Lauren Walker


was effective for a time and served a purpose depending on who we were targeting. This past year we started using


Slack, an extremely efficient, effective and free (for our size club) communi- cation tool. It is similar to text messaging, how-


B


ecause we are a small facility with a limited professional de- velopment budget, our club con-


tinues to offer staff some professional development training while also en- couraging staff members to do addi- tional training on their own time. Personally, I have recently tak-


en the canfitpro online Active Aging Certificate. It is quite helpful in teach- ing fundamental exercise prescrip- tion for the 50+ age group. I have also taken correspondence courses through the C.H.E.K Institute which have benefitted me greatly. I’d highly recommend “Scientific Back Training,” “Scientific Core Training” and “Scientific Shoulder Training.” As a club we continue to stay on top


of the latest trends and to share them with others. We have always taken time to discuss these issues as a group and to bring in local professionals, of- ten from a local college or university.


Lauren Walker manager All Fit All Ages Port Perry, Ontario


W Jeff McCarroll


ever, it also allows you to create sub- groups of identifiers such as “urgent message,” “service calls,” front desk,” “PTs,” or “tennis trainers” or any other grouping important to your club. It can be installed on your mobile phone or your desktop and has a unique au- dio “ding” which indicates you have a message. We use it for departmen- tal and interdepartmental information dissemination that is specific and time relevant information deemed vital knowledge for our members and staff. As it is time relevant, staff members know that when they hear the “ding” the information is important and needs immediate attention. Department heads can notify front


desk staff of a last-minute class cancel- lation that can help us create the best experience from a negative situation for our members. For example, this


past summer we had a locker room renovation with a myriad of changes and delays. With Slack we were able to immediately notify all related staff, which helped improve our member experience and immediately empow- ered our staff to handle the particular situation. Our tennis department even uses


it for their junior programming. They ask parents to opt in and can then no- tify them of rain or snow delays, send reminders for the week and give shout outs for player accomplishments the moment they occur. This is valuable information for members and also keeps our club top of mind for our members.


Jeff McCarroll CEO Ontario Racquet Club Mississauga, Ontario


To suggest a question for a future Q&A, contact Stephen Longwell at stephen@fitnet.ca.


hile this may not be strict-


ly a profession- al development issue, our team has somewhat recently begun using a new soft- ware app which


has greatly improved communication in our organization, one of the biggest challenges of any busy operation. For many years, our large club strug-


gled with how to get information to both staff and members. We tried snail mail, print memos, emails, text mes- saging and eblasts to name a few. Each


March/April 2018 Fitness Business Canada 11


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