New Director Wants Community Back at Center

The blinds are always up, and if Rob Paterson could, he'd remove the hinges from his office door as well.

The fire department stops the new Caldwell Community Center's director short of this measure of transparency.

In his first three weeks, Paterson's open-door policy with members and his more than 75-person staff has been the first step to improve and revitalize a center that he believes has lost its relationship with the community over the past nine years.

"I've been very, very lucky. It's much better than I thought it would be. Of all the places I've taken over, [Caldwell] is very fortunate that they have all-in-all probably one of the best staffs around. They are very lucky that they have such a good, quality staff. You have people who really want to make this place something," Paterson said Thursday.

"My blinds are up. My door is open. I want to teach every person here how to do what I do. That's how you make them better. Keeping secrets doesn't help anybody. My job is to see everybody here grow."

Paterson, who said his home is just a seven-minute walk away on Westbrook Drive where he's lived for the past 17 years, has been at the community center every day since he was hired at the May 11 Caldwell council meeting.

Some of those instances, however, haven't been in the capacity as the center's director. Instead, Paterson said it's often easier to communicate with members as just another resident of the community.

"The best part is I'll come here at 7 o'clock at night and my 12-year-old will go play basketball and I'll jump in the pool with my 4-year-old, and while I'm in the pool, I can talk to people. 'What do you think we need?' Being able to be out there and talk to the members is where I learn a lot of what people need," Paterson said.

"Some people may not want to walk into a director's office, but if they see me playing basketball … it breaks down those barriers because people see you in a different light."

New Vantage Point

In just a few weeks, Paterson's own perspective of the community center has changed. Paterson, who has more than 23 years of health club related experience, had only been a member of the community center for three of the nine years its been open.

These types of membership lapses have happened frequently and need to be addressed, he said.

"That's where we're going to change things," Paterson said. "My membership would lapse and nobody would call me. I forgot how wonderful this place was. It wasn't that I didn't like it, but it was one of those things that I'd say 'I don't have that money right now.' We need to do a much better job of following up with our members. That's my No. 1 goal.

"They will see things done here come August and September that they've never done. We will touch every member on a regular basis, and not just the current members. We're going to go back to members who left. Why did you leave? What do we need to do to get you back?"

Paterson said the center's membership rate structure is one area that needs to be adjusted. According to Paterson, single memberships range from $400 to $500 and family passes are between $600 and $800. In addition, there are also charter members, who were the first to join the center and their rates haven't changed.

The center, which was previously run by James Nolan until his resignation in April, generated a revenue of $1,463,270 last year. Paterson said there's no reason why the center can't yield a "substantial profit."

While Paterson was unable to pinpoint the exact number of members, he acknowledged some people might be turned away by the center's policy of paying for membership on a yearly—not monthly—basis.

But when broken down, the community center is often cheaper than the monthly rates of other similar facilities, he said.

These kind of explanations is the type of communication and "consumer and customer friendly" atmosphere Paterson hopes to foster within the center, which he considers to be one of the best in Essex County.

"Everyone here has been open to everything I've brought up. We've done more here in three weeks than they did here in a year," said Paterson, who said a staff member suggested a college student membership that has been introduced at $99 a month.

"You have the support of [Caldwell's] council, you have a phenomenal borough administrator [Paul Carelli] who has helped me work through management and how to present things. Everyone told me to be nervous because it's government, but this? I run it like a business until they tell me not to."

A Healthy Regimen

Paterson, 44, began his career in 1988 as New York Sports Club's first private training director and watched as the now giant chain of fitness centers grew to nearly 30 clubs in his five years with the company.

In addition, Paterson built his own club, New Jersey Health & Fitness, literally from the ground up. However, he sold the fitness center after not giving himself enough room to grow and capped his membership in less than two years—it's a mistake he's learned from, Paterson said.

Paterson, who has also directed the Wayne YMCA, was most recently the district manager for Omni Fitness Equipment where he dealt with as many as 22 retail stores along the East Coast.

Paterson and his wife Ellen, a dietitian, have three sons, Daniel, 15, Bradley, 12, and Tyler, 4. Paterson's passion for children was one of the enticing aspects of the community center's director position.

"I love working with children. All three of my children are in the schools," said Paterson, who will earn a salary of $69,020. "I saw a need here. There is a definite need for programs here for children. It had the name 'community center' on it, but it just never was a community center. There was never this warm, fuzzy feeling."

Paterson's Teen Saturday Night Lights will debut this weekend for children ages 12 to 15 from 8 to 11 p.m. The event is free for members and $5 for non-members.

"All you can do is offer it," Paterson said. "What you can't do is get discouraged after the first time if it didn't work. No, then we need to do it better. We need to market it better."

Camp Caldwell

The center will also hold a Camp Caldwell Open House on Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. Parents and children can meet new Camp Director Shannon Cornine and Aquatics Supervisor Jessica Blechar, while touring the facilities and gaining an understanding of what a day at camp will entail.

"I think camp is going to be phenomenal. The way we did it is going to be a little different," Paterson said. "I believe in structure. We're going to keep it classroom style. Instead of just throwing 50 kids on a field and saying to go play with instructors sitting down and hanging out, we don't do that. We went to a class schedule. Kids like structure and it's easier to manage."

Cornine, 22, takes over the camp after serving as a counselor the past six summers. The 2006 Caldwell High grad, who recently received a bachelor's degree in communications and journalism from Saint Peter's College, said the children in the camp over the years have helped prepare her for this position.

"I've learned from the kids. They pick up on things that you don't even realize," said Cornine, a Caldwell resident. "It's really supposed to be us teaching them, but in the end, you realize the kids are teaching you about yourself and how you interact with people. They pick up on the smallest things that most people just miss. That's always the fun part."

The five, two-week camp sessions for children ages 5 to 12 will run from June 28 to Sept. 3. The camp will include classes in gym, art, dance and a pool period with new features like helping to make sandwiches for a food pantry.

According to Paterson, some of the sessions are already close to capacity. He considers that to be an amazing feat considering the economy and a challenge his new camp director will be ready to tackle.

"Who else better to have who would know the ins and outs? When you have someone come all the way up—that's what I believe in," Paterson said. "I want to see everyone grow from within. I'm glad I'm the director here, but my goal is I'm hoping to be here 10 years and the day I leave I hope I have three people already behind me who can do my job."

Cornine has already seen an impact of Paterson's influence in the past few weeks.

"He's very hands-on. If he tells you he's going to get something done, it's done five minutes later," she said. "Any questions that we have, regardless of the time of day or how insignificant the question may seem, he'll answer them and do his best to try and help us get everything going. He's been a great help to have on our side this summer."

Now it's time to get the community on the center's side, Paterson said.

"Right now, we need to get out in the community and tell people we're here again," he said. "We're here. We want you. Maybe we didn't do it right the first time, but we want to make it right."

The Neighborhood Files series is sponsored by the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi did not write this article or have any influence on its reporting, editing or production.