Behind the Scenes: November ‘23
There’s nothing like a little exercise to warm you up when the weather turns cooler. Judging by the action at Atlantis this month, it would seem lots of you agree! With events, clubs, sessions and activities continuing with their familiar bustle, it’s been another full month. Read on to catch up with what’s been happening at your community health and leisure centre in our November recap:
Atlantis at 30 – ‘Happy Birthday to us!’
This month saw Atlantis reach an amazing milestone as we celebrated 30 years of community-run health and leisure in Oban. We marked the 30th anniversary with a good old fashioned birthday bash at the Centre. Over 200 members of the community joined in the fun which involved included archery tag, roller disco, mini-movers, football and an inflatable pool session. The celebrations were a chance to stop in the middle of another busy year and fully appreciate all that Atlantis stands for and contributes to the community. Being an independent community-run charity means we’re able to adapt our activity to meet Oban and North Argyll’s health, leisure and social needs. We’re really proud of what this has achieved over the last 30 years and can’t wait to see what the next 30 bring!
Winter Festival – ‘the Best Fest in the West!’
It’s November – that means Oban Winter Festival is here! We’re delighted to take part in the festival programme again this year and it’s already been a whirlwind of festive fun. We’ve had gingerbread house making, we’ve had Winter Bricks, we’ve had an Archery Tag open day, we’ve had Winter Festival Mini-Movers – and we’re not done there! Festival Specials run throughout the length of the main festival programme. It’s brilliant when Oban comes together, and we love being a part of this fantastic event.
Winter Warmer – ‘making everyone welcome this winter’
After the success of last year’s debut – the Winter Warmer is back! As a reminder, the project is an initiative led by Atlantis Leisure that provides support to those that need it in the shape of specialist activities and access to onward support. We know that many continue to face a really difficult time and that winter brings its own added challenge. As a community organisation we want to ensure our community space is available for those that need it most. The project runs throughout the winter and includes a range of activities, social sessions and events to provide community support, encouragement and resource. This year that includes all sort of fun such as Healing Through Dance, cold water swimming introductory sessions, clothing repair workshops, health and nutrition talks, yoga, Artscapade, drop-in socials sessions and LOADS more! All are very welcome, check out the website for more information and timing of the bookable sessions.
Staff News – ‘the team behind the action’
As ever, all this action doesn’t happen by itself! Our staff team have had another busy month with some squeezing in extra training in addition to their usual duties. Our coaching team were involved with specialist training on how to coach and support people with Down’s Syndrome this month. It was a brilliant chance to learn more about how we can make sure we’re doing all that we can to make everyone welcome and fully included in the Atlantis family.
Centre Life – ‘know your building’
Life continues apace behind the scenes here as the facilities team keep up with a range of maintenance and building management tasks. This month that involved the replacement of the gas heaters above Reception. The new units replaced their older, inefficient ancestors and do an important job in creating a warm welcome as you step in from the outside on arrival.
With behind-the-scenes, it’s often the completely unseen things that make the biggest difference – tech and IT solutions are definitely some of these. It takes an impressive system to make sure Atlantis keeps on ticking and this month we’re undertaking work to the server to make sure we’re as up to date as possible. That might sound dull but diligent and secure data management is a really important aspect of being responsible stewards of this community centre. The new system moves towards a cloud-based alternative and will make updates, security and record-keeping much easier and more secure.