What's the best/worst/most humorous suggestion you've ever received in your club's suggestion box? Check out the following responses from our readers, and then e-mail Jennipher Shaver, associate editor, at jshaver@prismb2b.com with yours. Click here to read November’s One Last Thought column.
Having worked and grown up in the Chicago area you could make the argument that I am a Midwesterner/Northerner/Yankee, as they say in the south. In the late 90s I moved with my company down to Beaumont, TX to run one of our hospital fitness centers. I was fortunate to work with an outstanding group of people that took me in despite being a “Yankee.” They worked very hard to help me slow down when I talk and incorporate “ya’ll” and “fixin’ to” into my vocabulary. It never quite took though.
In fact, one day after I received a comment card that read, “The water fountain is fixin’ to break,” they pretty much left my speech pattern alone. Needless to say it has been a long-standing example for many years now.
--Chris Hull, executive director/regional director, Health Fitness Corporation, Texins Activity Centers-Dallas
I run a hospital wellness center in Arkansas. The club was open to the community—in fact, a little too open.
We are understaffed (all to typical) and the front desk is not always manned. We also have a community walking track just outside the facility. The combination of the facility's open foyer and the walking track just outside seemed to invite people in "to get a drink," only to see them leave an hour and a half later after getting in a good weight workout and attending an aerobics class.
To rectify the situation I had glass doors constructed at either end of the front desk with locks controlled by our club software. Before the locks were functional, I was sitting at the front desk when one of our long-time members approached me.
"Well, I see you have done a lot of work" he says.
“Yes sir, we have,” I reply.
"Well, I can already see one problem with it," he says.
“Yes sir, what is that?” I say.
"It is going to be pretty easy for people to sneak in; you know one person can check in and then hold the door open for others," he says.
Initially I thought he was joking. After realizing he was not, I took a long pause. All I could say was, “Yes sir, I suppose they could.”
I was under the (obvious) misconception that it is actually more difficult to get through a locked door than to get through a space where there is no door at all.
--Jason Rogers, manager, JRMC Wellness Center, Pine Bluff, AR