am

9:47 AM HEAD COACHES HUDDLE During a quick meeting, John discusses the day’s priorities with each Head Coach aka Department Heads. Ready, BREAK! 10:00 AM CALLING ALL SWIM SCHOOLS! See a familiar face here?! Our gal, Marie, is the best in the biz when it comes to making our swim school family happy – we managed to sneak in a selfie between phone calls.

11:00 AM WED DEVELOPMENT MEETING With the launch of the all-new FINISswim. com, web developers Chris and Priya and designer Kaitlynn are in full testing mode.

Build, implement, test, repeat.

12:00 pm

2:00 PM SPOTTED! Senior Industrial Designer David is spotted testing out a hot new FINIS product… goggles and all. Lookin’ good, David!

3:00 PM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS IN JOHN’S OFFICE No pictures allowed! This is where the latest and greatest FINIS products are brought to life.

2:00 pm

5:00 pm

NOON: LUNCHTIME SWIM IN THE ENDLESS POOL? Don’t mind if we do…or a ride on the beach cruisers to grab Thai food – that works too!

1:00 PM IT’S BOOSTER TIME Product Marketing Lead, Bryn is putting the final touches on all the marketing goodies we need to launch the new Booster fins. Fun fact! The Booster fins were designed side-by-side with La Petite Baleen and other USSSA members.

1:00 pm

4:30 pm

4:30 PM ORDERS OUT The warehouse sends out the last orders.

All orders that come in by 12 Noon PST go out that same day – way to go, guys!

9:00 pm 5:00 PM WAREHOUSE WORKOUT Time to pump up the jams!

9:00 PM CALLS WITH ASIA John closes the day with calls to our partners in Asia, usually while enjoying a cup of tea and quality time with his wife Paula and son Cohen.

There it is! A day in the life of #TeamFINIS. We are a small group of people working independently toward a common goal to have a big impact. We do all that we can to help more people enjoy the water and we sure love doing that with USSSA!

See you in Orlando!

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 17

Q&A

WITH BOB HUBBARD HUBBARD FAMILY SWIM SCHOOL

If you haven’t already heard, a NEW member benefit is available to you! USSSA has started releasing educational webinars dedicated to your learn-to-swim business. Please visit the Events page on our website at usswimschools. org for more information and details.

To kick things off right, Bob Hubbard hosted the debut webinar on September 6, 2017. Bob is a lifetime association member, conference speaker and expert on relevant industry topics. If you don’t already know him, we guarantee you’ll glean something new and valuable from his presentation.

Just recently, we had the chance to sit down with Bob and ask a few questions about his webinar topic titled, Developing Systems at the Ground Level. Here’s what he had to say…

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 19

Question 1

USSSA:

Question 2

USSSA:

We are thrilled to have you host USSSA’s debut webinar! How did you decide on this particular topic?

BOB:

When we started our company, there were so many things we never even thought about prior to opening, including training someone other than ourselves on our registration system, the pump room operations, skill levels. We knew how to train our first ten to fifteen employees but scrambled when we needed someone else to train employee number 15 and 16 and on and on.

Question 3

USSSA:

With information and technology moving so quickly, how do you balance the demands of your swim school business and personal life?

BOB:

Listen to the recording of the seminar! Building systems so that your team can confidently offer the high level of service that you hope for, will help create peace of mind for you as an owner. Developing your team so that they can make the “right” decision without you present is a major key to your mental freedom.

Question 5

USSSA:

What is your favorite word of encouragement to share with our friends and members?

BOB:

We are impacting the lives of our students, their parents and our team members by our overall commitment to providing a high-quality learning and working environment every day. Having grown up on the ocean, (yes…we have a big ocean in New York City) my memories are flooded with countless days on the beach and in the water from childhood through adulthood. I am confident my decision making in a crisis, my confidence, my physical development have been positively impacted by my time in the water.

20 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

BOB:

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge that swim school owners face today?

BOB:

The competition for parents’ attention from our non-swim school competitors. The parent’s desire to expose their child to as many different experiences as they can – gymnastics, martial arts, music, language classes, etc. We must continually challenge ourselves to offer a better experience for both the child and the parent and win their business every day.

Question 4

USSSA:

You are a lifetime member of the association and a successful swim school owner. Why is your USSSA membership valuable to you?

I am very confident that we would not have had anywhere near the level of success we have had if it had not been for our friends in, and the leadership of, the association. From the very first meeting that we attended back in the early 90’s to now, I have learned something new at each one. It has also been a great resource in helping to develop our team. The associations’ commitment to bringing in quality speakers has been enlightening. Access to workshops like the Infant Toddler and Special Abilities classes in-person at the conference or online provided our team with exposure to some great leaders in our industry.

ASK AL

BY ALVARO G. MENDOZA COMMERCIAL ENERGY SPECIALISTS, INC.

We run our swim school pool very carefully, test our chlorine and pH often, and the reading is always pretty good.

However, sometimes we just lose control of the pool, with cloudy water, irritation, etc., but the chlorine levels are still fine.

CAN YOU HELP POINT US TOWARD WHAT OTHER THINGS WE SHOULD WE BE LOOKING OUT FOR?

22 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

I

Welcome back to our “Ask the Expert” feature, designed to assist you with issues related to swimming pool water, mechanical equipment, space conditioning and code compliance.

Ask a question, and we will try to answer to the best of our ability. t is good to focus on always having the proper amount of chlorine in your pool, but chlorine’s role in the overall operations, albeit critical, is not very large.

Here’s a quick checklist of items to consider if your chlorine is fine, but the water quality is suffering.

QUANTITY VS. QUALITY OF CHLORINE: While your test kit tells you “how much” is in the pool it cannot really tell you the “work value” or “kill power” of that chlorine. The best indicator of “kill power” is Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) as read by your chemistry controller (you DO have one, don’t you?). Your ORP should optimally be above 725-750 mV, at all times. The higher the better. So 800-825 is better and is indicative of cleaner water than anything in the 700’s. Also, ORP is a great indicator of what type of “demand” is being placed on your pool.

HOW MUCH CHLORINE IS TOO MUCH? Some folks get excited about holding high ORP’s, but it is important to do so at a reasonable chlorine level. There is no earthly reason to hold anything higher than 2.0-3.0 PPM, and too much chlorine in the water is nearly as bad as too little. Swim school operators have experienced some advanced irritation at higher levels and industry research points to some undesirable contaminants being formed at higher levels as well.

IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORP AND CHLORINE: One of the best tools available to the swim school owner is focusing on the relationship between the ORP and chlorine. It can tell you a lot on how well you’re doing. Why? If you have high chlorine and low ORP (600-700 mV), it is indicative of trouble, while high ORP achieved (>800 mV) with relatively low chlorine levels (< 2 PPM) is indicative of very clean and safe water. If it takes more than 3.0 PPM to hold 750 mV of ORP (with zero PPM of stabilizer) your pool water may be under duress and you may need to take additional action in order to resolve.

CHLORINE ALONE IS VERY LIMITED: You can’t expect too much from a “chlorine only” pool as it is very limited in scope. A busy swim school pool should really integrate some supplemental oxidation for best results. The most popular techniques include treating (or shocking) with Peroxolytes, treating with Amalgam or Medium Pressure UV or utilizing a properly-sized and designed Ozone System. All three of these are quite different, but all provide their own type of welcome assistance to the oxidation process.

WHAT ABOUT FILTRATION? Less than stellar filtration can cause an oxidation issue as well in two ways. First, cloudy pool water sometimes indicates a failure to remove contaminants and can help cause a “demand” on the oxidation, where ORP will drop or PPM will rise (or both). Second, cheaper “production” sand filters with questionable or challenged backwash hydraulics can accumulate organics within the lower sections of the sand, and cause a huge demand on the oxidation of the pool. If you are suffering from low ORP and have not changed the media or have not completed a (PM) preventive maintenance (complete with boil out) of the filter in the past year or two, then that would be a good place to start.

It is great to remember that chlorine is, indeed, quite limited in its ability to provide a complete solution for the owner of a busy swim school, but providing precise and constant control over chlorine and pH is one of the cornerstones of proper operation.

Many successful swim schools have learned to handle that first, and once that is totally under control – and the pool is still not to your satisfaction – then it’s time to look into supplemental oxidation techniques that will help you get your pool water to a happy place.

Hope that helps! Please feel free to forward your questions and comments through the Association office, or directly to me, via email at amendoza@ceswaterquality.com.

Best Regards, Alvaro G. Mendoza

YOU’RE NOT THE CENTER OF THE WEB WORLD AN ABRIDGED EXCERPT FROM BRANDSCAPING: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS

BY ANDREW M. DAVIS 2017 NATIONAL CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKER & BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Your website is not the center of anyone’s universe. Channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon, and Google are digital destinations, unlike anything you could ever imagine building.

You can spend tons of money on digital ads or even television commercials trying to convince people to come to your website, and maybe they will. They might come once, maybe even twice. But they’re visiting YouTube, Facebook, and their favorite blogs and news websites every day.

It’s time you start focusing on the many opportunities outside of your domain.

Remember Ptolemy? For those of you who don’t, Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek-Roman astronomer who spent decades plotting celestial constellations in the first century A.D. Ptolemy created a series of tables and charts that plotted the position of the sun, planets, and even stars as they moved across the sky.

24 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

Ptolemy’s based his model of the universe on a long-standing assumption that the Earth was at the center. They called this the geocentric model of the universe.

Twenty years ago, when I got my start building websites, we all treated the web like Ptolemy viewed the astronomical universe: our website was the center of the web world. We built websites designed to include every conceivable piece of information and stored it on our domain. Customers were expected to visit our web address (our planet at the center of our web world) and find exactly what they needed. Many of you reading this article might still embrace a Ptolemaic world view. I know it represents the view of many of the executives I meet in my business.

Today, however, all of that has changed. Today’s web world resembles the astronomical model popularized by Galileo Galilei. In 1610, Galileo began supporting a revolutionary new model of

the universe—a model in which the sun sat at the center.

For more than 1,500 years, people had embraced Ptolemy’s geocentric model. Galileo’s heliocentric model was received with consternation and concern. The heliocentric model seemed to lessen the importance of our world by demoting the Earth to a planet like Venus or Jupiter. Galileo got a lot of flak for his model of the universe because it’s hard to reset your entire worldview.

Today’s web world is much more Galilean than it is Ptolemaic. You cannot continue to pour all your energy and effort into convincing consumers to come to your domain. You’re no longer at the center of the universe. Search is at the center of today’s web universe, and as you move farther and farther away from the search “sun,” you travel through your consumer’s most trusted, most visited websites.

Your clients travel through many different websites, news sites, blogs, Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, groups, Twitter, etc., before they get to your website. For the vast majority of your consumers and clients, your website is more like Pluto than the sun. There are very few brands large and powerful enough to be close to the center of the universe, and you can probably name them right off the top of your head. Think about where you and your customers spend more time—browsing your website or connecting with colleagues, leads, customers, and friends on LinkedIn and searching for information on Google?

If you live in a Galilean universe but think like Ptolemy, you end up being an isolated remote planet where your customer rarely encounters an authentic interaction with your business. On the other hand, brands that embrace the Galilean way of thinking find themselves creating content and interacting with customers on websites much closer to the center of where those customers live.

These authentic interactions, driven by the right kind of content, build new relationships and help you grow your business.

Now, at the risk of sounding like I’m contradicting myself, you still need a website. But start thinking more like Galileo to harness the power of an ever-increasingly fragmented media landscape where your website matters less and less.

Embracing the Galilean model of the web world is a humbling experience.

However, the more you insert your brand into the world of your consumers’ everyday experience, the more relevant you become. This has real-world implications if you’re willing to stand out in a crowd.

Where does our audience live online?

Your audience doesn’t want to constantly be dragged away from their websites of choice to visit your domain.

That’s a fact. I can also guarantee that no matter what industry you’re in, your customers are participating somewhere you should be. (Trust me, I’ve found vibrant and

voluminous communities of contractors and diabetics, crochet aficionados, and tea drinkers—your audience is out there.)

I suggest you choose one place. Just one social media site, forum, or YouTube channel and stake a claim. Start building an audience outside your domain. But don’t measure your effectiveness on that site by how many leads or click-throughs it brings to your website. Focus on building an audience of fans, followers, subscribers (or whatever they call them) on that channel.

It’s not easy, but accepting the reality that you live in a Galilean world will change the way you interact, share, and succeed online. It all starts by asking this one simple question: Am I a Galileo or a Ptolemy?

Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Before co-founding, building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew Davis created programming for local television, produced for NBC’s Today Show, worked for The Muppets in New York and wrote for Charles Kuralt. He has marketed for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. In 2016, Davis founded Monumental Shift, the world’s first talent agency for marketing thought leaders.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 25

THANK YOU TO USSSA’S

NEWEST SPONSORS

Big Welcome To Pentair Commercial Aquatics!

We are pleased to announce that Pentair Commercial Aquatics is a new partner of the Association! Pentair Commercial offers commercial equipment designed to save energy and reduce operating costs for commercial aquatic facilities - including pumps, filters, heaters, UV systems, controllers, variable frequency drives, lifeguard chairs, deck equipment and LED lighting options.

Pentair Commercial offers innovative products that reduce chemical usage and simultaneously improve the air and water quality of swimming pools. They

also offer disinfection products that provide aquatic facilities with an alternative to many of the chemicals normally purchased to ensure clean, clear, swimming pool water and provides instant protection against chlorineresistant micro-organisms such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Pentair Commercial is dedicated to helping you run a cost-efficient aquatic facility and offers an online cost-calculator tool providing pool professionals and aquatic facility managers the ability to calculate energy and operational savings.

Learn more about Pentair Commercial Aquatics for your commercial aquatic equipment and see why Pentair Aquatic Systems have received the Energy Star Partner award for the past 4 years in a row! Contact Mike Fowler at Pentair Commercial today. You can reach him directly at 919-566-8332 or mike.fowler @pentair.com. Visit their website at www.pentaircommercial.com.

Big Welcome To StringCan Interactive!

USSSA warmly welcomes StringCan Interactive as a new partner of the Association! StringCan brings unparalleled strategic marketing expertise to swim school owners and assists with identifying and overcoming obstacles so you get the most success from your marketing budget.

StringCan understands that we live in a busy world, filled with millions of messages from billions of people. It’s easy for businesses to get lost and even lose contact with their customers.

While connecting the right people at

Big Welcome To Zipwhip!

We are very enthusiastic to announce that Zipwhip is a new partner of the Association! Zipwhip offers texting for your existing business phone number.

Their text messaging platform helps you connect with parents, drive more engagement and get your time back with exclusive landline texting software.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

• Step 1 – A customer sends a text from their mobile phone to your existing business phone number.

26 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

the right time may be difficult, it can be done. The team at StringCan believes in simplifying and focusing on building valuable and meaningful relationships between businesses and their customers.

They have revived the lost art of truly listening! StringCan knows your customers want to be heard as much as you want to communicate with them. So, they strive to keep communication as simple as two cans and a string! StringCan specializes in creating a strategy that will connect your swim school business with your localized customers and connect

your brand with your ideal customers through strategic inbound marketing.

Get ready to think outside of the box!

Visit www.stringcaninteractive.com.

Jay Feitlinger, founder & CEO of StringCan Interactive, will be a speaker at the 2017 National Conference in Orlando, Florida. Jay will be sharing his marketing expertise!

• Step 2 – Inside the wireless carrier’s network, the message is passed securely to Zipwhip’s gateway.

For more information, please contact Spencer Forthuber at (208) 805-1180 or email him at sforthuber@zipwhip.com.

Visit their website today at www.zipwhip.com.

• Step 3 – Zipwhip’s SaaS platform displays the message on any device you choose, and you can reply.

Zipwhip helps you give your patrons a best-in-class experience! Your customers keep the number they already know and texts appear on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. Say hello to Zipwhip today!

Big Welcome To Take Command Health!

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Take Command Health!

We know how tricky it is to navigate health insurance benefits for your swim schools, instructors and staff. Take Command Health makes it easy! They will help you find a health plan that fits your life and they offer discounts for USSSA members.

•

For Swim Schools – Take Command Health offers a more affordable and flexible option that will work great for member schools of all sizes.

Using a “Small Business HRA”, you can reimburse your employees a set amount each month for health insurance and medical expenses instead of hassling with a group plan.

For USSSA members, Take Command

will setup your legal and accounting documents for free and offer a 15% discount on monthly service fees.

• For Individual Owners and Instructors – Use Take Command Health to explore your health plan options (Healthcare.gov, private off-exchange plans, even faith-based alternative plans). Their concierge team will help you search for your doctors and prescriptions and even simulate conditions. They currently cover most of the states that our members reside.

•

enables participants to call a doctor 24/7 for $0, get basic prescriptions, take a photo of their doctor bill to get help negotiating it as well as get access to pre-negotiated dental, vision and pharmacy discounts. USSSA members get an extra 15% discount!

You can learn more about our partnership with Take Command Health and schedule a time to speak with one of their team members here: www.takecommandhealth.com/usswimschools.

You can also email them directly at: support@takecommandhealth.com.

Smart Savings – Unable to afford traditional insurance for your staff but want to offer something? Take Command Health offers a benefit program for a small monthly fee, that

NEW ORLANDO CONFERENCE FEATURE:

ATTENDEES CAN TAKE BOTH IT & SA WORKSHOPS

BY STAFF CONTRIBUTOR USSSA

SA Education Workshop will be on Saturday, October 14th, 2017. Both courses are from 8am to 5pm with lunch included. These workshops provide an interactive learning experience and the compatible online course is a required prerequisite. A Certificate of Completion will be awarded at the end of each course.

The Orlando conference features the Infant-Toddler (IT) and Special Abilities (SA) Instructor Courses on separate days which will allow attendees to get the most out of their conference experience!

The IT Education Workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 10th and the

Infant-Toddler Instructor Course Prerequisite course required: Online Infant-Toddler Course Join a classroom workshop comprised of lecture and interactive activities, as well as the Infant-Toddler Aquatic Skills Workshop that includes an interactive classroom session featuring underwater and above water videos as well as applicable discussion and practice for teachers. Learn the history of the US Swim School Association; Guidelines on Swimming Instruction for Children Under the Age of Three Years; Development of a Teaching Philosophy; Video of Swim

Programs; Professionalism; Health & Safety Concerns; Child Development and Progressions & Skill Development.

Special Abilities Instructor Course Prerequisite course required: Online Special Abilities Course This classroom workshop will be comprised of lecture, video presentations and interactive activities. The workshop covers descriptions of various disabilities, awareness and precautions, instructional strategies, effective parent communication and ADA compliant issues. Practical teaching techniques are shared & demonstrated during the course. Learn how to instruct the “Special Ability” student to be successful in the aquatic environment by focusing on their abilities, while understanding their disabilities.

The Association strives to assist you in achieving your business goals - so take your teaching skills to the next level and enroll in one of our flagship courses today! Visit usswimschools.org.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 27

MAKING INDUSTRY WAVES

LITTLE OTTER SWIM SCHOOL & JACKRABBIT MAKE INC. 5000 LIST Congratulations! USSSA Vice President, John Kirk (Little Otter Swim School) and USSSA Sponsor, Mark Mahoney (Jackrabbit Technologies) made the 2017 list of Inc. 5000 companies that was recently published.

Making the Inc. 5000 list has tremendous meaning to our Charlotte, North Carolina, friends: John sees it as a culmination ofefforts for Little Otter. “We came from a mom-andpop to a multi-location school. Parents don’t base decisions to come to us on the recognition but it is part of several factors that help us to build loyalty with the parents of our students.”

“It legitimizes us as a high growth company and it’s a source of pride for employees. Because of that it’s also a great recruiting tool,” notes Mark.

THE COUTTS FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP Recipients Announced Stop Drowning Now’s momentum to end drowning in our lifetime continued in 2017, thanks to USSSA and SDN members like you. You are moving the needle.

Pilot launches of the new experiential SDN curriculum are great successes in Austin and Tampa. We welcomed a school system in New York’s Suffolk County to the curriculum pilot family.

We also began discussions with another county school system in southeast Florida. Special thanks to Bobby Hazen and the National Drowning Prevention Alliance for these opportunities to serve.

Most importantly, SDN completed our technology scope-of-work for the SDN Curriculum Gateway. This cutting-edge, web-based platform will allow teachers anywhere to access and use the SDN curriculum in English and Spanish. Our ability to reach kids with drowning prevention education will literally be limitless.

The Gateway launches in early 2018.

The SDN Board is funding this project from their own pockets and networks.

Join them! The lives we will save from drowning needs your generosity. Visit stopdrowningnow.org and give or join.

Finally, our friend and champion Lauren Bordages will retire from SDN in October. Lauren’s growing family needs her attention. We are so thrilled she is cultivating the next generation of drowning prevention leaders in Orange County. We love and respect you Lauren!

To those of you that took a moment to complete our first Feedback Friday survey, thank you! We received 136 responses with great feedback on how we can improve our events, membership structure and benefits. We are currently reviewing all responses as we continue discussions on ways USSSA can serve you even better.

Watch for future Feedback Friday questions and again, thank you for your continued support! If you have anything you would like to share with us at any time, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the USSSA Team. YOU make this Association great!

28 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

USSSA and ASSA are delighted to announce the recipients of the inaugural annual Coutts Family Scholarships!

From USSSA: John Kirk, Tiernan Murphy and Pat Sunderhaus; and from ASSA: Richard Burchfield, Nikki Grazulis and Julia Ham. From nearly 50 high quality applications, each Association provided the Selection Committee with a shortlist. The deliberations were long and hard, before the recipients were resolved. The result is an amazing mix of expertise, experience and swim school organization types.

We would like to thank everyone that took the time to apply. We will all be able to gain from this experience when the scholarship recipients make their presentation at USSSA Conference 2018, sharing what they learned about continuing growth in the learn to swim industry.

On behalf of the Coutts Family Trust, John Coutts stated, “We are incredibly excited about hosting the inaugural event in Finland. Planning is well underway and we can’t wait to see what exciting ideas and concepts emerge from this meeting of minds.”

SUPPORT FOR TEXAS #HARVEY After the damage Hurricane Harvey caused, we can’t help but think of our friends in Texas. We are currently working on a donation page that will appear on the USSSA website that will include the Go Fund Me campaigns from our member schools in the Houston area. As soon as we have full details, we will be sure to share the information with all of you. We’d like to offer a special thank you to Miles Gordon at Penguin City Swim for making our first contribution! We will continue to reach out and keep you informed on ways you can help our friends and members affected by the flooding.

NEW MEMBER LIST AJ FITNESS CENTER Ana Fortin Tegucigalpa, Honduras ALVA SWIMMING SCHOOL Alva Cha Arcadia, CA ANNETTE’S SWIM SCHOOL Annette Fuller Boca Raton, FL AQUAKIDS SWIM SCHOOL Andrew Kline Flower Mound, TX AQUA TOTS SWIM SCHOOLCIUDAD VICTORIA Manuel Corcuera Canseco Ciudad Victoria, Mexico AQUA TOTS SWIM SCHOOLSPRING/KLEIN Michele Sista Spring, TX

CAROLINA SWIM CLUB Dan Porter Apex, NC

MEADOWBROOK SWIM CLUB Patricia Stephens Baltimore, MD

CRISTINA TEUSCHER LLC Cristina Teuscher Greenwich, CT

MGR SWIM SPORTS Eric Gonzalez Helotes, TX

FINAN SWIM SCHOOL Catherine Kochel Ontario, Canada

NORTH JERSEY AQUATICS Leighann Day Long Valley, NJ

GI FITNESS AND SWIM Albert Rozzi Gilford, NH

NORTHSHORE SWIM Gitte Klein Mandeville, LA

HELSINGBORGS SIMSÄLLSKAP Lena Andersson Stengquist Helsingborg, Sweden

SOUTHWEST AQUATICS Joy McGinty Winter Garden, FL

JACK SPLASH SWIM SCHOOL Bill Saxton Sartell, MN

SUPERFISH SWIM SCHOOLS Karen Baildon Queensland, Australia

K&K SWIM SCHOOL Karim Zayed Calgary, Canada

SWIMKIDS Maria Torreblanca San Luis Potosi, Mexico

KLUB KVAPKA Blanka Kvapka Trnava, Slovakia

SWIMTASTIC SWIM SCHOOL Jeremy Skolnik Palm Beach Gardens, FL

LAKE DRAGON AQUATICS Nykia Hunter South Burlington, VT

THE NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER Keith Haden Clermont, FL

LIFE TIME SWIM Jen Rezac Chanhassen, MN

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS FROGGLEZ 18 A3 PERFORMANCE 11 INNOVATIVE 21 AQUAM 11 AQUATIC DESIGN CES 9

JACKRABBIT SWIM

DOLFIN

POOL DOCKS

Inside Cover

FINIS 4

7 25

SNYDER INSURANCE SERVICES 14

SPORTS & FITNESS INSURANCE CORPORATION 9 STRINGCAN INTERACTIVE 2 TRI SWIM

7

USA SWIMMING FOUNDATION 21 USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 29

UNITED STATES SWIM SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 13215 N. Verde River Drive, Suite 10 Fountain Hills, AZ 85268

SADDLE UP FEB. 10 & 11

2018 SPRING WORKSHOP

TO G ETH E R THIRTY

YEARS

EVERYTHINGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BIGGER IN TEXAS U S S W I M S C H O O L A S S O C I AT I O N

W DALLAS VICTORY

2440 VICTORY PARK LANE, DALLAS TX