CBI AUGUST 01 Cover A 1/TOC.QK - Ihrsa

Letters A health club should strive to educate
its members about healthy eating habits.
A ZONE TO PICK
� My business partner and I own a small
club in Pennsylvania and have been members
of IHRSA for nearly 10 years. During
that time, we have come to rely on IHRSA
for a great deal of information and support.
I wanted to express my displeasure
with the recent announcement of the
partnership formed between IHRSA and
the Zone Café. I realize that, as fad diets
go, The Zone isn’t as bad as most, but make
no mistake—it is a fad diet. It doesn’t
emphasize the healthy eating habits that
50 years of research, the Food and Drug
Administration, and nearly every registered
dietician advocate.
A health club should strive to educate
its members about healthy eating habits.
At our club, we employ a registered dietician
to provide advice and counseling to
our members. It isn’t a money-making
service, but it helps set our club apart
as a place where members can receive
honest and realistic answers to their
nutrition questions.
Certainly, many clubs are able to offer
nutrition counseling as profit centers, but
The Zone—with its book, café, etc.—is
designed only to make money. An organization
such as IHRSA that asks its members
to adhere to “ethical” business practices
should be more careful about the alliances it
enters into. How are we supposed to make
real changes and emphasize education to
the public if we aren’t all working toward
the same goals?
Rob Bishop, Owner
Elevations Health Club
B&B Fitness
Scotrun, PA
Editor’s note: the following is IHRSA’s
response to the preceding letter.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
� Your points are extremely well taken, and
we greatly appreciate your speaking out.
We understand your concerns regarding
IHRSA’s recommending that clubs consider
the Zone Café business proposition, and we
concur that we must be very careful with
respect to the partners we select.
In the case of Zone Café, we were
responding to the requests of many IHRSA
members to present them with opportunities
to “get into the food business.” We view
the Zone Café program as a viable business
opportunity for clubs that wish to go
in that direction.
We recognize, of course, that not every
IHRSA program will resonate with every
club, but do our best to design programs that
make sense.
Thank you again for your response, and
please continue to speak out—positively or
negatively—about IHRSA initiatives.
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Chuck Leve,
Director of Business Development
IHRSA
Boston, MA
HOW TO WRITE: If you would like to
submit a letter for publication, please
address it to CBI c/o IHRSA, 263 Summer St.,
Boston, MA 02210, or e-mail cbi@ihrsa.org
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Visit us at Club Industry Booth #1161
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www.ihrsa.org � OCTOBER 2005 � Club Business International 11