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Auburn's YMCA Finds its New Leader
Kurt Kramer Credentials Snap Shot
Q&A with Kurt Kramer
The Auburn YMCA-WEIU has a new executive director to succeed Jim Courtney who retired in September. Kurt Kramer, of Illinois, was chosen to lead the Y by its board of directors after an intensive nationwide search process. He will begin October 6th.
The YMCA has been in Kramer's blood since graduate school, and he has since led two Ys in New England and most recently worked for the national YMCA organization in Chicago writing training materials for YMCA staff, Auburn YMCA board President Michael Bersani said.
“The best predictor of the future is the past,” Bersani said. “Everything in Kurt's past points toward a very successful future at this Y. He brings with him a past that demonstrates that he's capable of being able to pick up the baton from Jim Courtney.”
Courtney announced his retirement in March after serving the YMCA-WEIU for 20 years. During Courtney's tenure, the YMCA-WEIU facility on William Street expanded and was renovated, including a fitness center, nautilus room and nutrition center. The facility also offers new programs, such as children's care and day camps.
Courtney shared that his most fulfilling achievement during his tenure were the significant renovations to the facility and the camp. “These upgrades enabled us to provide different services and expand existing ones- thereby resulting in serving more people.” Looking forward Jim said, he “will miss the people- all of the members, volunteers, board members and staff,” but that “my future holds spending more time with my family and doing some volunteer work.”
The seven-member search committee received 51 applications from both YMCA and non-YMCA people. While the committee kept an open mind, Bersani said, it learned quickly that hiring inside the YMCA organization had its benefits.
“As we started looking at the process, we realized quickly the advantage of an insider who speaks the language, knows the ropes, and the learning curve is so much shorter,” he said. After an extensive vetting and interview process, the committee narrowed down the pool and on June 26, 2008 hired Kramer as its new executive director.
Bersani said Kramer has “extremely high credentials” and received “strong recommendations from people he worked under, with and for.” He brings with him knowledge of how to run a YMCA horizontally - sharing ideas with area YMCA locations - and vertically - through its national organization.
He also spoke of Courtney's leadership with immense praise and was gracious for what he has done for the YMCA-WEIU. “Jim was such a YMCA star, and not just locally,” he said. “Everyone here recognized that he ran a superb YMCA. He brought a below-par YMCA to a stellar YMCA that is envied not only regionally but nationally.”
“Twenty years is a very long tenure for a YMCA executive director and it's been a really great one,” he later added. “Change is always a little bit scary and everyone gets a bit nervous, but we who have gotten to know Kurt have confidence that it will be a very positive experience.”
Kurt Kramer Credentials Snap Shot
Since July 2004 Kurt Kramer had served as the Director of Program Leadership and National Training for the YMCA of the USA. In this capacity he had the responsibility for training of entry-level staff through mid-career. Trainings in this area included Principles and Practices, Program Schools and Management Modules.
Previous to that role, Kramer served as the president/CEO of the Westerly-Pawcatuck YMCA from 2000. There he was responsible for the operation of a four-unit Y association including the Westerly Y, the Mystic Y, the Arcadia Y in Richmond, RI and Camp Watchaug in Charlestown, RI. Mr. Kramer has worked for the YMCA organization for almost twenty-seven years, thirteen as a Y CEO. He began as a program and camp director, and then became the executive director of the Pittsfield YMCA in Pittsfield, MA. Between CEO tenures he served on the national YMCA’s leadership development staff on the campus of Springfield College.
Kramer is a native of Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelors degree in religion from Gettysburg College, and his Masters degree in not-for-profit management from Springfield College. He is an Eagle Scout and has hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Kramer resided in Naperville, IL with his wife Nancy, an elementary special education teacher. His 24-year-old daughter is a third year law school student at Penn State and his 20-year-old son is beginning his junior year at Cornell University.
Q&A with Kurt Kramer
What made you decide to uproot from where you were to come here?
Both my wife Nancy and I are easterners. Her extended family is in Connecticut and mine in Pennsylvania. We wanted to be closer to them and also closer to our son at Cornell and our daughter at Penn State Law School.
I had come to Chicago to work in the national YMCA offices. I had a fulfilling experience but found I enjoyed working in and being part of a local community more than phoning and emailing my staff around the country from a high-rise office tower.
We looked for a community with a sound YMCA and a high quality of life. The Finger Lakes Region met our expectations for scenic beauty, outdoor recreation opportunities and small-town friendliness.
Please share your plans for your first year with the Auburn Y?
Auburn is a fortunate community to have such a well-run and impressive YMCA. When I arrive I plan to meet many people and listen intently to their dreams and aspirations for the Y. I then hope to use the collective input to codify a vision of what the Y can become, building on the solid foundation of the past 149 years. 2009 will be the 150th anniversary of the Auburn YMCA. It is an opportune moment to celebrate the heritage and legacy of those who have built such a well-respected institution and plan for the next phase of growth and development.
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