shanmonster | Grr...

If you should ever manage a fitness club, this is how NOT to treat your clients. First of all, I tried several times to contact the manager over the past month, but she did not return any of my phone calls. This wasn't unusual. Past management was equally lax, but I had been teaching dance at the gym for about a year and a half--maybe longer. I always just paid at the onset of my classes.

I showed up to my first dance class of the year a little early tonight so that I would be sure to meet any brand new students and chat with them. I walked up to the girl at the desk and said, "Hi! I'm here to teach my dance class."

She gave me a funny look and said, "Why don't you go speak to the manager? She's over on the exercise bike."

So I wandered over to the exercise bikes and said, "Hi! I'm here to teach my class."

I can't remember exactly what she said to me, but it went something like this: "I'm sorry, but you can't have the room. In order to teach a class here, you need to have insurance. If you don't have any, you can't teach."

Oh. I stood there for a second, the figurative wind knocked out of me. "You're kidding, right? I have a whole bunch of people showing up any minute, now."

"I'm sorry," she said. "Those are the rules."

Well, apparently the rules don't cover calling someone who's been renting studio space for a year and a half to let them know there is a problem.

Unimpressed, I left the gym and sat in the lobby outside, waiting for my students. I had an impromptu meeting with them. Thankfully, none of them were horrifically disappointed, and even more thankfully, none of them had just walked there (it's -42 with the wind chill, tonight). I'm going to try to make alternate arrangements. I'll call them back as soon as I've got everything straightened out.

Keltie--a brand new student--was sweet enough to drive me to and from my cancelled class. I gave her and Kathryn a free class in my livingroom, because I was all set to dance. So at least I got that much in tonight.