Organization’s management say they depend on volunteers
The YMCA’s fitness instructors have grown tired of not getting paid. And some of the organization’s members have grown tired of not having quality instruction.
A petition signed by 70 Santa Monica YMCA members was delivered to management this week that demands the community organization pay its fitness instructors.
Unlike many affiliated YMCAs throughout Los Angeles County, the independent YMCA is allowed to set its own policies on paying instructors. And while the affiliated Westside YMCA in neighboring West L.A. pays its instructors, those in Santa Monica are all volunteers.
In exchange for teaching three one-hour classes a week, instructors are allowed unlimited use of the YMCA’s new $8.5 million facility near the corner of Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard.
Some Santa Monica YMCA members say the unpaid instructors don’t take teaching classes seriously and they are forced to deal with unexpected class cancellations, high instructor turnover, and an ever-changing schedule of classes.
348,“I’m incredibly frustrated,” said Barbara Olsen, a YMCA member that helped organize the petition. “Every time I find a class or an instructor I like, they move to Gold’s Gym or some place that’s going to pay them.”
Instructors say as a group they feel demoralized not because they aren’t compensated for teaching classes at the YMCA, but because they feel management doesn’t value the time they commit to teaching classes.
“I think that a volunteer program is a good way to go,” said Gary Slacum, a step aerobics instructor. “My problem is that in order for me to be a volunteer and do a service exchange, I have to teach three classes a week... teaching three classes a week is a lot of time,” he said.
Neither Dr. Gee-shin Lee, the YMCA’s general director, nor Tara Pomposini, the YMCA’s associate general manager returned calls Friday.
But according to recent accounts in the media, YMCA officials said they run an organization based on volunteerism and community service. The YMCA provides its 19 instructors with music for their classes and it pays for their certification training.
Slacum said a lot more than that goes into conducting a class.
“When somebody teaches aerobics, there’s a lot involved,” he said. “There’s the cost of tapes, the cost of clothing, preparing the routine, having to be there on a regular basis.”
In the past, instructors have asked the YMCA to review its volunteer instructor policy, but management has refused to implement a payment plan, Olsen said.
“All we want is for the Y to do what’s right for members and instructors,” said Pamela de Liz, a YMCA member that helped organize the petition. “Members pay dues comparable to other gyms in the area. Why can’t one of the nation’s largest Y’s pay its instructors like other facilities?
543,“The Santa Monica Y prides itself on building community, but no strong community ignores the legitimate grievances of its members,” she added.
Olsen said members pay nearly $500 a year to use the YMCA’s facilities, and if the conditions don’t improve many families may consider switching to cheaper private gyms with more choices.
“The problem is that teachers feel devalued by the policy and members are pissed because we pay competitive rate and we’re not getting the same caliber of courses than if we joined 24 Hour Fitness, which is much cheaper,” she said.
However, neither Olsen nor de Liz said they would ever leave the YMCA. Same goes for Slacum and two other YMCA instructors interviewed for this story who requested anonymity. They said members and instructors feel like they are part of a community.
In Olsen’s case, her family has been members of the YMCA for decades.
“My sense is that people feel great loyalty to the Y,” she said. “My husband has been a Y member for most of this life.”
“People know the Y, they’re comfortable with the Y, and they feel a great loyalty to the Y.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2002. Read the original PDF.