CAMPUS RECREATION FITNESS AND RECREATION CENTER MEMBERSHIP ASSESSMENT

Multnomah County Tobacco Free Campus Policy Email Intro
SOUTH CAMPUS 909 E WILMETTE RD PALATINE
!DOCTYPE HTML HTML DIRLTR LANGESAR XMLLANGESAR HEAD TITLECAMPUS VIRTUAL

!DOCTYPE HTML HTML DIRLTR LANGESVE XMLLANGESVE HEAD TITLECAMPUS VIRTUAL
12 CAMPUS MULTIDEPORTE DE KABIEZESFICHA DE INSCRIPCIÓN FOTO PERIODO
13 WÜRTTEMBERGISCHER KUNSTVEREIN STUTTGART CAMPUS STADT RECHT AUF STADT

Student Affairs Assessment Template (with notes)

Campus Recreation Fitness and Recreation Center

Membership Assessment

Abstract

Following the closing of the Missoula Athletic Club (MAC) and The Court House Sports and Fitness Center in December of 2007, The University of Montana Fitness and Recreation Center (FRC) experienced a significant increase in membership inquiries. The FRC was built using student funds with the primary intention of serving the student population. For this reason, the Campus Recreation Department decided to assess membership, overall facility use, and hourly facility use beginning January 1, 2008. These numbers were compared to previous years’ data in order to determine whether hours, services, or policies should be changed to continue to meet students’ needs and to accommodate a potential influx of new users.

Background information

The closing of both The Court House and the MAC was particularly interesting to Campus Recreation because the two fitness centers housed the primary racquetball/handball court facility (The Court House), and a large indoor climbing facility (MAC). The only remaining fitness center in Missoula with both amenities is the FRC. Patrons of the two Missoula fitness centers included University of Montana (UM) alumni, retirees, faculty, and a few students in addition to members of the general public. Code 20-25-332 of Montana law places strict constraints on competition between for-profit fitness centers and university fitness centers; therefore many patrons who made membership inquiries were not eligible for FRC membership.

Campus Recreation provides an active environment for social interaction. The FRC serves students by providing recreational and fitness facilities, and promoting fitness, adventure, socialization, education, and individual and team play. The goal of this assessment was to determine how the closing of two local fitness centers has affected membership and facility use at the FRC so that students’ needs continue to be met.

Assessment Procedure

We collected revenue data from Jan. 1, 2008 through March 21, 2008 (the first of the year through Spring Break). We then compared it to the same data collected from the previous year. We included Affiliate and Spouse memberships, Alumni memberships, UM Faculty and Staff memberships, elective UM student memberships (these are students who are not automatically assessed the Campus Recreation fee due to credit load) and Retiree and Spouse memberships in the data set. We also collected revenue data on passes, which included child and guest passes, day passes, and weekly passes. Finally, we collected data that included fitness class fees, climbing wall sales and rentals, and racquetball/handball court sales and rentals. Aaron Murrish, Office Manager for Campus Recreation, collected the hard data and Assistant Director Dudley Improta summarized the findings and wrote the assessment.

Findings

The data that we collected indicates an 18% increase in overall revenue from 2007 to 2008. Increases were noted in all categories except for fitness class fees. Based on the data concerning alumni, retiree, and faculty/staff memberships, it is likely that the FRC did gain members following the closing of The Court House Sports & Fitness Center and the Missoula Athletic Club.

	Jan 2 – March 23, 2007	Jan 2 – March 21, 2008
Alumni, Retiree Membership	$11,536.00	$14,648.00
Faculty/Staff Membership	$19,130.00	$26,101.00
Students (less than 7 credits)	$16,799.00	$17,563.00
Passes (Children of members)	$126.00	$214.00
Guest Passes (Daily and Weekly)	$5,834.00	$9,480.00
Retiree and Spouse Memberships	$1,370.00	$1,640.00
Fitness Class Fees	$10,642.00	$9,876.00
Climbing Wall Clinics, Sales, Rentals	$1,270.00	$1,810.00
Handball/Racquetball Sales, Rentals	$1,719.00	$2,058.00
Totals	$68,426.00	$83,390.00

As previously noted, the MAC and The Court House had racquetball/handball court space and a large indoor climbing facility. Our data indicated an increase in revenue from the climbing wall and racquetball/handball areas, meaning that the availability of these amenities at the FRC may have influenced the new members to join the FRC.

We also observed a 38% rise in the sale of day passes and guest passes. Generally patrons that purchase day and weekly passes are those that are not eligible for membership in the FRC. Individuals who are not eligible for membership must have an FRC member sponsor them to use the facility. The dramatic rise in day and weekly pass sales probably indicates that patrons who were displaced from the closing of the two fitness centers and who were not eligible for membership were coming into the FRC as guests. FRC employees observed a substantial number of handball players were buying daily passes. The Court House was the main facility for Missoula handball players.

Recommendations

We observed an increase in facility use and membership that coincided with the closing of the two local fitness centers. We find the increase to be more than coincidental because of the nearly parallel time frames. The original question was whether the increase in use and membership at the FRC had any effect on student users in particular. We implemented several preemptive changes based on the projected influx of users.

One of the changes that the FRC management made was to increase climbing wall hours. The climbing wall is always open for bouldering (non-roped climbing up to 12 feet high), and it opens for roped climbing at 3 p.m. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the wall was opened at 12:00 p.m., which increased climbing time by six hours per week. We did this in anticipation of increased use due to the closing of the MAC, which was the other indoor climbing facility in Missoula. FRC and particularly climbing wall staff observed increased use of the wall during all hours, but did not express complaints from patrons due to crowdedness.

FRC staff also noted increased use of the racquetball / handball courts, particularly at the noon hour, but again, there were no complaints heard from patrons. The increase in membership and pass sales, as well as sales in the indoor climbing wall area and racquetball/handball courts, appear to be positive outcomes of the fitness center closures for the FRC, with no complaints noted from students or pre-2008 patrons.

Our specific recommendations are to continue to monitor the use of the facilities and patron feedback on this issue; implement a method of accurately counting the hourly climbing wall use in order to determine what optimal and maximum use of the area are; and to continue to assess the hours, facility use patterns, and numbers so that we can ensure the best possible student experience in FRC facilities and programming.

140 FILMING ON CAMPUS UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS & GROUNDS USE
15 2016 CAMPUS COMPACT ANNUAL SURVEY INDIVIDUAL INSTITUTION TEMPLATE
151 ARQUITETURA E URBANISMO PROJETO PEDAGÓGICO DO CURSO CAMPUS

Tags: recreation fitness, campus recreation, recreation, center, assessment, membership, campus, fitness