Behind the Scenes at Atlantis
Well, it has been another whirlwind of an Atlantis year, filled with activities, clubs, whacky new sports, fantastic personal achievements and bold new plans for the future.
Here are some highlights of how December brought us round into the home straight and set us up for a new year.
Centre life
Our Games Hall roof is, fittingly, a ‘crowning’ final project for the end of the year. The works to fix the leaking sections have been commissioned and were due to be completed in time for Christmas. Our fleet of spin bikes had a comprehensive service this month too.
Maintenance might seem a bit hum-drum to anyone else, but at Atlantis we celebrate it! We see normal wear and tear as a measure of how well equipment is getting used, which in turn tells us how well Atlantis is getting used. So, the bikes have a fresh new lease of life, ready for another year of enthusiastic pedalling! We really can’t over-emphasise how big a difference the understanding and patience of the Atlantis community makes when it comes to things needing fixed.
This year has brought us some significant maintenance projects and we really appreciate your tolerance during works and your enthusiasm for the end product – thank you.
Atlantis in the community
This month saw another fantastic Atlantis Dance Show with a full programme of brilliant performance. We were delighted to welcome Oban Dance Academy as part of the event, bringing with them a piece which was included in the show. Thank you again to them for joining us and to everyone who put in all the hard work in preparing for the night.
The Otters have been busy too! – the swimmers had a Gala on December 1 which was another resounding success.
We love witnessing the work that is done by the Otters family, not least the positive impact this close-knit group of parents, families and friends have on each other and the wider community.
We’re privileged to have so many community enterprises and projects in our wee town, not least our very own radio station. Atlantis have long worked closely with Oban FM and are so grateful for how they help us let you all know what’s going on at the centre. This month, we made the decision to move to daily ‘what’s on’ radio updates to give you as accurate and regular information as possible. So tune in!
Staff news
This month, the Atlantis management team attended LivingWorks: safeTALK – this was a mental health awareness course run by the Job Centre.
This is excellent training on how everyone can increase their mental health awareness and suicide alertness. We think it’s important to keep ourselves informed about the many different and changing ways mental health affects our community.
It was really helpful for the team to take the time to learn how Atlantis can help, often just by doing the simplest of things well. Thank you to the Job Centre, Des from Martyn’s Monday Club and everyone involved in making the training happen.
We were so impressed with the candidates who made it through to interview for our latest full-time position this month. The standard of applications made the decision making process very hard indeed.
Craig MacCorquodale really impressed the panel at his interview which led to him being the offered the full-time position.
The staff team will really benefit from Craig’s new role as he brings considerable skills in badminton, archery and swimming. And he’s not hanging about either, with his Level 2 swimming teacher trainer booked for January already. Congratulations Craig!
Craig’s appointment is a lovely note with which to wrap up the staff team year.
Like every year, it’s brought its challenges but the management team have been consistently made to feel very proud and very thankful of the whole Atlantis staff.
Having a team that can be relied on to get the job done is one thing, having a group of individuals committed to realising Atlantis’ values by going the extra mile and who look out for one another along the way is another precious thing altogether. Bring on next year!