The pool will open tomorrow!

Some last-minute notes for the members:

First, our 'early' SwimSafe test for the teams was a BIG success. We had over 80 youngsters show up to take the test in cool water, and nearly all of them passed! Thanks are due to Sharon Grogan for organizing the kids into groups. The board is inclined to repeat this next year, and open it up to all young members who want to take the test, as it will reduce the number of tests during the breaks in the first weeks of the season. We'll review this and make the decision during our October post-season board meeting.

Just want to remind everyone (one last time) that there are no guests permitted on opening weekend.

The pool website hours page (go to About/Pool Hours) has been improved by our Admin, replacing a lot of text with a table that should make it easier to read. We'll update the table with our home meet dates shortly.

There is a picnic table with blue edges by the grills and baby pool. The blue markings indicate that the table is wheelchair friendly. Please DO NOT MOVE the table from under the sunbrella, and be sure to offer one of those edges to a member in a wheelchair if space is available.

Looking ahead to party planning - We have two areas for parties. The area by the grills may be reserved if you will be cooking. You get one grill but the other grill may still be used by members. The limit on the grill area for a party is 25 people TOTAL (members and guests). If you're using the large area by the sand pit and playset, there is more room and no limit on people. Please remember that the 'host' of the party is responsible for making sure that the area is vacated on time, and that it is left clean. We have a new online form for party reservations. Please complete this form to request your party dates!

Special events - you'll be seeing announcements on the website and via this weekly email for signups for special events. We're going to have Rafternoons (with the Dolphin Diner), some late nights, and other fun stuff. Please sign up if you want to 'lead' or 'help' with an event. With the exception of Rafternoons, if we don’t get membership participation to help run the event, the event won't happen! If you have an idea for a special event (?karaoke?) please reach out to angie@greenbriar.org! The first Adult Late Night is tentatively scheduled for June 21. Have an awesome party idea to share? Want to pick the theme and select the food and beverages? Sign up today!

Pickleball - The gate between the pool and the side lot courts will be open when the pool is open after opening weekend, unless the pool is near capacity. If that occurs, we'll close the gate between the pool and the courts, and require members to use the small door to access the side lot. The guards will have the code for that door if you don't know it.

That covers the last-minute "should know" stuff. While the weather this weekend is going to be in the 70s, no rain or storms are predicted, so come out and enjoy the pool. After all, if a bunch of children braved the cooler water earlier in the week so they could wear their swimsafe bands to school for bragging rights, we old(er) folk can't fall short!

The Board wishes everyone a safe and happy season!

Updates!! One Week Until Opening!!

With one week until we open, I wanted to bring you up to date on our readiness.

By now you may have noticed all our sunbrellas are up, including the new one in the Southeast corner, which replaced the unit that wouldn’t close last year and was damaged in a windstorm.   The pool furniture is out on the deck - we had only a few units get broken last season so this is the first year we haven't had to order new chaises and covers.   'Swifty' (our robotic pool vacuum) is up in Pennsylvania getting repaired, so you'll see NVPools staff at the pool operating a manual vacuum to get the water to the state we've come to expect.  The water heaters for the restrooms were replaced, and we should have the playground equipment inspected and sanded where necessary.  We may have to close the sand pit playset for a day during the season to have it restained, but we'll let  you know.  If we can, we'll postpone the restaining until September after the pool has closed.  A big ‘thank you’ is due for Mr. Mike Ebert, who has reworked our Pi-based dashboard system can use new middleware to keep folks up to date.   Please note that if you bookmarked the dashboard – the web address has changed.  Please bookmark https://io.adafruit.com/ebertmp/dashboards/greenbriar-pool-club?kiosk=true – the pool website has been updated.

Alexis Fitzgerald will be managing the NVPools staff, and we're glad to see so many of our previous guards returning, as well as a couple new faces.  They're all looking forward to the season, so let's all work to live up to our reputation as a club that has a real sense of community, and is respectful to each other and to the staff.  Board members will be present for most of opening weekend, to welcome folks back and to be available in case a quick decision is needed.  Members are reminded that there are no guests permitted on opening weekend.

This week you'll see a bunch of kids at the pool on Monday the 19th (or another day if Monday is rainy).   Because our swim and dive teams are both large AND young, we've brought in staff to run swimsafe tests for the team members.  This benefits everyone, because we won't have hundreds of team members clamoring to take swimsafe tests during the first weeks of the normal season.  Of course, the drawback (for the kids) to taking the test early is that the water and air temps can be cooler than once we're open. This is the first year we've tried this, and if it goes well and there's interest we may do the same thing next year and open up slots for an 'early' swimsafe test to the membership at large.

As we gear up for another fantastic season, we’re excited to bring back some of your favorite special events—like Late Nights for adults and teens!

To make these events successful, we need your help! Volunteers are essential to keeping things fun, safe, and running smoothly. Whether you can lend a hand for setup, check-in, or just keeping an eye on things, your support makes all the difference. Keep an eye out for upcoming SignUp Genius links and event dates! We’d love to have you involved. Thanks for being a part of what makes our pool community so great!

The last thing I want to make you aware of is a recent request by some members who are parents of children at Greenbriar East (GBE).   I'm sure that everyone who lives in the neighborhood is aware of how the GBE student load has grown significantly in the last few years, enough that the county has had to cover the blacktop playground with four portable classrooms, and that there's probably going to be a redrawing of the borders between the elementary schools in our region.   Because the blacktop playground where GBE normally holds their sixth grade promotion party is unavailable, and the other open spaces on the school grounds don't have access to power and water for the food or activities, the parent members asked if they could use the pool parking lot for the party on June 10.  Further complicating the issue is that the parents were given the responsibility for the party quite recently, and a greatly reduced budget, so they did not have lots of time to explore alternatives.

Because the pool is open at that time, the Board decided that we did NOT want to completely close the parking lot (and the pool with it), but we came up with a compromise.  It's our plan to cone/tape off a section of the parking lot (along the wall near the park and dumpster area) and leave the Point Pleasant gate closed until 4 PM.  The Middle Ridge gate would be open, and members would be able to park on the Middle Ridge side of the parking lot, or on Middle Ridge drive itself, and the pool would stay open to the membership.  We will have GBE volunteers  ensuring the kids stay in "their" area, and we ask that the members take extra caution while there are activities on the parking lot.   There was a LOT of discussion about this by the Board.  Our normal practice is to keep the facility (pool/lots) for the exclusive use of the membership, particularly during the time when the pool is open.  But we also recognize that the Board and our membership are part of this community, and we try to help the community out when we can without limiting member access to the facility.  The majority of the Board felt that this was a reasonable compromise under an extraordinary set of constraints, so we're going forward.   Members are cautioned that this is NOT likely to happen again.  While the decision is made, I do want feedback from the membership - please send me a message (president@greenbriar.org) letting me know if you support or disagree with the Board's decision, and your reasoning.

First Look-Ahead Message to the Membership

Warmer weather is finally here, and you'll see more activity at the pool this month as we get ready to open on Memorial Day weekend. NVPools will be setting out the furniture, cleaning the pool, replacing the 'stuck-open' sunbrella, and patching the whitecoat before filling the pool. Chance Putzke is getting our hot water heaters replaced as well, and our diving boards have been inspected and serviced. We've gotten over 90% of our memberships paying the maintenance fee on time. The Board hates assessing late fees, but we need to do it. We hope that all our members know how to get to the Member Splash web system (https://greenbriar.membersplash.com) - if you don't have it bookmarked, please do so! And if you have an issue, PLEASE reach out to the admin by calling 703-378-4421 or sending an email to pool@greenbriar.org. We'll be sending updates weekly during the month of May and throughout the season once we're open.

From our teams:

SWIM TEAM:

Registration for the Greenbriar 2025 Summer Swim Team is now open. To register your swimmer(s) navigate to https://www.greenbriardolphins.org/register and complete the registration as prompted. Registration can also be reached by navigating to www.greenbriardolphins.org and clicking on 2025 Registration just below the navigation bar on the right hand side of the screen (scroll down towards the bottom of the page on a mobile device). If you are a returning family with a Swimtopia account you should login before beginning registration to make the process easier.

The registration deadline is May 13, 2025 or until our roster is full. Last year we ended up with a full roster so don’t delay!

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to email the Team Reps at swimrep@greenbriardolphins.org.

DIVE TEAM:

Dive registration for the 2025 summer season is open! Practices start May 27th at 6:15 pm. We will hold evening practice Mon-Fri until school is out, and then we will offer a morning and an evening practice. Dive meets are held on Tuesday nights starting June 17th.

Come see what dive is all about. No experience is needed. You can learn more and register your child at https://greenbriar-pool-dive-team.swimtopia.com/ or email us at greenbriar.dive@gmail.com. See you at the pool!