Bangor Y’s mull joining forces Likely move ends historic rivalry

loading...

BANGOR – Two local nonprofits with nearly a century of competition behind them will join forces today as one organization if board members vote as expected.

The Bangor-Brewer YWCA and the Bangor YMCA, serving a total of 9,000 members, will become the Bangor Y if both boards approve a proposal to join administrative operations.

The move, designed to improve service, is the first of its kind in Maine and unusual nationwide. It would mean combining each organization’s $2 million budget and creating a joint board of directors.

The YWCA would maintain its Second Street building, and the YMCA its facility on Hammond Street, with each continuing their distinct mission of community service, according to Rob Reeves, YMCA executive director.

“Our goal is not to save money,” Reeves said last week, adding that some savings will result from the more efficient operation. “We want the end result to be more people served.”

Most programs, including summer camps, will remain intact after the proposed consolidation, but the organizations no longer will offer separate memberships, according to Lynda Clyve, YWCA executive director.

An annual membership will provide access to both facilities, and the a la carte programming now offered at the YWCA will continue, she said.

“We’re not shutting down services. We’re not saying, ‘OK, one gym or one pool.’ We’re going to keep them all open,” Reeves said, adding that 80 percent of YWCA and YMCA members won’t notice much difference.

Some swimming and fitness classes may be switched to another facility, Reeves said.

The YMCA’s board of directors unanimously passed the proposal Tuesday, and the YWCA’s board will vote at noon today.

Joint operations would begin officially on July 1, Clyve said.

“The two do so much that’s similar that we could do so much more for the community if we work together, instead of competing,” Clyve said last week.

After its founding in Bangor in 1914, the YWCA rivaled its male counterpart, established nearly 50 years earlier, for funding and program offerings, Clyve said.

The competitive relationship and historically strict gender separation diminished over the years as both organizations worked to serve the local community, she said.

The YWCA and YMCA now share busing programs, a swim team, and an after-school program, Reeves said, and also have collaborated on capital fund-raising campaigns.

The YWCA has continued its traditional focus on women’s health and child care, and three-quarters of its 5,500 members are female, said Clyve, who has worked for the Bangor-Brewer YWCA since 1964.

At 3,500, the YMCA’s membership is divided evenly between men and women.

The nonprofits maintain distinct membership structures, which would be combined under the joint operation, Reeves said. Users now pay one fee for access to all of the YMCA’s facilities, while YWCA members have the option to pay a smaller fee for individual programs and services.

The YWCA, which employs 160 people, houses the six-lane Aloupis Pool and four-lane Means Pool, a workout room, fitness studio and gymnasium. The Isaac Farrar Mansion on Union Street was acquired in 1973. Much of the YWCA’s space is reserved for the 600 kids enrolled in child care there, Clyve said.

The YMCA’s facilities include a 55,000-square-foot exercise room, four-lane pool, climbing gym, racquetball court and child-care space, all staffed by 100 year-round employees, Reeves said.

No jobs would be lost as a result of the joint operation, though some job descriptions may change, Clyve said.

“This is not to try to downsize,” she said. “There will be no jobs eliminated.”

Reeves would become chief executive officer of the new Bangor Y, while Clyve would step down to serve as chief financial officer in the consolidation.Joint operation of YMCAs and YWCAs is unusual nationwide, according to Julie Mulzoff, national media relations manager for the YMCA.

“It’s fairly uncommon,” Mulzoff said. “We hope it’s good for everyone.”

The two Bangor boards would meet together to oversee one operating budget, which would take effect Oct. 1, yet work separately with regards to property, grants and other assets, Reeves said.

Fund raising for scholarships will increase after the proposed consolidation, and sliding-scale memberships based on income will continue, Reeves said.

Nearly $175,000 is donated annually by the United Way of Eastern Maine for youth programming at the YMCA and YWCA. The joint operation could allay donors’ worries about funding similar services at both facilities, according to Jeff Wahlstrom, president of United Way of Eastern Maine.

“I think it will end any concerns that people have about duplication of service,” he said Monday. “They’re combining in a way that I think will be a model for other organizations.”

Wahlstrom facilitated initial meetings between the YMCA and YWCA after suggesting that both nonprofits revisit the idea of consolidation.

“I think they’ll do whatever it takes to make it work,” he said. “It’s an incredibly exciting event for the community because they’re two of the most visible, successful and well-known nonprofits in the community.”

Doug Brown of Camden, who was president of the YMCA’s board in the 1970s and a member of the YWCA’s board of trustees in the ’90s, said joint operation would lead to better service for members.

“It’s two fine institutions, and people don’t realize in a community of our size that it’s a big enterprise for young people,” Brown said Monday.

Brown recalled the competitive relationship between executives of the two nonprofits during a time when a YMCA board member referred to staff at the YWCA as “those broads on Union Street.”

“Those broads” raised money to construct that building, located off Union Street on Second Street, after a 1927 fire that destroyed their former facility in the Coe Building on Columbia Street. During construction, the YMCA “kindly took us in,” according to newspaper accounts.

The YWCA’s pool and gymnasium were added in the 1960s after a fund-raising campaign that brought in $1 million.

The men’s organization, founded in 1867 by a group of returning Civil War soldiers, moved into a new building on Hammond Street in 1970.

The same site was home to the Bangor YMCA’s original building, constructed in 1890, most of which was torn down in 1967 during an expansion.

Ten years later, in 1977, the YMCA board of directors welcomed its first female member.

Clyve became executive director in 1985, succeeding Mary Dyer, a personal friend of her mother. She has waited many years to see the two nonprofits bury the hatchet, Clyve said.

“I have watched these organizations for years compete,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time.”