The Membership Economy is everywhere. Today, my favorite yoga teacher, Giselle Mari, spoke about community and membership. Prior to every yoga class, we are required to introduce ourselves to someone we don't know. While this is uncomfortable for most of us, it has a tremendously positive impact on the energy in the room, and, at least for me, on the quality of the practice.
After 7 years of taking this Tuesday class whenever I can, I do know many people by name. It's one of the reasons I love Giselle's class. I'm also a subscriber and member of the studio. I think the studio has even more room for connection as members.
Here are a few ideas:
1. Member of the month posting on the wall when you come in–just to give everyone in the studio a sense of the range and diversity of members, and to "introduce us" to one another
2. Logo tanks as gifts for people who've been members for 5, 10 or 15 years.
3. Required introductions, like Giselle does, in every class–not jut hers
4. Blog featuring posts by teachers, about especially memorable classes (musical themes, great moments etc)
If you look at CrossFit, a more recent phenomenon, you'll see that even more systematic emphasis on community and belonging. My sister and her husband are regulars at CrossFit Palo Alto (CFPA) and I have found that CFPA (and much of the CrossFit community) has more deeply embraced the Membership Economy than nearly any other exercise organization.
They have a special process for learning about CrossFit (you can't just 'walk in'–they want a scheduled appointment) which ensures that every prospective new member gets a consistent introductory experience. Members are committed to specific workout days and times, and get to know each other well. And, perhaps most importantly, the "box" (what they call their facility) requires everyone to stay and support members until they've achieved their goals for the day, encouraging deep, authentic connections and also motivating every athelete to workout hard and come back again to get better.
There are regular events throughout the year in which the community comes together-a holiday party, an all women’s event, training seminars, a charity fundraiser (involving climbing to the top of the Bank of America building in SF) and coming up soon, the “open” which crossfitters all over the world do the same five workouts and see how they stack up against the world. There’s a Personal Record (PR) board where everyone writes down personal successes. One of the benefits of people knowing each other is that they know to reach out and harass each other when someone doesn’t show up-which is both good from a business standpoint and a fitness effectiveness one. Members often partner up, sharing a bar for lifts, so they can encourage and teach each other-often more experienced folks teach or support the newer folks.
There's tons of data that supports the idea that membership dramatically increases your likelihood of sticking with your excercise program. If you really want to get fit and healthy, it helps when you're not anonymous. So if you want to get fit, you might want to join the club!
