The new general manager at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre’s excitement about his position hasn’t wavered, and he doesn’t think it will.
“I can’t believe it’s been that long,” he said. “A lot of progress has been made already and people are excited for the future. This was a huge opportunity for me to come in here and to make an impact and make some changes.”
Moore was the successful candidate for the position after Jim Lambert, who was with the facility since the beginning, resigned in December. Having helped numerous similar facilities get off the ground, Moore said he’s lucky to have come on board after the dust of the first two years settled.
“It’s awesome the community members have continued to support the facility for those challenging two years. Years three to five are the years for a facility such as this to really identify itself and begin having successes,” he said
One of the first things people might see a change in is to the fee structure, with more benefits to annual memberships and including financial assistance programs such as subsidies to families, adults and seniors.
“There will be an overhaul to the pricing structure, hopefully come August 1,” said Moore. “I can tell you access will be more affordable to people.”
With numerous programs offered through the health authority and organizations such as mental health and addictions services under the same roof, Moore sees an opportunity to collaborate with those offerings to continue health benefits.
One example, he said, is a cardiac rehabilitation program.
“There’s a potential there for references that hasn’t been explored. I see new faces for these programs on a daily basis and after the program finishes, we have the potential to help them continue on with their fitness. What drew me into this role is exercise is medicine. I’d like to try to create collaboration between the health authority and the centre.”
Being from New Brunswick, Moore jumped at the chance to bring his family home and calls the community “awesome.” With young children, he says he might be biased but hopes to increase youth programming to align with Canadian Sport for Life’s long-term athlete development guidelines.
“We need to be a membership driven facility,” he said. “We need to close that gap and bring up our membership base. Then the icing would be to bring in the concerts and events.”
He said the marketing team is focusing on networking and keeping up-to-date on major events happening close by to see if there’s a potential to add a stop in Truro.
“My plan is to have things booked a year ahead, so when people go on the centre’s website they can see what’s coming up. We’re working on some musical events that I think could be huge. We’re working on some big names for November, but I’d also like to add some diversity too and branch out into some youth-oriented events.”
With his young children, Moore said he’s been to a number of performances geared to younger audiences and has seen how successful they can be.
“That really speaks to diversity,” he said.
Twitter: @TDNRaissa
ABOUT MATT MOORE:
- Married with three daughters
- For the past three years, he was GM for the PotashCorp Civic Centre in Sussex, N.B.
- Held a management role with the Moncton YMCA while providing recreation consulting services to organizations and municipalities across New Brunswick
- Has also worked with the Alberta Sport Development Centre and MacDonald Island Park
- Holds a Bachelor of Arts in sport and exercise psychology from the University of New Brunswick
- In the process of completing his master of business administration
