Announcement: Capping Classes

At Industrial Athletics, the Home of CrossFit Alloy, we have always taken great  pride in one goal:   To provide all of our members with personal attention, feedback, and instruction while in a class setting.  We have avoided capping classes for just over a year.  However, as we have grown over the last couple of months, this goal  has become more and more difficult to achieve as some of our classes have started to push 12-15 people on a regular basis.  We are also seeing equipment restrictions that we are addressing as quickly as possible.

Since February, we have been working with the online Mindbody software to help organize monthly payments and class size management.  We tried to encourage our members to use Mindbody to sign up for classes to help us plan for and accommodate for larger class sizes.  For those who have adopted this habit, we say thank you.  We have also been strongly encouraging this practice so that we are all prepared for reserving class slots/spaces.

Starting June 1, 2014, all CrossFit Classes offered at Industrial Athletics will be capped at 12 members.  This seems to be the best number for our coaches to handle in order to continue to provide top level instruction, attention, and feedback while working with a larger group of athletes.  Capping classes at this number will also help us plan for, organize, and budget for new equipment needs, as well as eliminate the need to run more than two heats for the more equipment intensive WODs.

We have not made this decision to discourage our clients or hinder their CrossFit experience.  In fact, it is the exact opposite.  Many of the concerns addressed in the recent survey will be handled through capping classes, although we remain open to any suggestions.  We ask that our members use the remainder of May to practice using Mindbody to see how it works, monitor the class sizes for their preferred class times, and make signing up for classes a daily/weekly habit.

Here are some nitty gritty policies and procedure:

1. Each class will be capped at 12 people.  We will be playing with when we will open classes for sign up, but this requires you to sign up in advance.  If the class is capped, we will permit up to 3 or 4 people to move to the waiting list.  If someone drops out of the class, you will receive an email that you are now in the class.

2. If you sign up for a class, and cannot make it, you must remove yourself from that class immediately.  We will not place a “24-hour withdraw” requirement in the beginning.  In order to be fair to those on the waiting list, if we see people holding class spots until the last minute and then withdrawing, we will institute that policy.  This may require us to start assessing monetary penalties on members who consistently sign up, don’t show up, and don’t withdraw their reservation.  Such action prevents others from attending and we will assess a monetary penalty if that continues.

3. Unfortunately, this also means that if you did not sign up for a class, and you try to show up, if the class is already full, the on duty coach may need to turn you away.  For those who did not reserve a slot, an effort may be made (depending on the workout) to accommodate them, but only after those who did sign up.  Again, we feel terrible putting restrictions like this on our members, but it is necessary in order to keep a consistent program.

Finally, in order to spread attendance across more class times, we will be adding additional classes.  For sure, we will be adding a 4:30pm.  We are still working to determine the best course of action for the 6am class.  We will be either offering a 5am, 7am, both, or changing the morning schedule to a 5:30 and 6:30am.  Please stay tuned.

We ask everyone for patience as we transition.  There will be kinks and bumps in the road.  In advance, we thank you for your cooperation and look forward to improving our gym experience for everyone.  Please address all concerns with the coaches or owner in a tactful and constructive manner.

Sincerely yours,

Matthew E. Becker
Owner