All updates, information, and resources will be posted here!

At Machine Performance Center, the safety of our team, swimmers, and parents is of utmost importance to us. During this time of uncertainty, we are monitoring the news constantly so that we stay up to date of the latest recommendations of health professionals from around the world.

Dear Machine Performance Family,

During these interesting and challenging times we are excited to be operational and offering you a safe and welcoming environment for all levels.

We are thrilled to finally be able to welcome everyone back into the critical and live saving skill of learn to swim lessons within the Machine Performance Center. We know we are all anxious to get back to normal; but we want to share that while we are actively preparing to welcome you back, things will look and operate a bit differently. While there is never any perfect guarantees, we are confident that we have properly accessed and reviewed our new operational plan to ensure risk mitigation and provide you a clean, safe and healthy environment to resume swim lessons.

We have attached to this email our Machine Performance Center Standard Operational Procedures for your review. We will also detail some key points here in this email.

1. We respectfully ask that all families adhere to and follow all MPC procedures to best ensure the safety of all participants and staff.

2. Group lessons will be capped at three (3) participants per group to ensure proper social distancing and safety for all swimmers .

3. Private lessons will be one student and one instructor. Private lessons will be conducted in the small tanks.

4. All lessons, group and private, will have a 5 minute gap between end and start times to ensure time for proper cleaning between swimmers.

5. Bathrooms will be open for emergency purposes only and a staff member will escort you for usage to ensure proper cleaning after.

6. We ask that only one (1) parent attend a lesson with their child to ensure we maintain proper social distancing guidelines.

7. Families with multiple swimmers or who must bring siblings will be asked to wait outside the facility or in the car with additional children, when possible. We will have a designated seating area for families with multiple children, when needed. We encourage families to try not to bring non- lesson children with them but we understand this may not be avoidable.

8. Our seating within our 3 lobby areas be reduced to ensure proper social distancing for all parents.

9. A parent will be required to complete the online waiver within 12 hours prior to arrival to EACH lesson. Link will be provided once registered.

10. All families will enter via the “back” lobby on the caboose side of the parking lot.

11. All families will be checked in family by family in the vestibule area. Only one family will be permitted in this area at a time.

12. Once checked in, the swimmer will proceed to their assigned bay/ spot depending if they are in a private or group lesson.

13. Due to social distancing guidelines, parents are requested to watch lessons from the monitors in the lobby or the viewing room overlooking Bay 1 & Bay 2.

​14. 3-5 minutes prior to the end of the swim lessons the deck supervisor will ask parents to enter the pool deck to assist with having their child exit the pool. We ask parents to assist in ensuring social distancing is maintained.

15. All swimmers will exit the facility to the Mill Street side lobby.

16. All families will have 5-10 minutes to dry off and exit the facility. Bathrooms and family changing rooms will available for limited usage and changing. Facility showers remain closed.

17. All areas within the pool room, lobbies and bathrooms will be cleaned hourly.

18. Hand sanitation stations will be available throughout the facility.

We hope that the above overview of our guidelines and our Machine Standards of Operations help you feel confident and safe about your child returning to lessons. As someone who has served on the Virginia Department of Health task force for return to play for competitive aquatics and swim lessons, I assure you we have actively reviewed and discussed all steps that are needed to mitigate risk at all cost. If you have any procedural questions or general questions, we welcome you to contact myself Paris, Dan or, our amazing director that you all know, Nancy Monaghan. We are ready and willing to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

In closing, please use the link below to let us know what type of lesson you would like and we will get you scheduled and contact you very soon to confirm.

We can’t wait to welcome you back!

All the best,

Paris Jacobs

Co- Owner, Machine Performance Center

Dan Jacobs

Co- Owner , Machine Performance Center

Nancy Monaghan

Co- Owner/ Director , Machine Performance Center

We are focusing on three main areas to keep our swim family safe: cleanliness, reducing the number of people in the facility at the same time, and limiting unnecessary contact between people in the facility.

Cleanliness:

• Properly maintained and chlorinated pools: We are swimming in tens of thousands of gallons of liquid disinfectant! The CDC states that pools are one of the safest places to be, with no transmissions reported through pool use. In addition to our regular manual chemical testing, we use top-of-the-line computerized chemical controllers to ensure that our water is ALWAYS kept at the proper chlorination levels. In addition, we have a UV Water Purification system on every pool. These are even better at killing viruses than chlorine! Click here for the latest updates from the CDC on swimming pools safety.

• Additional cleaning protocols: All frequently touched areas will be sanitized at regular intervals throughout the day using CDC-approved cleaning products.

• Limited contact with surfaces: Where possible, doors will be held by a team member wearing a face mask or shield.

• Nightly cleaning: We have always done this, but it is worth mentioning that our changing areas, lobby, and viewing rooms are thoroughly cleaned on a daily basis.

Reducing the number of people in the facility at a time:

• New Class Schedule: We are in the process of enrolling a brand new Summer Session class schedule designed to spread lessons throughout the day in order to limit the number of people in the facility. This adjusted schedule will reduce the number of people coming and going at any given moment by about 75%!

• Wrap ‘n’ Go Policy Encouraged: All swimmers will arrive in their swim attire. We encourage families to “wrap and go” when their lessons are finished. The changing rooms have limited availability and showers will be closed. This will reduce the amount of time each swimmer/parent is in the building. After their lesson, we encourage you to quickly wrap or change your swimmer in their towel and head to the car!

• Parent/Child Class participants will each have a designated changing area on the pool deck. These changing areas will be at least 6ft. apart and we will have 10 minutes in between Parent/Child classes to allow parents time to change and exit the building before the next group begins their class.

• One parent/caregiver: We will require swimmers to only be accompanied by 1 parent/guardian at swim lessons. This does not apply to families who choose to wait in their vehicle. These parents will still need to walk their swimmer to the entry door and pick them up at the exit door. Children may not walk to or from a vehicle unaccompanied.

Limiting unnecessary contact between people in the facility:

• Smaller Class Sizes and space between each class: Our swim lanes for our Learn To Swim classes (Pool 1 and 2) are 8ft. wide each, allowing 3 swimmers to easily participate in a regular swim class while maintaining a reasonable distance from one another. Parent/Child Classes will be held in a larger area than normal to allow each pair more space. Instructor contact will be optional in these classes. Swim Team-style practices held in the Big Pool will have a reduced number of swimmers per lane and a coach on the pool deck.

• Staggered Class Times: Class start/end times will be staggered every 5-10 minutes to reduce the number of swimmers arriving or leaving the facility.

• Adapted Teaching Practices: We have reviewed every activity in our curriculum and will be training our instructors to leave out or adapt any activity that unnecessarily puts swimmers or their instructors in close contact. For example, there will be no group bubble-blowing!

• Option to form your own group class: If you have swimmers within your own family or within a friend group that you would like to take a class together, let us know! Swimmers must be within one class level of each other in order for this to be possible. Send us a message today so that we can work with you to form your group!

• Designated Entry and Exit Points: this will greatly reduce instances of people coming into close contact with one another.

• Parent Viewing: Our viewing rooms will be re-formatted to allow for adequate social distancing. This will reduce the number of parents that can fit in the viewing rooms. We will require parents of children age 5 and below to sit in the viewing room in case their child needs to use the bathroom etc. We will ask that all other parents wait in the car or watch from outside the exterior windows.

• Floor markings to guide swimmers and parents through our facility with as little ‘cross-traffic’ as possible!

• Additional staff placed on the pool deck and at entry and exit points to ensure compliance with our safety requirements.

Other steps we are taking to ensure the safety of our Machine Family:

• Staff and Customer Waivers

• Daily staff temperature checks and vaccinations underway as first responders.

• All non-pool staff will wear face masks at all times.

• We will follow and enforce any state regulations concerning customer and staff use of face masks/shields.

• Additional signage in the facility to promote healthy practices.