At last year's Club Industry trade show, I presented awards to representatives from the fitness facilities that won each category of our Best of the Best competition. The winners offered a quick overview of their programs at an educational seminar and awards ceremony at the show. To read about the programs that won last year, go to www.fitnessbusinesspro.com/awardsrankings.

This year, we're again holding our Best of the Best competition. An entry form is available on our Web site at www.fitnessbusinesspro.com under the Best of the Best button. I encourage you to enter to see how your programs stack up to other facilities. Entries are welcome from for-profits, nonprofits, corporate, university, government/military and other fitness facilities.

Awards will be given in the following categories: Best New Member Integration Program, Best Community-based or Nonmember Program, Best Children's Program, Best Senior Program and Best Behavior Modification Program.

To increase your chance of winning, make sure to state the goals of your program (monetary, membership participation, membership recruitment, etc.) and numbers that show whether your club attained those goals. The judges also like it when clubs track results and follow participants afterwards to see if they joined the club or stayed with the club as a member. If you haven't done this with your programs, you should consider doing so in the future. How else can you be sure that your program is successful?

The deadline to submit your Best of the Best entry is July 7, so don't delay.

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