Won't Leave Me Alone

Ok so I thought I was done with that place but apparently, they were not done with me. I left to go on a little vacation with the family and had a blast -- especially knowing that I wouldn't have to deal with that facility or that coordinator again. However, I was wrong. It seems as though it was fine to have the facility's logo on my web site for over 4 years until now. The former coordinator even asked if it was okay when I started to list the facility and use the logo on my web site indicating that I was teaching there. So, I had permission to use it and all was well until now.

They actually went to the trouble of printing out the page on my web site containing the logo and having their legal department send me a letter telling me to immediately remove it or I could face some problems. Ok, I did change my site after I quit to say something to the effect of suggesting to avoid that facility as the coordinator didn't care about your fitness or safety. I probably should have just added that it was my opinion or "I believe" or something similar. Anyway, I was happy to delete the logo and remove that statement and start this blog.

In addition, the legal letter strongly suggested that I stop talking to members, instructors or potential clients and speaking in a negative way that could affect their business. Granted, I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure I live in America and have the right to express myself through free speech. As long as I'm not doing any slandering (and all those other legal terms), I'm within my rights to speak or write my opinions and document what happened to me. This angered me very much so it just reinforced me to blog blog blog!

Whether or not they'll continue to bother me is still a question in my mind. They really should be concerned with their fitness program or what's left of it rather than with me!

There are still a few good instructors there and I hope the members appreciate them very much. To think about all the things that many of the instructors did to make classes fun and interesting and then how we and the members were treated is what I would call a disgrace. I can remember doing special classes for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and most recently, Cosmic Cycling. We decorated the room, made special music mixes, came up with creative classes and exercises without charging anything extra. I can also remember the coordinator offering up a class that involved cycling and then running outside. She charged everyone $8 to do so... Uh, so everyone pays for their cycling classes of course but then to pay the additional $8 to run outside was just insane in my opinion. Of course, the coordinator gets part of the money she collects from that as well as her boot camp classes. So, is she in it just for the money? A lot of people believe that from what I've gathered.

Regardless, I'm sure if you check the attendance for the classes (at 5:30pm) now, the numbers have dropped. From what I've heard, the 5:30 class attendance has all but disappeared. I can only hope that all the members are continuing to maintain or improve their fitness by whatever means necessary -- finding another facility, coming to the Rec Center, working out at home, or finding a group of friends to walk, run, cycle, or other form of exercise!