Mon, May 17, 2010 at 9:15 | Jean Suffin Helping Group Exercise Programs to Shine
Shannon Fable
By Jean Suffin
Group fitness is too often underutilized as a critical membership and retention tool. A strong group fitness director can grow your programming and the quality of your instructors and add a tremendous amount of value to your club.
Shannon Fable, a world-renowned fitness industry veteran, 2006 ACE Group Fitness Instructor of the Year, and one of the top three finalists for 2009 IDEA Instructor of the Year, is the principal founder of Sunshine Fitness Resources (SFR), a consulting business that works with clubs to help them hire and train effective group fitness managers and directors. SFR, based in Boulder, Colorado, represents some of the top fitness professionals in the world. The company provides instructors with career-development resources, develops programming and training for new products, and works with clubs to hire leaders and grow their programming.
Fable says that group fitness is undervalued. “If you study the number of people who head into your classroom compared to your total number of swipes for the entire facility, you might be surprised to find how many people this department affects. Class attendees tend to be the most ‘connected,’ socially oriented of the members and they tend to utilize the most pay-for services in a facility, like the spa, lessons, childcare, and café.
“Improving group fitness offerings begins with hiring the right manager with experience managing people. Look for a combination of educator, customer service agent, master scheduler, and nurturer,” she advises.
Another issue to pay heed to: Often, clubs promote their most popular and successful instructors into group fitness management positions without training them how to oversee a staff, a budget, and an effective program. “Having a cohesive group of individuals who are committed and vested in your club is the beginning of a great program. We teach clubs how to find good talent, what to pay them, and how to hire a manager who will transform their group fitness programming.”
Education is really SFR’s biggest initiative. Fable wants to train instructors to avoid simply latching onto the latest and greatest fad. Rather, she’s interested in bringing back base-level education that helps hone essential skills in movement, class design, and communication. “Internal education is so critical. We give managers the tools to be able to train their own staff and continue to improve the end-product for the member,” Fable explains.
Fable travels constantly and, as a result of her personal experiences and frustrations with communicating with her own group fitness staff, she developed GroupExPro.com, a software program to enhance communication within group fitness and personal training staffs.
"GroupExPro.com was born out of my own need to be able to run the group fitness departments I was in charge of from abroad. There was an abundance of e-mails that weren’t getting read or tracked, and the need to keep track of subs was getting overwhelming. I needed a way to streamline communication via the Internet because the group fitness manager position is 24/7 and always code red. Groupexpro.com tracks what people are reading and generates a paper trail of subs while maintaining a definitive contact list. I have used the software for over four years and could never manage without it.”
Now, Fable sells GroupExPro.com to clubs and other group fitness managers.
“Communication is the name of the game, and it’s lacking in most clubs. We want to help raise the bar for instructors, trainers, and managers so that clubs can really succeed in offering their members programming that will keep them motivated and living the fitness lifestyle.”
Jean Suffin, Shannon Fable 
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