Schedule Changes For November!

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Allison Bojarski

Schedule Changes For November
(Effective Monday, November 5):

1) All of Will’s early AM Black Box WOD’s (5:45 AM, 6:45 AM, and 7:45 AM) will move to the 25 West 26 Street (Third Floor).

With the change, all weekday Black Box WOD’s will now be at 26 Street. The Third Floor at 26 Street will be Will’s and Sully’s Box. The Fourth Floor at 26 Street will be Sara’s and Kevin’s Box. Weekend Black Box WOD’s will remain at 28 Street.

We will be working on making further improvements on both floors, including better lighting, new paint, more equipment.

2) Heidi’s Tuesday and Thursday 6:00 AM Running WOD’s will be eliminated.

This hour has the least attendance, and we believe that three 6:00 AM classes per week (Mon, Wed, and Fri) are sufficient for now. If and when 6:00 AM attendance increases we will revisit this decision. There will be no changes to the 7:00 AM or 8:00 AM Running WOD’s.

3) We will be adding four Friday evening Beginner WOD’s at 4:30 PM, 5:30 PM, 6:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

We are constantly monitoring attendance, and Friday evening have gotten sufficiently busy to justify these additional WOD’s. Tom will be the instructor, except on those Friday’s when his FDNY responsibilities take priority.

The schedule will next be updated on Monday, December 3.

Post suggestions to comments. We obviously cannot implement every request, but to the extent practical we do consider every request. Sooner or later the most popular requests are honored.

  • http://www.ryanshell.com/blog Ryan Shell

    Free water, or a water fountain, seems like a popular request amongst folks.

    • Hari Singh

      The water fountain for 28 Street has already been ordered and will be installed over the next few weeks as part of the bathroom construction project.

      (There are already water fountains at 26 Street.)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=3417125 Sean Orr

    UGH, I knew this was coming. I’d express my dissatisfaction with individual points, but basically there are too many to list out so my main, and overarching question is:

    Can someone please clarify with an EXACT timeline when these “further” improvements will be coming? Since I joined over a year ago, the carrot of a “new, CLEAN, vastly improved” space was constantly dangled. And now, that new clean space is solely for new members and those of us who have waited pretty damn patiently are back to the old, small, no-dropping, no-ceiling-height space with crooked floors and awkward layouts, with only another carrot being dangled that eventually there will be an undisclosed new-new space for US on an undetermined timeline (pending completion of the uncompleted old-new space).

    I know there are plenty of people that have been waiting much longer than I have, and I’m not trying to rile them up, however this is an unhappy update in my opinion.

    Also, I was getting excited that the programming was finally incorporating more broad movements (we’ve gotten to bench press about 3 times in the last month!! I didn’t get to do that 3 times for the entire year prior! I was stoked!), but with the dearth of equipment at 26th, what effect will this have on the programming?

    • Hari Singh

      We’re painting the Third and Floor Floors in November. We are upgrading the lighting in November on both floors as well. The issue with the ceiling height at 28 Street is primarily on the Fourth Floor where the lights are too low. That will be fixed in November.

      There is no more dropping at 28 Street than there is at 26 Street. In both instances we are in an office building.

      At this time, we do not anticipate having another location in the next six to twelve months. The deal we had been working on did not go through, and it is our intent to do the best we can with the space we have for up to the next year.

      The programming will not change, and whatever equipment is needed at 26 Street will be provided. We expect to have everything we have at 28 Street in the same proportion per member at 26 Street. This week, a significant amount of equipment arrived (e.g., there are more rowers per person at 26 Street than at 28th, etc.) More equipment will continue to arrive as needed.

      People who prefer 28 Street to 26 Street are free to continue to take the Beginner classes and scale to the Black Box level. On certain WOD’s (e.g., 30 Muscle-Ups for time) we will set aside rings at 28 Street for those who prefer those obviously better rigs.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=3417125 Sean Orr

        I guess the question is this:

        If you are aware that the location at 26th street does not as flexibly or easily accommodate intermediate-advanced skills, then why move those classes there and create convoluted workarounds as opposed to leaving those classes in a better equipped space, and moving some elements/beginners courses into the more basic space?

  • Peter F

    Liking the new changes. Not sure if anyone else would be on board, but any possibility of an expanded Sunday schedule? I’d be thrilled with a Satuday schedule on Sunday.

    • Hari Singh

      For the last four Sundays, the attendance at the final Sunday WOD’s was:

      12:15 PM (Beginner) = 9, 10, 18, 13
      1:00 PM (Black Box) = 5, 0, 9, 4

      We would expect that if there were more demand in the late afternoon that these classes would have more people. We will continue to monitor, but the demand on Sunday does not seem to be nearly what it is on Saturday.

      • Moritz

        not sure that this is accurate, i have been there last Sunday at 1pm. the zen planner showed a fully booked class and we were around 14 ppl or so. also (and i know i am a bit repetitive here) all 7.15pm and 7.45pm classes have been fully booked this week (and ppl actually showing up at 7.15 ranged between 14 and 18 i believe).

        • Hari Singh

          It is true that classes often appear full, only to have people cancel at the last minute and/or not show. You should now that we have never had anyone show up for a Sunday class and not get in.

          You’re point on the need for an 8:15 Black Box WOD is well taken. It seems that with the end of summer, more people are working later. We are trying to confine schedule changes to the first Monday of the month. If the trend continues is is highly likely that we will be adding an 8:15 PM WOD on the first Monday in December.

          For now, given that 26 Street is populated primarily with experienced people, we are being liberal about letting people into classes that are full. I believe that no one has been closed out at 26 Street this week. Obviously we don’t want to have classes overcrowded, but we are trying to find a balance between update the schedule every week and still meeting the needs of our members in real time.

          • http://www.facebook.com/jonedwards52 Jon Edwards

            A lot of members work in finance (bankers, analysts) or finance-related work (lawyers) and your predictions/analyses about class attendance seems to be skewed by these members (I am not just referring to this post). You are correct that more people are working later these days. But in December, this will be less true. The summer months (June-August) and December – mid-January are the slow months of the year (typically) for finance. September – November and late January – May are generally the busy months. You made comments previously about summer class attendance that did not seem to take this into account.

            I am not saying that you should not add an 8:15. I think you should and before December. But, if you do add an 8:15 in December, dont be surprised if there is low attendance (especially mid-dec to mid-january) and make another decision to eliminate this class time. The low attendance could be because of the finance-working members’ work schedules (and vacation). If attendance at an 8:15 is low, attendance should go back up in late January when work gets busy again and members are back from vacation.

          • Hari Singh

            These are all good points that we balance against the overall desire of the membership to have stability in the schedule. We also need to consider the availability of skilled coaches, who themselves have concerns and preferences in their work schedules.

            When we add or subtract classes, we try not to force anyone to shift by more than 15 minutes. We try not to make any given schedule change affect more than 20 percent of our membership. We also tend to add classes far more quickly than we cancel them.

            Before we canceled the 8:00 PM Black Box WOD at 26 Street we shifted the 7:45 PM Black Box over. In addition, we kept the 8:15 PM Beginner WOD and created an 8:30 PM Beginner WOD that is always available to more advanced people who may be getting out later lately.

          • T-Money

            @google-a39300f391717d08779afcdb254da4d2:disqus I’ve written this before, but I’ll say it again – it is incorrect to judge attendance in classes by the # of people who show up – you have to do it by the # of people who register, because that is the # that your customers go on. So for instance, if I see Sunday at 12:15 is full, it is irrelevant that only 14 people show up. I did not show up because I saw it was full, so for all intents and purposes it is a “sold-out” class. Your point that “we have never had anyone show up for a Sunday class and not get in” is irrelevant – people do not show up because it appears to be full and they do not want to run the risk of not getting in. You guys need to make decisions based on the # of classes that appear to be sold out, not that are actually sold out.

          • Hari Singh

            Given that we seem to have the greatest number of no-shows on the weekend, and given that we are in the best position to handle slightly larger classes on the weekend (when there are fewer total classes on the floor) it probably makes sense for us to take the same approach as the airlines and allow more than the maximum number of people to register, at least on weekends

            We currently cap class sizes at a maximum of 18. We will experiment with setting the registration limit at 20 on the weekend. Based on the data, it seems likely that we will rarely have 19 or 20 people actually show, but on the weekend, we can handle it if we do.

            We’ll see how that works and then adjust accordingly.

      • Mike

        There was definitely more than 4 people at this past Sunday’s 1:00 PM Black Box Class. I would say, at least 10

        • MikeC.

          I attended and in my calendar it says I was a no show…I’m sure I was not the only one who did not get signed in properly.

          • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=214701453 Patrick Hoffman

            There was an issue with the attendance on Sunday. It has since been rectified.

  • d_simon

    Thanks for the update Hari. While I don’t want to appear to brown-nose, I will give you props for always paying attention to the blog and responding to criticism in an even-mannered and professional tone. It would be just as easy to tell some people to GTFO and make room for those who aren’t going to complain.

    26th Street so far has met my demands for many WODs (I’m also now on my 2nd year there), but unfortunately I know that on deadlift days, for example, I would be better served to go to the globo gym where I can knock out 5×5 deads and 5×5 benches on my own dime, at my own pace. Wish it wasn’t so, but whatever. I don’t want to spend all day stressing about getting in to my desired timeslot, and I have training goals in mind (specifically strength-, not WOD-related).

    Lastly I want to mention that with the back of 26th/4th dedicated to team training and a weird kitchenette and massage table, the space does not accommodate as many people as the 3rd floor, and those WODs should be capped accordingly. Do the rolls of floor matting mean remodeling is on the horizon? That’s all I’ve got tonight.

    • Hari Singh

      The team has vacated the Fourth Floor. The additional flooring is intended to increase the usable WOD area on the Fourth Floor. The Third Floor has space for up to 24 people. It is true that the Fourth Floor has space for closer to 18, but to date, we have not had a class larger than 15 on the Fourth Floor.

      • Nick G

        Any plans for a 5.30am class?

  • http://www.facebook.com/bjschnei Brian Schneider

    Anyone else concerned that the floor on the 3rd floor is going to cave in? That floor on the 4th floor seems fine, yet I have seen chunks fall out of the 3rd floor ceiling. I can’t imagine what the 2nd floor ceiling looks like.

    • Hari Singh

      If we had it to do over again, we would have installed the same type of flooring on the Third Floor as we installed at 28 Street. However, at this point, we only have one year left on our lease at 26 Street and we are not going to invest heavily in flooring upgrades. We have had the floor inspected and reinforced.

      The Second Floor has had it pretty rough. They will no doubt be glad to see us go. Until then, we and our members will do the best we can to control the dropping on their heads.

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  • DS

    When are there going to be lockers? Although crossfit is a community and stealing doesnt seem to be an issue, it seems foolish that we dont have lockers to secure our belongings.

    Any update on the bathroom renovation at 28th? It is utterly disgusting to change in the stalls while having to avoid the urine on the ground

    • Hari Singh

      We are not going to have lockers. There is simply not enough space.

      We are likely to offer some sort of semi-permanent storage to our most senior members (i.e., over 18 to 24 months). Probably storage bins that goes in a dedicated set of cubbies.

      The final layout at 28 Street will include a Front Desk in the circular-cut out area, with cubicles behind the desk (i.e., in the back of the circle, furthest from the workout floor). We expect to start construction on that in November, even before we finish the men’s locker room.
      The women’s locker room at 28 Street is almost fully operational (the showers work) and I think the women will tell you that the new setup was worth waiting for.
      We believe we will soon have the nicest bathroom setup of any CrossFit affiliate. Construction on the men’s locker room is about six weeks behind the women’s.

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