Discover how the YMCA of Greater Charlotte brought 14 centers, 2 camps, a fleet of vehicles, and a wide range of facility needs together under one intuitive platform with FlowPath.
Faced with high turnover, complex operations, and multiple facility types, the YMCA needed a better way to manage work orders, preventive maintenance, and inspections—without overcomplicating processes or losing valuable institutional knowledge.
The YMCA of Greater Charlotte is one of the largest YMCA associations in the country, serving an estimated 200,000 - 300,000 people annually, providing services to a diverse community through fitness centers, youth programs, camps, and more.
With both full-time staff and seasonal employees, managing facilities efficiently, and consistently, is critical for their growth and long-term success. We sat down with Jon Bontrager, Senior VP of Facilities and Real Estate at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, to talk about his team’s experience since switching to FlowPath.
"There was a sweet spot between us understanding an example of what it could be like—not just ‘we can build anything you want’—but helping us understand how easy it was to create what we wanted and how quick that fuse was."
- Jon Bontrager, Senior VP of Facilities & Real Estate at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte
Before FlowPath, the YMCA had tried out multiple systems, including Brightly (School Dude) and FMX, with inconsistent support and limited flexibility.
Adoption was low, and different locations had different ways of doing things, but they were able to standardize under one effective system– FlowPath.
"I could tell that FlowPath was very forward-facing, constantly trying to develop that edge of ways to do it better."
Key challenges before FlowPath included:
The YMCA of Greater Charlotte chose FlowPath for its simplicity, flexibility, and outstanding customer service.Compugen needed a solution that was robust enough to provide real value, but simple enough for a team with varying levels of technical experience.
Key reasons for choosing FlowPath included:
"We have a lot of turnover—we’re a lot of people’s first job—so we need systems that are easy to use so that they fall in line with them quickly. And FlowPath has helped with that.”
FlowPath is now the YMCA’s single source of truth for maintenance management across all of their sites.
Core features for YMCA of Greater Charlotte:
Work Order Management: Teams across camps and centers submit, track, and close work orders in one place.
Inspections and Checklists: Routine checks for vehicles, buildings, equipment, and other assets are now tracked consistently and with a clear data trail.
Role-based User Groups: Departments only see what’s relevant to them, whether it’s a resident camp or a fitness center. Each location or user group has their own space within FlowPath.
Customer Support: Quick and easy onboarding, with no need for extensive training. Plus, ongoing support via FAQ help centers, chat, phone, or email.
Mobile-Friendly Access: Staff and managers can interact with FlowPath from anywhere, ensuring timely updates and real-time collaboration specific to their role.
"One of our resident camps was using Slack to communicate work orders. The communication worked, but there was no documentation. Now, it’s all in one place."
FlowPath helped the YMCA of Greater Charlotte rebuild smarter post-COVID, giving them a consistent, standardized system that adapts to their needs.
Some of their other favorite aspects of FlowPath include:
"Implementation was super easy. I think I overestimated what that was going to take. Transferring the information was unbelievably easy. And our team took to it pretty quickly—much faster than I thought they would."
Next, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte plans to expand its use of FlowPath’s preventive maintenance and AI features, helping turn decades of experience from long-time staff into standardized, documented processes for future generations of team members.
"We’re starting to build back, and adopting this at this time to help guide that and standardize—it’s a game changer."
Schedule a demo with our sales team and we can get you started.