Lifeguard Lexisof Northwood Pool
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Northwood Pool is a public pool located in Rutland Town, Vermont. The pool is a part of the Northwood Park complex, which also includes several recreational sports fields, basketball courts, and hiking trails. The pool caters to all individuals looking to swim from early June to late August. Although the facility is funded through the Town of Rutland Municipal Services, all members of the community are welcome to visit for a minor fee.
The pool is open daily from noon to 7 P.M. and offers many activities such as adult swim, public swim, and swimming lessons. The pool also hosts birthday parties and caters to large and small group events. It is also a home to tapestry swimming programs and private swimming lessons. Many community events are held at the pool including Fourth of July fireworks, Dive-In movie nights, and the annual Rutland Town Celebration.
A Crafted Staff
Head program director Michael Rowe has crafted a staff of 12 lifeguards that work together to ensure that community members who visit the pool have the best and safest experience possible. Lifeguards work in four hour shifts of six guards at a time, with a rotating daily schedule.
Lifeguards have various expectations and responsibilities they are expected to uphold. Aside from potentially saving lives, lifeguards are required to instruct swimming lessons and fill necessary roles during large town wide events, which includes parking cars and answering potential questions. Lifeguards are also expected to keep the site clean and are required to collect trash at the end of each day, clean the bathrooms and ensure that everything is organized and ready for operation. In addition to these tasks, guards are in charge of operating the concession stand, which requires preparing and handling orders and keeping track of admissions and concessions money totals.
Lifeguards are expected to play a large role in the Northwood Pool community, especially as role models to the youth. This is because safety is such an important factor in the pool environment, and to ensure safety lifeguards are expected to lead by example. By practicing and enforcing pool rules, lifeguards teach the community how to have fun in a safe and appropriate way at the pool.
Veterans
"A discourse community has an explicit or implicit hierarchy and/or structure which, inter alia, manages the processes of entry into and advancement within the discourse community." - John Swales
First stated by Swales and later reiterated by Ann M Johns, a discourse community has “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.” The Northwood lifeguards epitomize this as the guards hold different titles.
Those more advanced in the community are the program director and the head guards. These veteran guards have two or more years of experience under their belts, and they obtain the most authority. The authority includes opening and closing the pool, assigning tasks to the other guards, and dealing with major questions such as inquiries about booking parties.
The authority is granted by the program director after the desirable qualities have been displayed, or if the community needs a new head guard. The authority is demonstrated via the power to assign tasks and choose preferable shifts. The head guards also hold a position of responsibility that is greater than the other guards.
Authority is orally stated by the program director, who gives specific instructions to the head guards in front of the entire staff. Manually, the guards receive authority via their written title, “head guard,” and their higher salary.
Newcomers
In order to join the Northwood staff, a newcomer must come equipped with two things: a lifeguard certification and a good sense of humor. This year, newcomer Logan Kinsman explained that she had no difficulty joining the group, and that all of the guards “were intimidating at first but were super nice and welcoming.” She mentioned that of course there were difficulties being the newbie, such as being “stuck doing all of the jobs nobody else wanted, like cleaning the toilets and taking out the trash,” but overall, she felt she fit in perfectly. There was no real way to avoid those problems, other than moving up the totem pole, which comes with experience. Kinsman noted that she “learned a lot of the language when becoming lifeguard certified but learned her Northwood specific lexis through two information sessions held before the pool opened.”
