JAGS Sports CLub

[JAGS Sports Club]

In the words of William Arthur Ward: Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.

But back to the real world!

To enlighten the uninitiated JAGS Sports Club is operated by JAGS Community Enterprises Limited, a subsidiary of James Allen?s Girls? School (JAGS), a registered charity. The Club is here to support the local community who may use the facilities on a really good ?value?for-money? basis. Any comparison of quality of facilities or cost will show this. Yes, we do generate a trading surplus, and this is used to subsidise fees at JAGS for those families of deserving girls who would not otherwise be able to afford the fees. We are very proud of the fact that, at present, there are 104 such arrangements in place funded, in part, by the ClubA few points for readers to ponder:

? JAGS Sports Club; reacted very quickly after the reduction in VAT and reduced its membership subscriptions; none of our competitors did this!

? JAGS Sports Club; has entered into partnership with a number of local businesses to offer discounts, on production of their JAGS Sports Club membership card; none of our competitor offer this

? JAGS Sports Club; shares the swimming pool with seven local community schools with more than 7,000 children learning to swim each month. We also deliver a summer ?Get Safe 4 Summer? water safety campaign free to local school children; none of our competitors offer any type of service like this.

? JAGS Sports Club; has introduced a new Express gym and a Flexibity and Agility gym both designed for the member who has little time to exercise or the member returning from a sports injury and medical condition, none of our competitors offer this.

? JAGS Sports Club; operates on a continuous improvement ethos. This results in the high standards of cleanliness and the condition of its buildings and equipment which are a feature of the overall provision; - we don not believe any of our competitors operate a similar ethos programme.

? JAGS Sports Club; priced checks its membership subscriptions against the local competition and we are confident we offer good value for money.

This is just a brief overview of what we are doing and an indication of the management style at JAGS Sports Club. To answer some of the specific blogs

Guest day passes are ?8.50; this allows a members to bring a guest who,

? can use all facilities expect the gyms, (due to the necessity to have Health & Safety inductions).

We have a lower age limit for users of the fitness gyms. Anyone under 16 years of age can not use the gyms. 16 ? 18 years old youngsters can only use the gyms when they are staffed (again, for Health & Safety reasons).. Our staff regularly patrol the club and if they see anyone who should not be in an area they are challenged. In this way, safety and cleanliness checks form part of the daily routine too.

The car park at JAGS Sports Club is limited but with 80% of our members living less then 5 minutes walk from the Club, we continuously suggest they start their exercise by walking or cycling to the Club and leave the car at home.

We do have a security system that controls access. The front gates are open as the volume of traffic often creates a backlog into Red Post Hill. Therefore in an effort to minimise the traffic congestion for our neighbours, the gates are open during Sports Club opening hours.

We inspect gym equipment daily and any faults are reported to the equipment suppliers immediately. We normally experience a 36 hours repair turn round. Sometimes it?s not that quick, and recently the suppliers (Life Fitness) have had all of their engineers off work sick they could not dispatch anybody for a longer period than normal. We apologise for this delay and subsequent inconvenience, but it was outside our control.

As with any swimming pool and young bathers, we do have occasional when a young child will have an ?accident? in the pool. The pool did not close as suggested in the recent blog, but our staff reacted in the appropriate manner and removed any debris and checked the chlorine readings to ensure that the pool water safe to return into. We do sell baby swim nappies, and there are notices displayed about using the toilets before swimming.

Our reception was refurbished last summer. The main object was to make it user friendly, and from comments received this has been an outstanding success. All our receptionist teams and Duty Manager teams have recently had Customer Care training, and we regularly monitor how they demonstrate their customer care techniques. We do not always get it right and as the main-stay of the business is PC based, and the receptionists need to look at the PC screen, it often appears they do not have eye contact with members, but they do see what is happening!

Finally, as the Sports Club Manager, my working day starts around 7.30am and although I?m not at the club during the evenings, I am always available to speak to members and non-members on 0208 613 6500, or communicate via email [email protected]. As required, I do meet with anybody on an evening or weekend when requested. So please feel free to contact me with any concerns or enquires about joining the club.

[jimmy two times]

Thanks for reply. However, the carpark situation is a problem. I suspect that many of the people who use it in the evening are not members, but people who are either attending a swimming gala or using the floodlit football pitches. As a member I feel I have a right to use the car park and I live more then 5 mins away.

[Fuschia]

Hello, could we have a couple of week's trial membership to see if the parking would be Ok for us? We have baby twins and really do need somewhere with easy access.

[diwhy]

Why would you take babies to a sports club ?

OK, read your other post - Swimming :-$

[snorky]

Go to the sports club / subsidise the school & everything else that goes along with this education system

a registered charity - a loophole that you are now scrabbling to retain

Off you toddle my good man, you have had your free advertising & your earnest bit of PR, but some are not fooled.

Smash the private school system and liberate its assest for the general populace - why pay to join the club when you have have it for free?

[jimmy two times]

It's a real cash cow that can't be denied. ?8 for a guest pass and they can't even use the gym for that! It used to be ?2.50 when I first joined. Machinery in gym broken....carpark always overflowing....and they've increased membership prices. Come on Jags....we're in the midst of a bloody recession. Drop your prices or offer a better product !

[EDdownunder]

I don't have any problems with JAGS, of course I haven't gone there in 3 months.

[sofaRunner]

I am very disappointed in the attitude of JAGS sports club. I have no problems in the school trying to generate extra money by opening the gym in the evenings so this is not a political complaint.... it is just managed by a man who clearly has never been a gym user as it is so badly equiped & organised. there is a new "express" gym which is a sealed glass box - very hot in the winter & I shudder to think what it'll be like in the summer! who ordered the equipment in there?? certainly the awesome personal trainer who works from there wouldn;t have recommended it. Jimmy Two Times is right.... ?8 for a day pass??? hmmmm.... ok, I can swim for the 4 hours it is open in the week or play squash... that's it! there is no sauna & your not allowed in the gym - daylight robbery!

[Mikandnik]

My MAJOR gripe with JAGS is that although I am a paying member I can't take a guest for free (or at least a sensible fee - ?8 is ridiculous). As my reason for joining JAGS was the tennis and squash courts, I need a playing partner and therefore have to take a guest; this guest fee makes membership almost pointless since I can rent a court in the city for not much more than the guest fee.

When we joined the waitlist (three months at the time) we were sold on the fact that there was social tennis and squash sessions on the weekend which seemed a good opportunity to meet and play with other members. Both seem to have died a death in the interim.

In spite of Mr Club Managers comments about being approachable, I have asked repeatedly to speak to the manager and left messages for he/she to call me with the reception staff. Since he/she is never there and evidently cannot be bothered to return calls, I have resorted to putting suggestions in the box along the lines of 'could you please set up a league' or 'invite members to share their contact information if they are looking for a playing partner etc'. I have always left my contact information and the suggestions have been ignored

Its disappointing because I think the facilities are great.

[Huguenot]

Well he's left his number and email address there - let us know how you get on with those!