WNiF Magazine - Spring 2016 Edition | Page 10

A MESSAGE FROM FITNESS AUSTRALIA By Bill Moore Anyone could be forgiven for questioning spending money on something that they don’t really see, or maybe don’t fully understand the benefits of. I n the electric fitness landscape, where even the disrupters are being disrupted and the appetite for our products and services have outstripped our wildest imaginings of 20 years ago, it can be a tough gig trying to validate why you should kick the tin for membership to your industry association year after year. 10 Even in the robust current trading environment dollars are still hard earned. Anyone could be forgiven for questioning spending money on something that they don’t really see, or maybe don’t fully understand the benefits of. But when you take a step back and check out what’s happening in the broader commercial and legal landscape, it actually comes as no surprise that associations are one of the fastest growing categories in the corporate world. Business is getting more complex, more regulated, and fitness business is no different. The downside of being on the upward health and wellness trajectory is that it attracts other players who want to have a piece of us. While some local councils put in place outdoor training licence fees to genuinely raise standards and monitor open space, some council are using this as their chance to cash in on our contribution to the health and wellness of their ratepayers. Unions are trying to change our award rates to inflate the cost of the out-ofnormal hours that are the hallmark of our industry. And we only have to think back to the madness that the music industry tried to foist on us (all the way to the Supreme Court, no less) to understand that the industry needs someone in its corner. When you’re busy keeping the numbers WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - SPRING 2016