| IHRSA Report | First Set ®


The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association is a not-for-profit trade association open to investor-owned and member-owned fitness, racquet and athletic facilities. Associate memberships are available to manufacturers or suppliers of products and services of use to IHRSA members.


800-228-4772 USA & Canada 617-951-0055 International 617-951-0056 FAX


www.ihrsa.org www.healthclubs.com E-mail: info@ihrsa.org


IHRSA Board of Directors


Art Curtis: Chairperson Millennium Partners Sports Club Management, LLC 617-476-8910


Mike Raymond: Curves International 254-399-9285


Susan Cooper: BodyBusiness Health Club & Spa 512-459-9424


Sandy Hoeffer: Western Athletic Clubs 415-901-9243


David Hardy: Franvest Capital Partners 780-953-4273


Kilian Fisher: ILAM +353 (0) 45 902235


Chuck Runyon: Anytime Fitness 651-438-5000


Kay Yuspeh: Elite Fitness & Racquet Clubs 262-786-0880


Bill McBride: Club One 415-477-3000


Richard Bilton: Companhia Athletica +55 11-5181-2000


Carol Nalevanko: DMB Sports Clubs 480-609-6979


Brent Darden: TELOS Fitness Center 972-458-2582


Scott Gillespie: Saco Sport & Fitness 207-284-5953


David Patchell-Evans: Ex-officio GoodLife Fitness Clubs 519-661-0190 ext. 238


SPECIAL ADVISOR EUROPE


Christian Pierar: De Fitness Organisatie +32 9-232-5036


Art Curtis IHRSA Chairperson


A Culture of Healthy Behaviors


Like many of you, I was excited by the possibility that our national leaders might be able to work together to produce genuine healthcare reform. And, like most of you, I was extremely disappointed when the resulting legislation dealt more with reforming health insurance than improving the nation’s well-being.


Today, despite all the discussion, debate, research, and grand pronouncements, U.S. health policy continues to focus mostly on managing treatment costs, while virtually ignoring prevention. If that continues to be the case, serious progress is unlikely, and serious repercussions, inevitable. Without a broad and strong emphasis on prevention, health-


care costs will continue to escalate, diverting scarce funds from other important areas, e.g., education, that are critical to our national competitiveness. If we, as an industry, hope to have a positive impact on this problem, we’ll have to work with a wide and varied group of stakeholders to seed and spread a new ethos of healthy behaviors. I was reminded of all of this recently when I attended a pre-


sentation by the Boston Foundation and New England Healthcare Institute on the topic, “Healthy People in a Healthy Economy: A Blueprint for Action in Massachusetts.” Massachusetts is a microcosm of what’s happening else- where, and the information presented was both enlightening and frightening. In the U.S., there’s a disastrous mismatch between spending on healthcare


vs. investment in the critical factors that influence one’s health. Among the factors and the relative contribution of each are access to care (10%); genetics (20%); environment (20%); and healthy behavior (50%). However, in 2005, the most recent year for which firm figures are available, the relative alloca- tion of the $2 trillion in national health expenditures was completely skewed. Of the total, 88% was spent on access, 8% was spent on genetics and


environment, combined, and just 4% was spent on healthy behavior. It’s time for the leaders of our industry to step forward to launch a com-


prehensive campaign to improve overall health through positive personal behaviors, including an active lifestyle involving regular exercise. Changing habits is, admittedly, difficult, and will require that, on occasion, we forgo our individual short-term interests to advance our long-term goals. It will also require that we work, cooperatively, with government agencies, educa- tors, employers, the medical community, philanthropies, the media, opinion leaders, and certain industries. But just think how much good we could do if we were able to lay the


foundation for a culture of healthy behaviors. —| – Art Curtis, acurtis@mp-sportsclub.com


www. ihrsa.org | SEPTEMBER 2010 | Club Business Internat ional 85


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