Survey Results

Coach Kerry to double daily workout yardage in response to 2010 Team Survey

Not really. Read below for what’s really going to happen.

Introduction.    Walnut Creek Masters (WCM) conducted a voluntary team survey duringthe February 2010 to assess the level of member satisfaction with various elements of our program: practice times, stroke work, dry land training, social events, website and communications, fitness events, and open water events.   
This is the second time WCM has conducted a team-wide survey.  This year we received 20 percent return in responses, which mainly represented high frequency swimmers and competitive swimmers on the Team.  The Survey found that in all areas participants were generally satisfied with how the program is meeting their needs.  Open-ended comments offered ideas that were creative and constructive.  They will be fully considered in future Board decisions and planning.  Other comments recommended delegating the work of organizational events to other members, so the burden of this work would not fall on the shoulders of only a few.  Finally, the open-ended comments expressed appreciation for having access to such a fine program, and extended gratitude to the coaches for their dedication.

But we can improve our program. The following are some of the actions the WCM and coaches are taking in response to the survey recommendations:

Plan of Action. 

1)    Stroke and practice comments have been forwarded to the coaching staff.  Changes will be made at the discretion of the coaches depending on the season and general needs of the team.

2)    Practice times must remain the same due to the limitations in pool time availability..   Regarding Saturday practices, WCM will have practices at 9AM, before it opens to the public. We will progress toward advance scheduling of Saturday practices on a month-to-month basis.   A Saturday or weekend workout will be posted on the website.

3)    The Board supports augmenting swimming conditioning with dry land training.  Bosco will be spearheading a committee to work with Kerry in developing a semi-structured dry land program for small groups.  An introductory dry land instruction session opened to all members is being discussed which we hope to offer in May.  We invite any member who is interested in participating in a dry land committee to contact Bosco.

4)    We will continue our traditional whole team events such as the annual summer picnic and holiday party, and will continue to plan such ad hoc special interest events as baseball game outings, night out at the theatre, and Friday happy hours. We will work on further enhancing our social connections. We encourage any Team members who are have ideas for new Team social activities and who are willing to help plan events to contact a Board member.

5)    Board Member and Women’s Team Captain Mary Williams will be our new Webmaster and will work on consistently improving the content of the Team website.   She will use discretion and explore objectives of the website, keeping in mind the cost of time required to keep the website updated and meaningful.  We direct and encourage members to join our Facebook page to network with other members.  All Board members and coaches welcome and respond to personal e-mails.  E-mails can be found on the membership roster of the website.

6)    Board Member Amy Besheim will be in charge of promoting our Team fitness events.  We look for support from all team members to facilitate events as they come up.  Please contact Amy to let her know you can help.

7)    We will continue to supporting team sponsored open water swimming events.  We plan to have our Team banner at Northern California events for our swimmers.  Board Members Mike Piazza and B.J. Henry will lead our Team Open Water activities this year.  We will explore conducting team open water practices at the Shadow Cliffs East Bay Regional Park, and will encourage swimmers to participate in the Pacific Masters Open Water clinics being offered this year.  We will continue our communication of open water events with the Team Website and Open Water email group. 

A detailed report can be found by clicking here.  The Board gratefully acknowledges the members who took the time to complete the survey.  Thank you for your support.