YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City

This facility is one of the nicest YMCAs I’ve seen. I have lived around the country and usually join the Y wherever I am. It’s clean; it has an amazing aquatic center. As well, it’s located in in a great place, at Mitch Park, with trails and other community facilities and activities. Here’s the rub, the staff often comes across stressed, unknowledgeable, and frustrated; that’s not to say they aren’t friendly (though sometimes I would say that!). Bottom line is the place seems to lack good management and it is a VERY crowed facility, so good management is essential. It is new, so it may get better as the staff becomes more seasoned, or it could get worse because the director seems as flustered as some of the staff. To be fair, I was there with my family on the weekend and the weekdays might be better (unfortunately my family is usually only available on the weekends). So, after a particularly bad visit during the recent regional swim meet I tried to get someone from management to help me understand why paying members could not use the leisure side of the aquatic center. It was not being used, so why not let families use it. However, there was no manager available and the young lady I dealt with must have answered the question a few times because she was not in a mood for my question. She only became concerned when I became more direct and asked for her name (conversations should not be reduced to this). It seems odd that not a single manager, never mind the director, was on location during such a big event. I called the director during the week, admittedly critical of the operation; he was arrogant and overall unsympathetic to my complaint. He did a reasonably good job explaining why the leisure pool was closed to customers during the previous two weekends (no matter what, no exception, regardless if it was being used or not), but he did it in such a way that completely disregarded me and my family as a paying customer. After several minutes of unfruitful conversation I said good by and checked my blood pressure. :-) In the short conversation with him, he displayed very poor people skills, which got me to thinking; this might be a good place to start when trying to understand why some of the staff seems stressed and short with customers. An organization very often reflects the attitude and work ethic of the boss.
Here’s my assessment: nice facility with a staff that seems a lot like employees at a DMV. As I understand it, there is, or has been, considerable public funds going into the facility (my, our, taxes I guess), and they kind of act like a government type of organization rather that a business that needs to compete for customers (after all they do have a monopoly on community centers in Edmond). The monthly fees are no less expensive than a place like Gold’s Gym, so one would think a customer should be treated… well, like a customer. The top guy is not called a manager; he is a «director,» which smacks of government (no offense to government employees – I’m one– but they are not vying for customers). During my conversation with him, he sounded much like a government bureaucrat.
So my recommendation is that if you need a community center, this is a nice place and you really have no options anyway. But if you want to be treated like a paying customer, try another fitness facility.