My Nonprofit Reviews

This is a review of Team Eugene Aquatics, which was formerly known as Eugene City Swim Club (ECSC) until ECSC merged with the team at the Eugene Family YMCA in about the mid 2000s. Overall, the coaching on this team is fairly decent and there are one or two coaches who are very good. That said, there are some serious problems with the structure of the organization and members of the board. As a corporation, the only members with voting rights are the board members. This leaves the families on the team no recourse in resolving any issues that arise in a meaningful way. There is a tendency for some board members to set a very negative tone when dealing with families, particularly when it comes to volunteering. Volunteers go largely unacknowledged, and communications from the board to parent volunteers can be downright nasty and have been known to be extremely inappropriate. There are serious conflicts of interest within the board. Nepotism runs rampant and the head coach, who is a paid employee, is a voting member on the board and named as the organization's principal officer on tax returns. Additionally, there is no transparency on the part of the board. At this writing, by-laws have never been posted in an accessible place, board meetings are not announced, and board meeting minutes have not been posted for over a year and a half. Again, the training for the kids is fairly good, but parents should enter knowing that they will spend a good deal of money for membership and meet fees and will not have any rights or influence when it comes to voting or decision making within the organization.

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