For the past 7 summers, Excel Aquatics has been able to offer backyard swim lessons to families in the Capital Region. 2021 will officially be our 8th year offering the program, and we couldn’t be more excited! Over the years, this program has certainly evolved and changed to help meet the various needs of families within our area. For those families who are both new and returning, here are a couple of highlights to provide insight into the process of scheduling within our extremely popular program:
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Returning families from the previous summer have first choice of open slots
From year to year, our list of families continually grows. However, before reaching out to and scheduling new families, our staff reach out to their families from the previous summer. For families who had an instructor from the previous summer who is no longer teaching, the staff works to collectively provide slots based on which staff member is the best potential match.
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New family forms
After returning families have had the opportunity to schedule, we begin the process of bringing on new families. This begins with interested families filling out our informational form. Once we receive the informational form, the family is then placed on a wait list.
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Matching process
As the staff reviews the informational forms, we begin the matching process. First and foremost, we look to match the swimmers with a staff member who best meets their needs. Like all coaches and teachers, our staff have specific strengths that we look to take advantage of. Some of our coaches are experts working with beginner swimmers who have never taken lessons, while others are excellent at helping swimmers over the hump of swimming without assistance. Some of our staff work best with full independent swimmers who are working more on skill development towards a competitive setting. The matching process is possibly the most important part of the on boarding phase, as it ensures that any instructor who reaches out has specific experience with helping your swimmer(s) reach their goals for the summer.
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Initial scheduling
Once potential matches have been made, instructors will look to see when those families indicated on their forms when they are potentially available for lessons. From there, the locations of the new families and their times are cross referenced with what the instructor has open and the instructors reach out accordingly.
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Continual scheduling
For families that are matched but the matched instructor(s) do not have availability, they remain on the wait list. On a daily basis, Excel staff will review instructor openings as they come up and continue to help schedule new families throughout the summer.
Each summer the staff work extremely hard to accommodate as many families as possible. 2021 will be no different, and we look forward to seeing our returning families while also working with new ones!