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Leaders Working To Keep Operations Running Smoothly
Keep calm and carry on. That was the mindset put forward by the Rockbridge Area YMCA board of directors and staff at a board meeting last week following the sudden dismissal of the YMCA Executive Director Bobbie Wagner on Jan. 4.
“What we feel is that we lost our Bobbie, who we love, but the bigger picture is that this is a community organization,” local YMCA Board Chair Christy Harris said in response to questions about the situation from members of the public at the meeting.
“This is a part of our community and Bobbie has worked really hard and [the staff] has worked really hard to make it what it is now. We don’t want that to stop … This is bigger than just how we feel about how this was handled and the fact that we don’t have our leader in place anymore. There’s a lot of conversations that are going to have to happen to make sure that we are making the right decision, not just for our board, but for our community and everyone who supported Bobbie.”
Program manager Lori Miller thanked the board for their support for the staff as they tried to move forward.
“It has meant so much to us over the past two weeks,” she said. “It’s been hard some days, emotionally, but we’re here serving because that’s what Bobbie taught us to do, and we’re leading and we’re taking care of our staff teams.”
Wagner began working as the YMCA’s executive director in June of 2016, a few months after the local Y joined the YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge, becoming an official branch of the Roanoke YMCA. During her tenure, she helped start an after-school program, a child-care program and a preschool at the YMCA. She was recognized as Citizen of the Year in 2022 in the local chamber of commerce’s People’s Choice awards and had just completed a term as president of the chamber.
On Jan. 10, Harris sent a letter to Corporate Board Chair Wyatt Poats and the other members of the Blue Ridge board, expressing the Rockbridge board’s concerns about the situation and how it was handled.
“The Rockbridge branch has consistently outperformed expectations, in large part, because of Bobbie’s exceptional leadership,” she wrote. “She is positive, energetic, optimistic, respectful, cheerful, kind and gracious in her praise of others … Bobbie is that rare individual you may meet once in your lifetime, if you are lucky, and we were fortunate to have her as our branch executive. You don’t easily replace someone like this.
“The way this has been handled has significantly damaged the YMCA’s ability to succeed in Rockbridge County,” she continued. “Dismissing Bobbie for undisclosed reasons has damaged the YMCA’s credibility with our partners and community and has resulted in an immediate negative impact. Given the close-knit nature of our community, we anticipate impacts to continue in the long term.”
In an email with The News-Gazette last week, Harris said that the Rockbridge board and corporate board had been in contact and were setting up a meeting to discuss the situation.
In her letter to the corporate board, Harris also mentioned that two senior-level employees at other YMCA branches had recently been dismissed under similar circumstances as Wagner.
“The corporate board indicated they cannot discuss confidential and private personnel information but our understanding is that those may have also been situations where the advisory board was not consulted,” Harris explained to The News-Gazette via email.
Poats and other Blue Ridge YMCA executives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
--- While the local board and staff are working to keep the programs and day-to-day operations at the YMCA running as smoothly as possible, the board is having conversations with the corporate board about what the next steps are for the Rockbridge YMCA.
For the time being, Harris noted, Rob Lough, the executive director of the Botetourt YMCA, is coming to Rockbridge two or three times a week mainly to be on-hand to answer any questions that would fall to an executive director.
Several members of the public spoke at last week’s board meeting, expressing concern and confusion over what happened. David Zwart, who is a member of the YMCA, said that he felt the situation had damaged the trust between the local YMCA and the corporate organization.
“The trust that exists between two people or two organizations is a fragile thing,” he said. “It’s like tissue paper – if you tear it, it’s hard to put back together.”
Clyde Hart asked if anyone had heard any answers about why things were done the way they were and wondered how it was possible to fire Bobbie without giving any notice.
Board member Phillip Blackburn noted that Virginia is an “at-will” state, meaning employees can be dismissed with no notice or reason given.
“If I’m your employee and you just don’t like my name all of a sudden, you can fire me,” he said. “You don’t have to give a reason, and the only way you can’t do that, is if you violate some kind of federal law and fire me because of my age, race, religion … That’s the big reason why they didn’t have to give any reason why they fired Bobbie.”
Stacey Hamilton, membership coordinator for the Rockbridge Y, said that several members had started asking questions about donations to the YMCA, particularly for the capital campaign to raise funds for a new building. That campaign has been put on hold since Wagner’s dismissal, but Harris said that donations would still be accepted if people wanted to give them.
Hamilton also said that many people were asking if the money donated to the Rockbridge YMCA would be spent in Rockbridge or sent to Roanoke. The board assured her that, per the agreement when they joined the YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge, all funds raised in Rockbridge will be spent in Rockbridge, but they have to go through the Roanoke board for processing.
