Candidate: Sam Rush

Mentor: Hope Mocogni

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Details

During severe weather events, lifeguards are forced to wait on top of their tall metal chairs for patrons to leave the facility while there is lightning and thunder in the area, putting them severely at risk of injury. I hope to work to create an improved procedure where lifeguards are not putting themselves at risk because patrons choose to take their time leaving the facility.

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Related Tasks:

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Related Meetings:

Sam Rush: Meeting 1

We brainstormed 4 different goals and focused on specific conflicts that Sam notices as a guard.

Action items:

• Decide on a goal.
• Begin developing which tasks we want to complete in order to work towards that goal.

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Sam Rush: Meeting 2

We were pushed to move in a different direction due to similar mentorship goals that were already in progress. Our new goal is to improve the safety of our lifeguards during severe weather occurrences. This idea was sparked by the fact that we keep the guards in the chair when there is lightning or thunder and patrons don’t have a ton of urgency when leaving.

Action items:

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Sam Rush: Meeting 3

We started to think about potential tasks regarding the weather goal. After looking at the Illinois Pool Code and the PDRMA policies, we determined that there is a way to make the severe weather plan more specific/more safe.

• The guards on break walk around the deck and encourage patrons to leave.
• The “non-essential” chairs are allowed to come down right when the Thor goes off or there is lightning/thunder.
• The pool manager must be more urgent with their announcements and should also be encouraging patrons to get off the deck.
• No outdoor cleaning or facility tasks (putting on the trash covers, deck walks, etc.) should be done when we do not have the all clear.

These are some of the possible changes we brainstormed. We plan to narrow down the plan once we get more clarity regarding the insurance/pool code requirements.

Action items:

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Related Updates:

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Information about the Goal

Sam Rush arrived at their goal through a series of meetings and refinement. Learn how that process happened.

What should we improve?

The candidate chose items in the aquatics program and department to improve. Goals are broad targets that we will work towards. Every meeting and task done will be in service of that goal. Goals should be large enough to encompass many tasks. Goals may not be attainable. Goals are our guiding direction; our North Star.

Sam Rush's brainstormed ideas:

Improve lifeguard knowledge through online resource
Improve employee safety through improved severe weather procedure
Produce training plans that are more realistic
Make the rules more accessible to patrons.

Goal Evaluation:

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