voices
Positioning Spa as
Catalyst Toward Alliance
in Well-being
Ada Polla is the president and CEO of
Alchimie Forever and
Treasurer of Washington
Spa Alliance.
BY ADA POLLA
very year, I come away from ISPA’s annual conference energized by the people I meet, the topics addressed and, through the vision of ISPA
leadership, the current big picture of our industry. In sessions and informally, we discuss the future of spa and its pivotal role in helping
people lead healthier, happier lives. Inevitably, I return home with fresh thoughts and ideas that are ripe for implementation.
At the 2009 ISPA Conference & Expo in Austin, Texas, I joined a small group of people over coffee to explore the idea of starting a regional group
that would give spa professionals in the greater Washington, D.C. region a structure for coming together regularly to discuss topics of common
interest. It didn’t take long to determine that this was a great idea, and that given the Washington, D.C. location, we had the opportunity to serve
in a larger role. Because we understood the value in sharing with others the spa industry’s unique inter-disciplinary approach—including fitness,
travel, alternative and preventive medicine, and a connection to nature, as well as sustainable practices ranging from economics to agriculture—
we could imagine serving as a catalyst for discussion. Even more so, we envisioned the new organization as a group to promote the exchange of
education and innovation within the field and, additionally, use our location in the U.S. nation’s capital to ensure that these ideals would be met
through policy and action.
E
By the end of this conversation, that
group—consisting of Bernard Burt, Mary
Bemis, Mary-Elizabeth Gifford, Mary
Gendron and myself—formed a Steering
Committee and agreed to get to work on
creating what we ultimately decided to
call the Washington Spa Alliance. How
we founded the organization—now a
Collaborative Member of ISPA—may be
instructive for spa professionals in other
geographic regions who may be interested
in doing the same thing. Here’s a primer:
● Enlist the right mix of talent to form your
Steering Committee: Our core group
included individuals whose expertise centered in spa marketing, operations,
products, media and public relations. We
quickly added a talented art director,
Laurie Dietter. Our individual backgrounds,
joint passion for our purpose and willingness to work in true collaboration proved
a winning combination for the task at
hand.
● Forge ahead in an organized fashion:
Because we were geographically dispersed
(Dietter in California, Gendron in New
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York and Bemis often traveling), we set a
standing conference call, issued an
agenda beforehand and distributed conference notes afterwards with action steps to
be completed before the next call. It
helped that everyone on the team stepped
up to take ownership of tasks; though
small, our Steering Committee had no
shortage of volunteers.
● Adopt a mission statement: After a group
discussion on one of our calls, we asked
Gendron and Bemis to create a first draft
which we discussed as a group and
tweaked over several days until we agreed
on the following:
“The mission of Washington Spa Alliance is
to act as a knowledge center, connecting spa
professionals in the nation’s greater capital
region. Washington Spa Alliance works to
promote the exchange of education and innovation in the field, and to ensure that the
highest ideals of spa are met through policy
and action.”
Referring to our mission statement on
a regular basis ensured that we stay on a
direct course toward our goals.
Take small steps toward large gains:
Though our initial impulse was to take on
the world in each call, we quickly realized
that our calls were more productive when
we tackled one or two issues at a time. So
on one call, we determined who would
look into the legal matters of incorporating (that fell onto me); on another, what
the group’s name should be (spirited discussion by all); who would serve as the
liaison to the Honorary Board we were
assembling (Mary-Elizabeth Gifford); who
would draft the Web site content
(Bernard Burt, Mary Gendron) and who
would design the identity (Laurie Dietter),
and so on.
● Set realistic deadlines and work toward
them: As the organization took shape over
several months, we developed the confidence to set a launch date (June 17, 2010)
and the date for the first Annual
Symposium, an event that would allow us
to bring together experts from various disciplines to begin to address issues of
common concern (March 24, 2011).
● Launch with a splash: For our June 17th
●