Jul 14, 2008 10:37 AM

Hi and welcome to Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro’s Executive Insights podcast. I’m Jennipher Shaver, senior associate editor for the magazine, and I’m joined here today by Margaret Treland, chief of the Air Force Fitness Branch for the Headquarters Services Agency in San Antonio, TX. The branch provides program direction, technical guidance, and administration of the Air Force Fitness program to increase fitness and readiness and reduce health risks while enhancing quality of life of airmen. Treland is responsible for providing functional guidance and oversight for the Fitness Center Master Plan, assisting bases with fitness center design and construction projects, developing operational and procedural guidance, and providing staff assistance for Air Force fitness and sports centers worldwide.
In the first seven years of her Air Force career, Treland held base level positions at Kelly Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base fitness centers in San Antonio, TX, managing fitness and wellness programs there. In a previous position at the Services Agency, she served as the Air Force Fitness program manager. Treland has a degree in physical education, specializing in exercise science, from Texas A&M.

Q: So, let’s go ahead and get started. How are you doing today, Margaret?

A: Great, Jennipher. Thank you.

Q: First off, how has the importance of fitness in the Air Force changed in the last five to 10 years and is there a greater emphasis on being fit?

A: Well, the Air Force has changed to quite a bit of a degree. Many people have maintained their mission readiness on their own. However, the Air Force has now embraced the Fit to Fight culture, where they are actually encouraging and allowing PT, physical training, for the military people three times a week during the duty day. That was a significant change for our environment, compared to some of the other services that may have been doing that already.

And is there a greater emphasis on being fit? Yes, there is. And part of that, as we embrace this culture of the mandatory PT, is where we’re allowing the duty-day opportunity for the military members to maintain their mission readiness. It’s the vital key to the success of our mission, and it gets them ready for the deployment and to maintain the sustained fight on the war on terrorism.

Q: In terms of how Air Force Fitness is operated and its mission, how do your fitness facilities differ from the typical health clubs that are in a non-military base environment?

A: Well, our primary mission is to support the unit commander, the commander’s fitness program for his or her people to maintain the mission readiness. As we support the commander, we’re also supporting their staff members who conduct the unit’s PT programs for their units. So our staff, in conjunction with the health and wellness center staff, train the unit PT leaders how to run and manage their unit PT programs. For the most part, a lot of those folks are not functional fitness experts. They’re people who are either interested in fitness themselves, take an active role in it or are in good leadership positions. So as the unit commanders are responsible for the PT programs, they have by then identified these PT leaders who will lead their program. So the fitness center staff trains those individuals.

The second part of our mission is to also provide enhanced fitness programs and sports events. So that as a whole makes us different from the way industry operates. Our mission readiness is our primary responsibility.

Of course, the other part being that we don’t focus on selling memberships. We’re there providing this service for the most part free of cost. There might be certain enhanced programs where we have to bring in specialized contractors where there is a fee for service. However, our objective is not to make a profit. We’re there to provide a service for our customers and to maintain mission readiness.

Q: What about in terms of design, programming and pricing and staffing? Are there a lot of big differences than you would see from a traditional health club, say when it comes to the group exercise schedule or something like that?

A: We have made tremendous strides over the past 15 years in our group exercise programming. We might have had classes three times a week. Now people are having classes five and 10 times a day. The variety and the number of our classes is very consistent with what you’d find in the industry.

And the same thing for facility design. Being involved in the project for the fitness center design construction since 1998, a lot of our facilities are consistent with industry, if not better. We use the American College of Sports Medicine’s health and fitness facility guidelines, as well as the Air Force and DoD (Department of Defense) facility standards, and many of our new facilities are tremendously well designed and very appealing aesthetically, not only just functionally but also aesthetically pleasing. So, we’re doing a good job of providing a pleasant, attractive environment for our customers.

The staffing is also very consistent with industry. We have a tiered training approach, where we start out with on-the-job type training, in-house training from the health and wellness center staff, in-house training from the fitness center staff, and then they also do Air Force training out at Lackland Air Force Base and the Service Academy. And then some individuals will be selected to do follow-on advanced training with commercial industries, such as the American College of Sports Medicine, the Cooper Institute and some of the other industries that provide certification that we find meets the needs of our customers and our staff.

Q: Now how closely do you follow the for-profit and nonprofit fitness facilities, like the Ys, and how much do you learn or take from them when it comes to retention or staffing or programming or pricing?

A: One of the things we learned or have learned over time [is that] customer service is very important to keeping the customers coming back. So even though we’re not charging them [for] the for-profit activities, we know that customer service keeps them coming back.

Quality of equipment is important—equipment that’s well maintained. One of the frustrating things, when I’ve been out in the industry, is to see signs on the equipment, even to be on the equipment. ‘Oh, the equipment’s not working.’ That sort of thing.

Those are some of the things that we’ve learned from them, that it’s important for retention to maintain good customer service, the quality of equipment, as well as credentialed staff members who are available to assist them with their programming, even personal trainers or group exercise instructors. And another, too, is to keep up with the programming trends that are successful in the sector. We’ll sometimes watch them because we can’t always bring them in due to funding limitations, but things like yoga and Pilates, most of our facilities are offering those types of programs now because it’s what the customers want. If they get outside the gate and can come get it on base, they usually give recommendations to the staff and when possible, [the staff will] add it to the course curriculum.

Q: What about Vanderberg’s Air Force Base (CA). It’s under construction currently, and it’s following LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines to be greener. Are other facilities or other fitness centers doing similar initiatives to go green?

A: Yes. A new Air Force policy requires that the MILCON project, military construction project, receives a minimum of silver rating for LEED. Previous fitness center construction with the LEED rating includes Barksdale Air Force Base (LA), and Tyndall Air Force Base (FL) is currently under construction and will have a minimum of silver and targeting gold. Then there are some other Air Force facilities that also have the LEED certification that are non fitness-related: the library, support center and satellite fire station. That kind of shows you that this is the direction Air Force is going, to follow the LEED certification, and, as I stated, it’s an Air Force policy for that.

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