As Genesis co-founder Skip Phillips tendered his resignation, and the group’s director and deputy director of education left to found their own educational entity, one voice had been quiet: Phillips’ partner Brian Van Bower.
But last month, after some Genesis instructors and long-time participants seemed to be aligning with the new organization, Van Bower opened up about the situation. He issued a letter to the entire Genesis mailing list, asking followers of the group to be patient and seeking to debunk certain rumors about the organization as it integrates into the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance.
In an interview, he had a message to those who might think the recent rifts spell the end of the design/construction organization: “Rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated,” he says, borrowing the famous quote by Mark Twain.
In fact, Genesis organizers report the highest pre-registration numbers for its programs at this year’s Pool | Spa | Patio Expo in New Orleans.
For now, Van Bower plans to stick with Genesis and teach in New Orleans. His primary concern, he said, are the 1,800 students at various stages of their Genesis education. “Many of them don’t know about the politics,” he said. “All they want to do is get the education because they see value in it … so now it’s unfair to them to see Genesis appear to have issues that would concern them,” he says.
But he shares some of Phillips’ concerns, so he expressed some caveats. Like Phillips, he does not believe that PHTA has effectively communicated the direction it plans to take Genesis. While some comments have circulated saying the programs would remain separately branded and would anchor PHTA’s educational roster, others have suggesting Genesis instruction would become blended with APSP programs into a PHTA University.
He said he looked into some of the reports, such as one saying that the Genesis Pavilion would no longer be present at the PSP Expos after this year, and they’ve turned out not to be true. So he’s comfortable taking a wait-and-see stance for the time being.
“I would say six months from now, if some of the dire predictions and concerns of some of our Genesis people come to fruition, I’d be the first one to lead the charge away,” he says. “But in the interim I’d think it’s premature.”
Van Bower was in favor of the merger, and he expects a while to pass before everything has settled, especially as new PHTA CEO Sabeena Hickman familiarizes herself with the different components.
“I’ve had conversations with some of the people on the board of the new entity, and they’ve assured me … that they have every intention of continuing and enhancing Genesis,” he says, “so I can only hope that’s true.”
In his letter, he said, “I agree that things are muddled right now, but is the best course we have abandoning what we’ve taken so much care to build?”
After releasing the letter, he said that Genesis maintains support. “I got a lot of email responses to my letter, and they were all positive,” he says. “Every one of them said they stick behind Genesis 100%.”
