Every Leadership: Lead with Our Hearts and Our Minds (presented by Mike Durnin)
We tend to think leadership shows up in big moments. Big wins. Big decisions.
But most of it doesn’t.
It’s in the middle of an ordinary day—when you’re tired, when no one’s paying attention, when the choice in front of you won’t make headlines either way. This session walks through the Handful of L’s as a daily way of showing up. A foundation you build in small moments so you’re ready for the bigger ones. Learning to think clearly while still leading with care. Holding people accountable while still seeing them as people. Because over time, those everyday choices start to shape your internal scoreboard—and that’s the one that stays with you. Planning & Implementing Capital Projects (presented by ORB Management)
In today’s world, capital projects involve a significant amount of risk and responsibility for the Executive Director, Board, staff and community stakeholders. Every project has similarities in process, roles/responsibilities/etc. but every project is unique and brings its own challenges. With decades of YMCA (and other non-profit) experience as an owner’s representative, ORB will walk through the high-level steps of planning and implementing a capital project and identify key steps in the process, including onboarding the right professionals at the right time under the right scope of services while being sensitive to the fact that you need to spend an appropriate amount of capital – to help you make good decisions or keep you from making bad ones. This presentation will identify information needed to make incremental, data driven, smart decisions along the way while ensuring your mission/vision/values are at the forefront and funding sources are always in alignment with tasks required to move the process forward. Cybersecurity: Threat Landscape Update & Best Practices (presented by CLA)
This content will revolve around cybersecurity and the current threat landscaping facing nonprofit organizations, like YMCAs. This presentation will also walk through examples of what we are seeing from attackers as well as walk through best practices and recommendations to help the YMCAs increase their awareness around cybersecurity threats and cybersecurity infrastructure. The Future Member: Translating Collegiate Trends to YMCA Designs and Programming (presented by Kahler Slater)Campus recreation often serves as a testing ground for the future of wellness, with the budgets and flexibility to experiment, innovate, and push boundaries in ways community organizations often cannot. This session explores how YMCAs and community recreation centers can learn from emerging campus trends and best practices to create more adaptable, inclusive, and engaging member experiences. We’ll also explore the growing importance of designing for future members, as today’s college students become tomorrow’s users, bringing with them expectations shaped by these evolving trends and actively seeking them when selecting their next gym membership.
From holistic wellness initiatives and recovery spaces to flexible programming models and technology-integrated experiences, colleges and universities are often the first to pilot concepts that ultimately shape broader recreation and wellness trends. While community facilities serve broader, multi-generational populations, many of these collegiate rec innovations can be successfully translated when thoughtfully adapted to local needs, facility constraints, and operational realities.
Through real-world examples and design strategies from projects across the country, attendees will learn how traditional recreation spaces can be reimagined as vibrant, multi-purpose environments that support physical, mental, and social well-being. Topics will explore evolving member expectations around flexibility, personalization, recovery, and inclusivity, and learn how spaces such as HIIT and functional training areas, recovery zones, and universal locker rooms are influencing the future of recreation design.
Special emphasis will be placed on maximizing existing facilities, helping organizations identify opportunities to repurpose and adapt underutilized spaces rather than relying on major expansions or capital-intensive renovations. Participants will leave with actionable ideas for translating collegiate recreation trends into community settings, creating facilities that remain relevant, resilient, and deeply connected to member needs for years to come. More than Daycare: Designing Childcare Spaces for Today's Families and Tomorrow's Programs (presented by Zimmerman Architectural Studios)
Childcare facilities are more than classrooms and play areas. YMCA childcare programs continue to evolve, and the most successful environments are intentionally designed to meet the expectations of today's families, support staff effectiveness and retention, accommodate changing programming needs and provide flexibility for future growth and adaptation.
This session will explore how thoughtful facility planning and design can help YMCAs create childcare spaces that work better for children, families and staff. Through examples from YMCA projects and broader trends in early childhood environments, we will discuss how great facility design can shape the user experience, improve day-to-day operations and help programs adapt as community needs change.
We will also share lessons learned from both new construction and renovation projects, including practical design considerations for age group management, toilet rooms and kitchenettes, support spaces, storage solutions and code / approval requirements, as well as other design elements that influence the success of childcare operations.
Whether your YMCA is considering a new childcare center, expanding an existing program or just evaluating the effectiveness of its current spaces, this session will provide ideas and frameworks for creating childcare environments that are functional, flexible and ready for the future. Strengthening a Culture of Advocacy (presented by Paula Wackenheim, Y-USA)
This interactive workshop helps YMCA staff and volunteers strengthen a culture of advocacy by applying practical Advocacy Leading Practices in their daily work. Through real-world examples, reflection, and peer discussion, participants explore how advocacy connects to their roles, builds relationships with decision-makers, and advances policies and funding that benefit their communities. Small-group activities allow participants to either practice stakeholder relationship mapping using the Advocacy Relationship Lifecycle or create a focused action plan to strengthen advocacy efforts within their YMCA. Participants leave with concrete, actionable steps they can begin implementing immediately to engage advocates, share impact stories, and make advocacy more intentional and effective. |
| Decluttering With Purpose: How to Simplify Your Home and Make Room for What Matters (presented by Josh Becker)
Surveys show 54% of Americans feel overwhelmed by the clutter in their homes. Join New York Times bestselling author and founder of Becoming Minimalist Joshua Becker for this interactive workshop on how to declutter your space effectively so you can free up money and time for the things that matter most.
What Makes a Successful Leader (presented by Ricky Sapp)
The world defines successful leadership in many different ways. Being a leader is one thing, being a GOOD leader, is another. We have all likely experienced many different leadership styles. What lessons in leadership did you take away from those who were in charge of leading YOU?
In Ricky's leadership breakout sessions, he will discuss different types of leaders and the positive and negative results of various leadership styles. Pulling from his personal experiences both in roles of leadership as well as with those who led him, Ricky will share his take on the qualities you want to embody and the ones you want to leave behind while you grow in your role as a mentor. From Waitlist to Welcome: Recruiting and Keeping Early Childhood and School-Age Staff (presented by Radar Talent Solutions)
Every Y leader knows the math that doesn't work: families on a waitlist, classrooms ready to open, and not enough qualified staff to open them. The instinct is to blame a talent shortage. But most early childhood and school-age staffing problems aren't a shortage problem — they're a systems problem. The candidates exist. They're just falling through the cracks of a hiring process built for a slower world.
This interactive workshop walks Y program directors and managers through the full Candidate-to-Employee Journey — from the moment someone sees your job posting to the day they celebrate a year on your team. We'll diagnose the three root causes behind most childcare staffing gaps: a clunky candidate experience, no bandwidth for high-volume hiring, and the simple fact that great candidates don't know you're hiring. Then we'll fix them.
Attendees will design a faster, more human hiring process to take back to their branch on Monday. We'll cover role design (what you can train vs. what a candidate must arrive with), the candidate personas hiding in your community (college students, semi-retirees, career-changers, parents), and a 90-day onboarding rhythm that turns new hires into staff who stay. Bring your phone — we'll run a live exercise applying to a real childcare job posting so you feel what your candidates feel.
You'll leave able to: (1) map and shorten your own hiring timeline; (2) write role requirements that widen your applicant pool without lowering your bar; and (3) build an onboarding plan that improves retention before day one. Less waitlist, more welcome. Why They Stay: The Science of Member Motivation & Adherence (presented by Dr. Terrie McNamara and supported by Life Fitness)
Half of new members quit within six months, and the steepest drop comes in the first twelve weeks. When members are asked why they leave, three reasons dominate: cost, time, and lost motivation, and only one of those is something a fitness professional can actually influence. This session puts that lever in your hands. Drawing on two of the most validated frameworks in motivation science, the Self-Determination Theory and Bandura's model of self-efficacy, we'll reframe motivation as a climate you build rather than a trait clients walk in with. You'll learn how to meet the three psychological needs that make motivation self-sustaining (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), how to deliberately engineer the four sources of a client's belief that "I can do this," and why the first six weeks decide whether someone becomes a regular. Every concept comes with concrete, floor-ready moves, and a practical playbook you can use. You'll leave able to spot the early signs a member is drifting and knowing exactly what to do about it.
C.A.R.E for Developing Trust (presented by Mike Durnin)
Trust is the foundation of every successful relationship, team, and organization—but it doesn't happen by accident. In this interactive breakout session, participants will learn the C.A.R.E. framework for building trust through communication and feedback that is Clear, Actionable, Respectful, and Empathetic. Attendees will discover practical strategies to strengthen relationships, improve accountability, navigate difficult conversations, and foster a culture where people feel valued, heard, and empowered to grow.
Tour the Dahl Family YMCA
Transportation provided to the downtown YMCA at 11:15 am and 1:40 pm sessions.
YMCA Learning Hub
Bring your laptop and explore the new YMCA Learning Hub (formerly LCDC). Where is your transcript? What are leadership pathways? How do you find and register for trainings? Learn the ins and outs of the platform and get any questions answered.
Strengthening a Culture of Advocacy (presented by Paula Wackenheim, Y-USA)
This interactive workshop helps YMCA staff strengthen a culture of advocacy by applying practical Advocacy Leading Practices in their daily work. Through real-world examples, reflection, and peer discussion, participants explore how advocacy connects to their roles, builds relationships with decision-makers, and advances policies and funding that benefit their communities. Small-group activities allow participants to either practice stakeholder relationship mapping using the Advocacy Relationship Lifecycle or create a focused action plan to strengthen advocacy efforts within their YMCA. Participants leave with concrete, actionable steps they can begin implementing immediately to engage advocates, share impact stories, and make advocacy more intentional and effective.
Civic Stewardship Begins at Home (presented by Sam Scinta, CEO, La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce)
In this session, La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Sam Scinta discusses how we need to focus more attention on local communities, identifying partnerships that build on the strengths of the local community. When we focus locally we identify that many of the things that appear to divide us at the national level are not as challenging, and that in turn we can develop stronger long-term civic stewardship in our local communities, building on our shared national principles and identifying our common civic duty in the process.
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