Oak Park Pool

Another one of my commitments other than work and family is my position as the interim president of Oak Park Pool and Tennis Club. Our family became members of this great pool, which happens to be very close to our home, just last year. At the same time, I "volunteered" to take on the Membership Director board position to help the president recruit new members. It went well. I put out a Money Savers coupon which allowed families to try out the pool during opening weekend which was Memorial Day weekend - we have the same coupon this year just in case your interested. We were able to gain enough new members to cover the members we lost due to children growing up and moving out of the house. Now this year, I took on the interim president position while we find a president. Nobody wants this position as it is a lot of work with no pay. It is a true volunteer position and is much more political than I would have ever expected. This is a community pool with just over 100 family memberships but there are people who have been members for years and are very passionate about the history of the pool. Anyway, I took the position to help get the pool open this year. I am lucky to have a few supportive board members who have taken on additional responsibility to help me. I don't mind the work and I'm learning a lot about the political process and the importance of upholding old traditions. There are a few people who may not be happy with some of the decisions that we had to make but the volunteers are working very hard and doing the best they can with the resources that we have. I will come back to this topic again as I want to spend some time talking about the importance of the pool in our community and how people from outside of the neighborhood may enjoy the friendliness of the pool and members.