Behind the Scenes at Atlantis
Cafe
This month sees the cafe in the sports centre now accepting card payments for food orders.
Pool changing rooms
Now that the busy summer holidays are over, the centre plans to make repairs to the flooring and the lockers will all be serviced. The centre is also in the process of replacing the two old hair dryers and hand dryers in the toilets with new ones.
Breakdowns
Atlantis’s state- of-the-art Hyprolyser was out of action for a few days this month. The Hyprolyser unit produces pool chlorine from salt to keep the water clean and safe. This is why the pool water can sometimes taste a little salty during busy sessions. Back- up systems were used to keep the swimming pool open and safe for swimmers during this period.
Parking
The parking spaces to the front and rear of the Atlantis building are now pay and display.
Drivers can pay with coins or with bank cards, via their phones and smart watches. Staff say feedback from customers has been positive as there are now parking spaces available for the first time in years for Atlantis users during the busy holiday period.
The money raised from the car parking will be invested back into the community facilities.
Staff news
Iwan Roberts has been promoted from duty manager to operations manager. His role will allow general manager Nick Wesley to concentrate more on raising charitable funds and developing and improving the facilities and programmes offered by the centre. Rebecca Sims has become a full-time duty manager. Rebecca also teaches many fitness classes to adults and dance to the children.
Jade MacEwan, sports development manager, leaves the business this month to pursue a career in teaching.
Jade will be sorely missed as she has worked hard over the past five years improving Atlantis’s dance programme and show, private and rookie swimming, and the children’s party programme, to name a few.
Jade will still be teaching fitness classes and Highland dancing until she completes her training next May.
Social enterprise
Anna has travelled all the way from Germany for a three-week work placement and chance to experience a successful community social enterprise.
So far she has enjoyed being involved with the children’s holiday camps, which over the summer holidays had more than 1,000 visits.
Atlantis had two other social enterprise- related visits this month, one from the New Zealand Social Enterprise Academy, which is looking for inspiration and best practice advice for its rural communities back home.
The other visit was from a film company creating a film for the Social Enterprise World Forum using Atlantis as a case study of a thriving social enterprise in Scotland. Interviews with staff, volunteers and customers were filmed for the project.
Training
Peter Konokpa and Iwan Roberts completed their Social Enterprise Academy leadership course, which they started in January.