Y Monthly Monday Mission Update
Serving a Constantly Evolving Community
While I often use this space to share about a recent Y event which exemplifies our mission, today’s monthly Monday mission update is more of a reflection than it is a report on a singular occurrence.
As we experience change happening all around us, at a seemingly accelerated rate, I am profoundly struck by the Y’s constancy. The term “constancy” expresses a different idea than the concept of being tied to the status quo. If you Google the word, you’ll see that it's synonymous with words like “enduring,” “faithful” and “dependable.” We’re an organization that works hard to embrace both change and constancy. As an entrepreneurially-driven social enterprise, we are compelled to constantly evolve in order to serve a constantly evolving community. However, in the midst of grand shifts in the landscape around us, the Y is continually adapting to deliver a mission that has existed for decades upon decades.
If you’ve been a long-time Y member, you likely have experienced that from the Y. If you have lived a relatively short period of time, what you care about is that the Y is relevant to you today. Those disparate perspectives represent a hard needle to thread, but it’s what constancy at the Y is all about.
Change comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s the result of longer-term generational, demographic, cultural and/or technological changes in our society and community. Sometimes change is forced upon almost overnight, like a global pandemic (remember that?), a horrible natural event or some other kind of unforeseen disruption. At the Y, we are working hard to “skate to where the puck is going” to address those longer-term changes that are happening in our society and community, while understanding that oftentimes “stuff happens” that forces dramatic change upon us, ready or not. Whether longer-term or immediate, it pays to be an organization that embraces constancy while not being overly wedded to what worked really well yesterday.
As I look back on the over 18 years I’ve been privileged to lead this Y, I can say with absolute certainty that while we inevitably make our share of mistakes (about which I am reminded daily!), I know that those mistakes will be rooted in the commitment to trying to better serve an ever-changing community. I am proud of that and proud of the team I get to work with who use that mindset every day here at the Y.
A lot of challenges run through my mind every night as I drift off to sleep (sometimes quite fitfully), but the culture of our Y is not one of them. As I write this, the month of January has come to a close, and I’m proud to report that we’ve beaten our membership target for what is the biggest month of the year for us, with utilization of our Ys at the highest it has ever been. Clearly, people and families are responding to the Y’s commitment to building a healthy, connected and inclusive community – one rooted in both constancy and a commitment to change.
I’ll let one of our members close this monthly Monday mission update out:
“When I joined the Y, I knew I would have access to a state-of-the-art gym, a wonderful pool, and so many classes. What I didn’t know is that I also became part of the Y family—an active, fun, and inclusive community.”
"The Y is like having an extended family.”
Something tells me that’s the constancy that we all really need in our lives.
All the best,
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland