Toronto YMCA Mismanagement

Our campaign began March 22 with the personal delivery to General Manager Lesley Davidson of signed petitions from 62 people. (More signed later.)

The petitions expressed a simple objective: the restoration of two squash courts that have been converted to other uses in recent years. As the petitions explained, and as Y management could easily verify, the conversions simply make no sense. They have caused us frequent, unnecessary aggravation, and they are inconsistent with the clearly preferred activities of YMCA members. (See the Court Usage Analysis, which I have presented to Lesley.)

Two earlier petitions from members relating to the same issue had previously been rejected:

• 1997: Ed Dewar submitted a petition signed by 50 members opposing the conversion of one of the five squash courts of that time to “Cycle Fit.”

  Although, like today, it was evident that the racquetball courts were far less busy than the squash courts, Athletic Director Greg Miller insisted to Ed at the time that his “data” on member usage supported the conversion. (This is in fact incorrect. The Y’s own usage statistics showed it made sense to locate Cycle Fit on a racquetball court rather than a squash court. See Court Usage Analysis.) Ed paraphrases Greg’s statement as: “don’t confuse us with reality.” The squash situation was one of Ed’s reasons for leaving the Y.

• May, 1999: I submitted a petition signed by a dozen members, relating to the golf court. The petition was not even acknowledged by management. When I contacted Greg Miller, he told me the petition had been unwelcome because it looked like a “demand.”

  Greg also insisted, as he had to Ed in 1997, that usage statistics showed that the golf court was used as frequently as the squash courts.

Instead, she has demonstrated a style of management which is simply not viable for the YMCA:

• She reneged on the 2-week deadline she committed to for responding to the petition, then refused even to return messages for another 2 weeks. She finally did issue a decision on May 2, 6 weeks after the petition had been submitted. Neither then nor at any time prior did she explain, or even point out, that the original deadline would not be upheld.

• In the course of those 6 weeks, she created delays by initiating unnecessary and wasteful research into issues like “external leisure trends.” The relevant factor to assess was not trends, but current usage of facilities by members. Current usage indicates that the allocation of squash courts to other activities is inefficient and inconsistent with the clearly preferred activities of YMCA members.

• She apparently did not read the petition and take the time to understand our request, since as recently as our April 26 meeting she thought (mistakenly) that we were proposing to eliminate Cycle Fit.

• We might have corrected such misconceptions had she allowed us access to her decision process. But the process took place behind closed doors -- we were excluded.

• When Lesley’s rejection of our petition’s request finally came, the decision was handed down like a royal decree. It was issued without any coherent justification. It flew in the face of the Court Usage Analysis which had been presented in writing to her a week earlier and which made it clear that her decision is inconsistent with member preferences.

• Lesley has refused subsequent requests by members for an explanation of her decision. In a remarkable public email exchange, Lesley replies to questions in a way that plainly evades the issues raised, then refuses any further comment.

• The reason for Lesley’s refusal to explain her decision is obvious. There is no explanation -- none, at least, that is consistent with her duties to the YMCA and its members. Furthermore, her evasions and her refusal to communicate indicate that she realizes this.

• Athletic Director Greg Miller, who reports to Lesley, has gone beyond evasions in dealing with members. For years, Greg has given members blatantly dishonest explanations to justify the successive eliminations of squash courts.

Why is this management style not viable? Because the YMCA (in Greater Toronto) is a charity, supported by:

• your tax dollars;

• corporate donations from TD Waterhouse, Goldman Sachs Canada, RBC Dominion Securities and many other firms;

• the individual donations of 7,700 supporters;

• the efforts and time of 7,000 volunteers.

As YMCA literature notes, being a charity imposes additional responsibilities relating to accountability and costs. Making decisions that have no rational basis, refusing to justify decisions to members, defying reasonable petitions and squandering valuable resources represent a violation of these responsibilities. Neither Richard Bailey nor anyone else can defend such management.

The YMCA’s “COMMITMENT TO SERVICE” (printed on membership renewal notices and elsewhere) promises to “help members participate fully in programs,” “create policies and systems that serve members,” and “ask members and participants about their satisfaction with our services, facilities and operating methods, and promptly take action on this feedback.” Lesley’s management style violates each one of these promises.

It would have been easy for Lesley to do the right thing; to stroll downstairs to the reservation desk and see, at a glance, that squash is overbooked while golf and racquetball are almost deserted; to air the issue sensibly, then follow common sense: eliminate golf, move Cycle Fit to a racquetball court, and turn the squash courts over to squash.

Instead, by keeping Cycle Fit on a squash court, she has opted to reaffirm a clearly erroneous decision (see Court Usage Analysis) that has frustrated and inconvenienced members ever since it was made in 1997.

It seems impossible that Lesley could sincerely believe her decision is the one that best serves the YMCA. By adamantly refusing a change that might suggest past error, she has sought to protect her personal interests, as she perceives them, at the expense of YMCA members and supporters.