Jody Maru: Recreation Centre manager serving the whole community

October 27th, 2010
By David Armstrong

Jody Maru is so dedicated to developing a better and more widely used Recreation Centre that the building has become pretty much her second home. But that's fine because her husband works in the same field and her two children love hanging out there after school.

Born and bred in Motueka (via generations of the Fry and Gibbins families), her work at one of the most used community facilities in town means she knows pretty much everyone in town.

But the strong message her 33 years of life so far offers is of how you can start at the bottom of your field and work to the top if you're determined and put in the hard work.

Jody's story is not "rags to riches" - no rags in the past, no riches now - but she has developed and expressed her interests and management skills by starting as a cleaner, doing whatever study she could fit into a busy family and work life, working her way up to become facility manager of the Recreation Centre with a whole heap of responsibility and ambitions.

The Centre has been part of her life since she was about six years old, when she developed an interest in roller skating (then in a "tin shed" building where the i-SITE now stands in Decks Reserve). "It was the 'in thing' then," she says. "Skating was big in Motueka. My parents tagged along too."

When she was around 11, the skating venue moved to the current Recreation Centre as one of the first two activities offered there, along with karate. Her father, who worked at Baigents at the time, helped out with some of the early building work for the new Centre, which offered both artistic skating (her parents' and two sisters' main interest) and roller hockey (Jody's love) as a sport. Her parents helped run the public skating sessions and Jody "tagged along" with them.

The adoption of the Centre as her second home was already beginning. At age 15 she worked as a part-time volunteer in the on-site cafe. She also met her future life's partner, Brent Maru, whose mother was also into artistic skating.

Two years later she left Motueka High School and, needing a job for money, became a checkout operator and then butchery department worker at SuperValue (now Countdown) for seven years. Even then, though, she was starting to think about how she could develop skills and make her mark in the world.

She married her first big love Brent when she was 22 and they had their daughter Tiegan (now 11) and son Brodie (8). Then in 2001 she got a job as a cleaner at the Recreation Centre. The Recreation Centre was pretty basic then: "Tin shed, really dated, cold, airy - but a great place to come and hang out for youth," she says.

She also resumed an involvement in holiday programmes offered by the Centre, which she'd taken part in as a teenager. Then began her climb up the ladder.

"Basically I trained through Nelson Open Polytech. I did the two-year Oscar certificate, which is for holiday programmes, then went on to do courses in community recreation, customer service and aquatic skills as well as a Maori Ora certificate. And obviously I've been able to do on-the-job training." The five framed certificates on the office wall (photo above) are testament to these years of hard and dedicated work.

The training enabled Jody to work her way up for cleaning and maintenance to teaching preschoolers, then primary school, and working up to administration. Eventually she took on the role of assistant manager (Brent was the manager, but no favouritism there!), then acting manager in Brent's absence for six months.

In March this year the Sport Tasman Trust restructured and Jody applied for and got the job of Facility Manager while Brent went on work offsite for the Trust. Living with the boss? "Brent and I have enjoyed a good working relationship throughout," she says. "They say it can't, but it can be done!"

She says Tiegan and Brodie love hanging out at the Recreation Centre and can't wait to drop in daily after school. Will they carry on what is now becoming a family tradition of attachment to the Centre? "I think so. My daughter is keen to learn about running the office, and my son basically grew up around sports equipment. This place is like home to them really, specially since this new upgrade made it more warm and homely."

Although she was for a while a divisional manager at St Johns, she has dropped all other community commitments while the Recreation Centre upgrade has been taking place, knowing how much organisational work that would involve.

"It was supposed to be a 30-hour position; it's become a 24/7 position. The worst thing they did was give me a cellphone. But it's something I love doing. I wouldn't swap it for anything. I'm just very lucky that my kids are very supportive." The main downside is discussing work with Brent at home, so it's hard to switch off.

Becoming manager at the start of the upgrade project meant she has not yet been able to "stamp my mark" on the place. Facilities and areas have been temporarily shut down and moved around so it's been mainly a matter of keeping things going as much as possible. "Next year will be really when my role starts. Let's see what we can do with this building.

Jody's main work goal now is to learn to delegate more work to other people and spend more time with her family, making it the intended 9-to-3 job.

What has driven her to pursue these personal and family goals? "I'm a worker! My parents were workers. It's never been in our family to sit around and wait for things to be handed to us on a plate. All along, even back when I was a cleaner, I knew where I wanted to go." She also says she enjoyed studying as an adult, far more so than as a teenager.

Jody loves the Motueka community and will never leave. "I know most of the people here. I love developing programmes for the older generation as well. It's a way of giving back to the people who looked after us."

She sees her main role as asking what all people, all ages, need in the community, and developing a facility and programmes that satisfy those needs.

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