vivacity voice april 2016

1

THE PUBLICATION

FOR VIVACITY STAFF

& VOLUNTEERS

APR 2016

Find us on Facebook /vivacitypeterborough

Follow us on Twitter @vivacitypborovivacity-peterborough.com

For me this is a very special edition of the Voice, with so many reasons to celebrate our staff, volunteers and their achievements over the last few months.

It is rare nowadays to be able to map out a life-long career path within an organisation so it is good to see that plenty of role improvement opportunities do exist for staff at Vivacity. Planning the next steps in your career journey is important for everyone; hopefully you have had an opportunity to share your aspirations with your line manager as part of your recent 3PDR.

I was also particularly interested to read how volunteering at Vivacity has led to a new business venture for one of our regular volunteers, who continues to support us with his photography service. What a great story, demonstrating just how rewarding and inspiring giving up a little of your time for Vivacity can be. I look forward to reading more of these success stories in the future.

ContentsForward Thinking 1 Challenge Kevin

Celebrating You 2-4Welcoming James Cole Staff Social Badminton Night

Your career journey with Vivacity

Going the Xtra Mile Awards 5Christmas Jumper Day

Vivacity & You 6Cycle to work is back

Your Health & Safety at work

Volunteering 7Unsung heroes

Announcements 8More Help needed

Selfless Selfies

Exclusive offers

Challenge Kevin Video 9

Kevin Tighe, CEO

Forward Thinking

Get involved and add content to the Voice contact Hayley HuntEmail: [email protected] or Phone: (01733) 864 266

See page 9 for images & video link

Do you have a special skill, hobby or just a wicked sense of humour? How would you like to throw

down the gauntlet to Vivacity CEO, Kevin Tighe with a challenge

of your own creation?Friday 18th March 2016 Natasha Ellis ‘Challenged Kevin’ to a Zumba Workout at Vivacity Premier Fitness (VPF). After a fun filled 45 minutes of some impressive

co-ordination…and then some less impressive co-ordination, it would

seem that Kevin does have some serious moves!

Kevin said ‘Natasha clearly is very good at what she does. It required a great deal of concentration to keep up and Zumba was definitely more fun that I had anticipated.

It was good to try something new, I might even come again, but perhaps without the audience next time’.Natasha said ‘Kevin was a really good sport; Zumba is a fun packed dance based class that Kevin literally threw himself into , he did amazingly well for his first class and I secretly think he quite enjoyed it if his smile was anything to go by! It was so great to see Kevin at VPF engaging with customers and staff and in such an unusual and fun way. I look forward to reading about his next challenge.’ Vivacity invites you to Challenge Kevin! Send your ideas to Shane Bisley at [email protected] Entries for next edition of the voice must be submitted by 1st May 2016.

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Welcoming James Cole

Sports Development Manager

Celebrating you




I am excited to start my role leading the Vivacity Sport Development Team and working to increase the number of opportunities for the people of Peterborough to engage in sport and physical activity.

I graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2006 with a degree in Sport and Exercise Science, I then spent the next five years working for Nacro in Sheffield developing and leading on their community outreach and education programmes successfully opening a community gym for young people to access.

The time I spent working for Rotherham United Community Sports Trust engaging young people in sport and promoting the benefits of physical activity and leading a healthy lifestyle was particularly rewarding. I have also worked within the education sector in Sheffield working across KS1-4 supporting challenging pupils and seeking to engage and inspire them through sport.

I believe I can put this experience to excellent use in my new role at Vivacity.

Away from work I enjoy spending time with my family (especially bowling with my children). I am a lover of live music and enjoy visits to the cinema and a lover of sport with my main passions being football and rugby union.

I am delighted to be taking on this role and joining the Vivacity team. I look forward to meeting new colleagues and learning all about the services that Vivacity provides.

Sport and physical activity has a huge part to play in entertaining, engaging and inspiring people to fulfil their potential and I look forward to playing my part in vivacity’s plans for the future.

Vivacity Staff Social Badminton NightDig out that old badminton racquet from the back of the wardrobe or polish your trusty net master for battle.Roll-up and enjoy a night of social badminton with your colleagues across Vivacity for Just £1.00!

NO NEED TO BOOK!Enjoy 2 hours of organised games to suit any level, yes beginners are especially welcome.

Organised doubles matches, round robins and then a get together at the pub afterwards!

Come along every Monday evening 6-8pm, starting on the 11th April, at Hampton Library & Leisure Centre. See you there!

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Celebrating you

Special thanksGo out to the Cultural Team who have helped to fill the void over the last 9 months while they were without a permanent Director of Culture. Jon Marsden and Sean Nolan would particularly like to recognise the help they have received from you all during this challenging time.

Richard Hunt takes up a new role with Vivacity as Director of Culture from the beginning of March.

Many of you will know him from his previous roles over the past five years as Archives Manager for our Archives Service in the Central Library, as Archives and Collections Manager overseeing the teams that curate our stock and heritage collections in the libraries and museum, and most recently as maternity cover as Head of Cultural Development. Prior to working with Vivacity he worked in libraries and archives in Nottingham and Oxford.Outside of work, Richard spends most of his time meeting the demands of a very opinionated and exhausting toddler. When he gets a moment’s break from Duplo and reading ‘Rabbit’s Nap’ he enjoys singing tenor in a cathedral choir, playing the piano and campanology - ringing church bells.Richard says “I’m really excited to be taking up this new role in Vivacity. It’s an organisation that I am really fond of with wonderful events and activities, wonderful collections, and, most importantly, wonderful people. I’m looking forward to working more closely with you over the weeks and months to come and help you develop our services so that great culture inspires more people both in Peterborough and further afield.”

Richard Hunt

I initially joined Vivacity at 16 years old as a volunteer in the Sports Development Team, regularly leading sporting activities across the city.

I soon became a Centre Assistant at Werrington Leisure Centre, a role that I worked in for three years which gave me the experience to advance further within Sports. As a result, I was asked to cover Supervisor shifts whilst completing a number of qualifications in management and fitness. This in turn allowed me to learn more about Vivacity and its core objectives as a company.I am now enjoying my new role as a full time Supervisor at Bushfield Leisure Centre. I hope to thrive and develop even further within Vivacity meeting new people and achieving more career goals.

Alex Redhead

Your career journey with VivacityWhat a fantastic beginning to the year it has been for Vivacity staff with so many of you receiving internal promotions. Take a look at who took their next step with Vivacity since January, we wish them all success in their new roles.

Ever since I left college, working hard to achieve successful career progression has always been my main priority. I originally started at Vivacity in 2010 on a zero hour contract working as a lifeguard.

During the first six years I have steadily progressed through a range of front line roles at various leisure centres across the city. In my first full-time gym position I always used to wind the Gym Manger up by saying “one day I’ll be in your job and manage this gym”. With supportive Managers and hard work, I quickly moved into supervisory roles at various locations. In December 2015 I grasped the opportunity to work at the Key Theatre as Duty Manger, it was a great experience, I would recommend anyone presented with an opportunity like this to see the company from a different perspective. As a result of the various experiences I have gained over the years I have now been promoted to Duty Manager at Regional Fitness & Swimming Centre. I am very excited to be joining the Regional management team and look forward to the significant challenges ahead.

Ashley Pacey

Lucy is our new Box Office Supervisor at the Key Theatre, responsible for the day to day management of one of the busiest reception areas in Vivacity.

Lucy started with Vivacity 5 years ago as a Box Office casual, progressed to being a full time assistant and has now stepped up into the role of supervisor. Lucy has also worked as Front of House at the theatre and has great knowledge of how the theatre works, and what it takes to make it a special experience for our customers. Lucy has trained a number of our casual staff and her enthusiasm for theatre and passion for delivering exceptional customer service will help steer Box Office into a bright future, with a real focus on improving the customer journey.Lucy Matson

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Celebrating you

Natasha Ellis promoted to Gym Manager

Natasha is now responsible for managing the fitness element across Vivacity Premier Fitness, Hampton Leisure Centre and Bushfield Leisure Centre. Natasha has a wealth of knowledge and experience having worked in the industry for over 24 years in a variety of roles from Fitness Instructor to Assistant Club Manager. She brings a real passion for everything health and fitness and has a fantastic rapport with our members and can often be found in the café at Vivacity Premier Fitness with her huge following of class participants. Natasha has worked for Vivacity for nearly 2 years as the studio co-ordinator and has played the lead role in developing the class timetable with amazing success and we can boast class timetables with huge variety and popularity that cater for our wealth of members. She is also a leading light on our timetable with her many classes brimming with members.

Andrew Playle & Natasha Ellis

I have been working as a Centre Assistant at Werrington Leisure centre for 12 years and have enjoyed my time in this role.

Since being promoted to Supervisor I am now looking forward to all the new challenges that this role will bring as well as working alongside my team to ensure we are always delivering the excellent service the clientele are accustomed to at Werrington. I’m excited to start work on projects like Rollers, I have planned some themed events in the past which have been very successful.

Johnny Nastri

Andrew Playle promoted to Studio Co-ordinator

Andrew has previously worked at the Regional Fitness and Swimming Centre as a Gym Instructor. Andrew is a Les Mills Tribe Coach, which means that he mentors new and up and coming instructors in both Body Pump and Balance. This is a fantastic achievement and is well recognised within the industry. He is a top class instructor in his own right. He brings a real passion for group exercise and is the perfect person to continue to drive the success of the class timetables.

His experience of working on the gym floor will also really aid the continued development of the gym teams and he will be of great value to Vivacity across Vivacity Premier Fitness, Hampton Leisure Centre and

Bushfield Leisure Centre.

Rachel Walmsley promoted to Heritage Programmes and Commercial Development Manager.

We are delighted to announce that Rachel Walmsley has been appointed to the role of Heritage Programmes and Commercial Development Manager. She will lead on programming our exhibitions offer in our Heritage sites and she will ensure that we continue to attract more visitors and income to our attractions and events. Rachel has been with Vivacity in various roles since first joining us as Skills for the Future trainee over five years ago. Her most recent post with us was working on Real World Science and our New Ventures programme. Congratulations Rachel!Rachel Walmsley



5vivacity-peterborough.com

Going the Xtra Mile Awards


Bev Jones

For her outstanding work on the Peterborough and the Great War project. Bev’s has been awarded the going the xtra mile award for her extremely hard work, often out of hours and excellent communication skills liaising with the external media company so that the project media launch ran without a hitch.

Anne-Marie Hastings (Rie)

Anne-Marie has been awarded her Going the Xtra Mile award for her outstanding work on the new website project. She has demonstrated commitment, initiative and drive by delivering well considered website page layouts based on her competitor and internal research. Well done!

Kathy Murphy

Kathy’s commitment to Vivacity was transparent over the Christmas period as she worked a number of extra days, including New Year’s day to ensure the purchase ledger was closed for December on time, despite the number of bank holidays. That really is dedication, thank you Kathy!

Vivacity Membership Advisors Kerry Lyford, Shane Bisley, Kerry Walters, Jessica Martin, Rachel Johnson, Maddie Woods, Richard Smith

Well done to the Vivacity Membership team for storming the January sales target and under considerable pressure coping with the unprecedented volume of gym membership sales which has been appreciated. They will be recognising this success with a celebratory meal out on 9 April 2016.

Elaine Geary

Elaine’s Going the xtra mile award is in recognition of the outstanding work she has recently completed helping the Regional Fitness and Swimming Centre (RFSC) to achieve and retain an Investors in the Environment (IiE) entry, and subsequently the green award in successive years.

She has also helped get the IiE award at the Jack Hunt Swimming Pool and acted as environment champion over and above her normal duties, recently single-handedly managing the external IiE renewal audit at

RFSC during a period of staff absence. Well done Elaine. Christmas Jumper DayJamie Fenton (Sports) and Sam Coleman (Libraries) have confirmed £60 was raised on Christmas Jumper day at Vivacity supporting Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children. Thanks everyone!

Raised £60

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6 Find us on Facebook /vivacitypeterborough


Vivacity & You

Cycle to Work is back! We are pleased to announce that we are running the scheme again this spring. The scheme is open to all salaried staff and is there to get people fitter, healthier and helping the environment by cycling to work on brand new shiny bikes!

The scheme allows you to choose a voucher (between £100 to £1000) to buy a new bike, plus safety equipment and then pay that off in 12 monthly instalments through salary sacrifice. Salary sacrifice allows you to save the tax and insurance off the value of the loan, so for example a Basic Rate Taxpayer could have a voucher for £250 and would have to repay £170 during the 12 months. If you choose a voucher of £1000, you would repay just £680.

The deadline for applications is 14th April 2016. Please contact HR for further information or an application pack.

Example

Your health & safety at workVivacity provides a safe and healthy environment for all its employees, volunteers, customers, service users, contractors and visitors. We want to ensure that the necessary equipment and training is provided so that Vivacity venues and offices are a safe place to work and visit.

The Vivacity Health and Safety Working Group (HSWG) meet four times a year to investigate any potential hazards or accidents in the workplace and identify and develop effective Health & Safety meas-ures to create a safe environment for all.

The HSWG operates in a positive way - reinforcing safety culture and employee participation in the management of health and safety within Vivacity. We will be rolling out an awareness campaign promoting health, safety & well-being. We welcome feedback and concerns from everyone. You can do this by emailing one of the staff representatives in the table above who will present your concerns to the HSWG.

Your Vivacity Health & Safety RepresentativesJon Marsden Chair Laura Gammons HR RepFiz Shaheen Ops repTeresa Patchett Key Theatre repIan Williams Museum Libraries & Archives repLes Moody Libraries employee repSarah Snodgrass Sport & Healthy Living Employee Rep Andy Baker Vivacity H&S AdvisorJo Chapman Compliance rep Gary Linley Arts Employee RepLucy Matson Arts Employee RepJamie Fenton Sports & Healthy Living rep

COST TO YOU

Retail Value of bicycle and accessories

Basic Rate Taxpayer Assuming:20% TAX / 12% NI

Higher Rate Taxpayer Assuming:40% Tax / 2% NI

£250 £170 £145£1000 £680 £580

Follow the rules to stay safe

7Find us on Facebook /vivacitypeterborough


Volunteering

“I first met Dan a couple of years ago,” sayGill Benedikz, Vivacity’s Volunteer Development Manager. “He was after more information about an intern role we had offered in the past. Whilst we chatted it emerged that Dan was actually a keen amateur photographer and that his heart was actually in this area.” Dan sent us in some images that were clearly above the usual holiday snapshots standard I take. That is when his Vivacity story begins…..

I’ve always loved taking photos and my ideal job would be as a professional photographer. I know I’m not alone in that aspiration. Volunteering with Vivacity has changed how I feel about myself and my skills, and about the way I see Peterborough in a massive way. To me Peterborough was a flat land with very little going on, but through volunteering I have discovered so much more.”

I discovered, Flag Fen, Longthorpe Tower, Peterborough Museum, Peterborough Arts Festival, and Peterborough Heritage Festival. Where else could you photograph a full jousting contest in a City Centre, a private archaeological excavation, or meet David Starkey in person.

I started in 2014, Vivacity had a need for images to help market their events and sites, the first assignment was the Peterborough Heritage Festival. At first there was so much I had no idea where to start, a timetable of events over 2 days was my guide,

I wanted to photograph everything! For me, this was an exhausting and exhilarating experience; I photographed nearly 1000 images over those 2 days in June! And, people loved my pictures. The Peterborough Evening Telegraph later picked up on one image of mine from the Heritage Festival, reporting about the event, for me it was a “milestone moment.” Maybe my dream job wasn’t so far-fetched.

I was once described as a Walter Mitty. It was meant in a derogatory way, because

I had aspirations and dreams. I brooded about it for a while,

and watched the film again a few times and that’s

when I realised the underlying story behind Walter Mitty. Walter Mitty, eventually made good on his aspirations and dreams, and felt so much better for it. And

that was me in 2014, with the paper publishing

my photo!

For me, volunteering with Vivacity enabled me to chase my

aspirations and dreams. Today, if someone calls me a Walter Mitty, I don’t mind, because I know I’m out there and making things happen, all with the help of Vivacity. So where am I now with my dreams? Volunteering with Vivacity gave me the confidence to start my own Photographic Business, and we have recently launched our website

barrattsphotgraphy.co.uk and face-book page facbook.com/barrattsPhotography providing Wedding, Portrait & Corporate Photography.

To this day I still create Photographs for Vivacity, and for me it is like a second family. The people you meet are amazing, from every background, every walk of life, all with unique skills, all with a goal to achieve.

I would recommend Volunteering with Vivacity; they have unique opportunities for gaining experience in some very unusual fields.

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Announcements

Exclusive Offers - vivacity-peterborough.com/benefits

Terms & Conditions: The discount applies for services as advertised • Discount is only available to the Vivacity Sports PLUS Card holder • Members must produce their Vivacity Sports Plus Pass to obtain discounts • Applies only to services/products consumed by the card holder only • Some services may not be included in the discount • T&Cs apply, please check with the Management of the venue for full details • Management at each venue reserve the right to refuse discount • Vivacity discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer

THE WOODMANTHORPE WOOD

£50 off your administration chargesSee www.belvoir.co.uk/vivacity-

lettings-offer or call 01733 321500

TOPO GIGIO’SCOWGATE

Get 15% off award winning skincare for male athletes!

Quote “vivacity15” at the checkout on www.reactivbodycare.com

Get a £10 MOT when you quote the account code: VIVA001

& the voucher code: VIVA8833Simply call 01733 340 212

10% off your total billCall on 01733 267 601

Private Health Insurance 18% discount on Private Health Insurance

Call 0800 980 4601

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call on 01733 685 657

20% off all food(Not available on Sun or Bank Holidays)

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Enjoy 25% off room hire, food & drink (bought in the restaurant)

Call on 0800 056 0591




More help neededWe’d love to hear from more talented photographers and film makers.

If you have a secret talent in this area, or you know someone who could benefit, like Dan, from building experience and a portfolio of images we’d love to hear from you and see your work to date.

Please call 01733 864775 or email [email protected]

Selfless SelfiesFeaturing Dan our volunteer photographer prompted us to think ahead a bit to how we celebrate volunteers and volunteering in Volunteers Week (1st-7th June).

As you probably know the volunteering team has got the social media bug and we’d like to try to feature more of you doing your volunteering.

This is open to paid staff of Vivacity as well as the volunteer staff. If you volunteer for Vivacity try taking something featuring you working with us. If you are a staff member and you have a secret volunteer life too - let’s feature you too.

If selfies are a bit to techy - don’t worry, just ask a friend to take a snap shot of you or let us know and we will pop over and take a snap!

9Find us on Facebook /vivacitypeterborough



Challenge Kevin

vivacity voice april 2016

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