Season of Change: Reservation Management

JT Scott | 08/27/2017 | 11

Every September 1 brings a lot of change to our neighborhood. 80% of the Union Square neighborhood is renter-occupied, and the average tenancy here is 2 years – which means a whole lot of our neighbors are new each September.

We see this math bear out in our membership here at CrossFit Somerville. New members join as CrossFitters come into the neighborhood looking for a new box, and sadly many old friends move out due to new jobs, new schools, or displacement due to rent increases. The new folks don’t always have the same schedules as the ones who are leaving, so sometimes the classes seem weirdly full at odd times.

With this kind of turnover, it’s super important for us to reach out to the new arrivals and let them know that you’re glad to see them – and also to help them get to know their new surroundings. As part of that, my blog posts each Monday for the next month or so will be emphasizing some part of our culture here so that new people can get an idea of what to expect… and to remind you old veterans about some things that your coaches feel really strongly about!

One thing that is super-important to us is scheduling. We provide an enormous amount of flexibility here with our “on hold” policy and membership changes/billing/cancellations, because we want you to be free to make the best choices for yourself. We also don’t believe in “punishment” as a good way to accomplish positive change – have you noticed we don’t hand out “penalty burpees” in class? – so we don’t have punitive cancellation policies and don’t give you a hard time when life gets in the way of making it to class.

On the other hand, we really strongly encourage you all to manage your schedules responsibly and take your fellow gym members into consideration when managing your class reservations. If you’re holding a reservation for a class, it means someone else CAN’T sign up for it. The more successful we are and the more friends we have here, the more important that gets!

If you suspect you’re not going to make it to your morning class, then by all means PLEASE cancel it the night before! (Rule of thumb: when you’re ordering your 5th cocktail you probably ought to take a second and bail out of the 6:30am.) After all, if you DO manage to wake up you can always check-in again in the morning and hustle over to the box. Imagine if YOU were on the waitlist and eagerly wanted to get into a morning class – would you want to have to wake up and check 5 minutes before start time to see who hit the snooze button? Of course not. The Golden Rule applies here, people.

If you think you’re not going to make it to your evening class because traffic looks bad or you’re stuck in the office, take a minute to bail on your reservation at least an hour or so in advance. After all, you might make it – in which case we’ll be happy to see you – or you might make it to a later class.

So be excellent to each other. Bake some cookies for the folks next door with the U-HAUL truck this week. (Take along a purple flier for my campaign if you feel like it. 🙂 ) Get to know the new people. Be sure to introduce yourself to any new faces you see in class here in the next few weeks! And do everyone a favor and manage your reservations with respect.

STRENGTH:
Front Squats
5-5-5-5-5
* every 2 minutes on the clock

WOD:
AMRAP 8
10 Push Press (75/55)
20 Double Unders