Behind the Scenes: August ‘23

We’ll be honest, the summer months zip by in a flash here at Atlantis! It’s a special time to be around the centre with so much going on. On top of the usual thrum of busyness we’ve had young people hurtling through their summer camp action, high-octane energy burning throughout Summer Sensations and hundreds of young swimmers taking advantage of our Free Swim programme – not to mention visitors, tournaments and all manner of jobs and maintenance. Read on to catch up on what’s been happening at your community health and leisure centre in our summer recap:

Three of our helpers from this year’s Summer Holiday Camp programme

Summer Programme - ‘action, action, action!’
What a blast we had at camp! Both our Sports Camp and our Swim Camps enjoyed a fantastic summer season this year. Thanks to staffing availability we were able to increase the capacity on both camps. This meant we had over 1000 spaces filled during the 6 weeks of the programme. Their time with us involved getting stuck into a whole range of Atlantis activities indoors and out. We’re already looking forward to the October holiday programme!

As if camps weren’t enough, we then scooted headlong into Summer Sensations! Summer Sensations is part of our transition programme, working alongside Oban High School, Hope2Oban, Active Schools, Live Argyll, Oban Youth Cafe and Hebridean Pursuits to offer a programme of bonding activities that helps P7s moving into secondary school ahead of the new school year. Oban High has another lovely group making up the S1 intake this year and it was a treat to have them with us across the two days. We’re already looking forward to welcoming them back later in the year for our renowned overnight ‘Lock-In’ event with local youth work charity Hope2Oban.

Charity Audit - ‘staying accountable’
The governance side of Atlantis is something we don’t talk enough about, and we should – because the various aspects of running a charity are really interesting! Atlantis is a charity, run by a volunteer board of trustees who offer their time and knowledge completely free. One important part of the yearly rhythm of tasks is the annual audit. This is a chance for us to ask outside professionals to make sure everything is being running as it should be. The audit tends to focus on the financial side of things but it’s also a great chance to scan through all aspects of the organisation with each department checking in on how they’re doing. It’s a lot of work and we’ve just completed everything for this year. Ok, governance isn’t the most scintillating aspect of Atlantis but it’s up there as one of the most important – a critical way of ensuring we serve our community in the correct and most appropriate way.

Centre Life - ‘know your building’
Maintenance comes in waves. With an aging facility that wave can sometimes feel like it’s never ending. However, with a robust planned maintenance schedule we’re able to budget accordingly and find a way through unforeseen events. Whilst the centre has been busy with community activity this summer, it’s been busy from a maintenance perspective too.

We kicked off with a refurbishment of our Soft Play. The Soft Play is an unsung hero of Atlantis, offering a fantastic chance for young people to climb and slide and plunge – whilst at the same time offering mum, dad and carers a brief respite to watch on just yards away with a coffee in hand. The facility needed a little TLC which this refresh provided. Seams were restored, worn material replaced and the whole facility given a pep-up.

Speaking of coffee, we’ve recently installed a new coffee and hot drinks machine. Don’t panic – this doesn’t change anything with Beth and the gang from Café Atlantis. The hot drinks machine simply offers anyone visiting Atlantis outside of café opening hours the chance to still grab a hot drink. We’ve got coffees, teas and even soups!

Over the next few editions, we’ll keep you posted on some of the unforeseen projects we’re looking after. With roof repairs, water tank relining, air handling upgrades, biomass servicing, paving repairs, space heater renewal and much more – there’s a lot! We think it’s important that you’re aware of what’s happening at the Centre. If everyone in our community has the chance to know more of what’s involved with running Atlantis, then we’ve a better chance of together protecting the Centre for the future.

Free Swimming - ‘just keep swimming…’
Atlantis was awarded just over £5k in funding to deliver free swimming for young people throughout the summer. This was a fantastic boost to our programme of activity – it meant that over 1700 young people were able to jump into the pool during the busy (and often rainy!) summer holiday season without paying a penny. It’s important to share good news stories like this and a helpful example of showing how, as a charity, we’re able to attract opportunities like this for the good of the area.