Campus Recreation
2011-2012 Assessment: Campus Recreation Health & Fitness Outreach Program
Submitted by Sonja Tysk MS, Fitness Program Manager
ABSTRACT
For the 2011-2012 academic year, Campus Recreation’s (CR) fitness program decided to work towards expanding the personal training program. The approach to increasing the program was to offer free health and fitness presentations to any interested faculty and staff within a department on the UM Mountain Campus. This outreach program would increase the scope of the CR personal trainer job duties, increase exposure to the campus community of the personal training services offered through CR, provide a beneficial free service to any interested faculty/staff, and address three out of fourteen CR priorities for FY13. Before investing time and resources into creating these presentations, CR surveyed all UM Mountain Campus faculty and staff to determine the level of interest, preferred times to offer the presentations, as well as preferred topics. The survey results showed a high level of interest from those faculty and staff who responded to the survey. Therefore, the CR personal trainers decided this outreach program would be a worthwhile endeavor. Funding sources for this program are currently being explored, and the personal trainers are beginning to develop three different presentations to advertise and offer to UM Mountain Campus Departments for fall 2012.
BACKGROUND
In fall 2011, all full-time Campus Recreation staff collaborated in writing the department’s strategic plan for 2012-2020 and established fourteen (14) departmental priorities for FY13. This annual assessment report is one example of a program idea the department is developing as a function of some of the FY13 priorities.
This past year, the fitness programs area of CR made a concentrated effort to increase the scope of its personal training program. In the past, the job responsibilities of the personal trainers have been to offer one-on-one personal training services to paying clients, as well as provide fitness consultations for any interested CR patrons. However, the fitness staff believes that by only working with CR members within the walls of the Fitness and Recreation Center (FRC), they are “preaching to the choir.” As a way of expanding the personal training program and extending the personal trainers’ knowledge and services beyond the FRC, the fitness staff came up with the idea of going around campus and visit individual departments conducting free health and fitness presentations. These presentations would be available to any interested UM faculty or staff. The aim of this approach is two-fold: 1) given that the faculty/staff wellness program changed its format last year, it seemed that a free health and fitness service that all faculty and staff could access would be of great benefit to many UM employees, and 2) by offering a free health and fitness outreach program to the greater campus community, it would provide exposure of not only the CR personal trainers, but the entire CR department. This increased campus wide exposure contributes to the overall marketing of CR, with the goal of increasing faculty/staff memberships to the FRC.
During spring semester of 2012, CR approached Terri Phillips, Vice President of Human Resources (HR), to ask if HR would be interested in partially funding this program. The vice president stated that HR could contribute some funds to help support this program. In addition to this contribution, Cynthia Boies, Training/Development Officer from HR, asked the CR fitness manager if the health and fitness presentations could be part of the Community Transformation Grant she was applying for through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The fitness manager and the HR development officer collaborated to include the health and fitness outreach program in the grant.
This health and fitness outreach program addresses three FY13 priorities:
1) Increase sales of Campus Recreation memberships to faculty, staff, and nontraditional students (including those at the College of Technology).
2) Explore external funding options (for example, grants, scholarships, or donations).
3) Fitness Programs: Offer health and fitness workshops to university faculty and staff.
Before the trainers created these presentations, CR conducted a survey to determine the interest level of faculty and staff in such a program, as well as the most desirable presentation times, and which health and fitness topics would be of most interest.
PROCEDURE
To assess interest level and other specifics regarding the health and fitness presentations, an on-line survey was administered to all faculty and staff of the UM Mountain Campus via the office of Human Resources. The questions were developed by the CR personal training staff and Survey Monkey was used to create and publish the survey. The survey was intentionally brief, only three questions, to encourage people to respond. The questions were developed to provide basic but essential information for the development of this new program.
The survey was introduced by the following brief statement: “The personal trainers at Campus Recreation, in conjunction with UM Human Resource Services, would like to come to your department or office to present to you a free educational lecture on a health & fitness related topic. Please answer this quick 3 question survey to help us determine interest and possible presentation topics”. The three survey questions were:
1. Would you be interested in attending a free, 45 minute health & fitness lecture presented by a Campus Recreation personal trainer?
Possible answers: Yes / No
2. What times would you prefer?
Possible answers: 11:00am, 11:30 am, noon, 12:30pm, 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, 5:30pm
3. What topics would you like to have covered?
Possible answers: Heart health, Ergonomics, Nutrition basics, Stress Reduction, Vitamin D Deficiency, Other topics (please specify)
The survey was administered on April 20, 2012 and was active for three weeks. The survey was e-mailed to all faculty/staff at The UM Mountain Campus, 2230 people. Question #1 had 436 responses for a response rate of 19.55 %. Question #2 had 309 responses for a response rate of 13.86%. Question #3 had 310 responses for a response rate of 13.90 %.
FINDINGS
Based on the survey results, 82% of those faculty and staff who responded to the survey expressed interest in having a Campus Recreation personal trainer come to their department to offer a free presentation on health and fitness related topics.
In order to set these presentations up for the best possible chance of success, the staff wanted to know what time of day the majority of faculty and staff would prefer to attend. Based on the survey results, the most popular time was noon, which had 48% of the responses. The second most popular time, with 43% of the responses, was 11:00am. These time preferences are not a surprise. Noon is the most likely time for faculty and staff to take a lunch break. Therefore, this would be the most convenient time for them to attend a presentation without disrupting their work day or having to come to campus early or stay late after work hours.
The third survey question addressed topic preferences. The personal trainers listed five topic ideas and a respondent could select as many choices as they wanted. There was also an open-ended option for respondents to suggest a topic. The five topics the trainers listed were heart health, ergonomics, nutrition basics, stress reduction, and vitamin D deficiency. Of those five topics, stress reduction was the most popular with 212 responses, and ergonomics was the second most popular with 198 responses. The open ended question that allowed people to list other topic ideas resulted in 84 suggestions. The fitness manager and personal training staff read through all suggestions and identified a couple of trends. The most consistent comments were in regards to general/basic exercise information for overall fitness and weight loss (23 related suggestions). The second largest trend was fitting exercise into a busy life/work schedule with exercise and stretching ideas to do at your desk (16 suggestions).
RECOMMENDATIONS
Due to the high rate of interest expressed (82%) by the faculty & staff who participated in the survey, the personal trainers decided an outreach program offering free health and fitness presentations to faculty/staff would be a worthwhile pursuit.
The CR marketing staff, in conjunction with the CR fitness manager, will take time over the summer to develop the advertising necessary to inform the greater campus community about the presentations that will be available in the fall of 2012.
These presentations will be offered at the noon hour due to the fact that noon had the highest response count on the survey.
Prior to sending out the survey, the personal trainers had decided that if the program was going to go forward, it would be best to chose three presentation topics that would be developed, marketed and offered to campus for fall semester. After viewing the results of this survey, it was clear the following three topics had the most interest and therefore should be used for the outreach presentations:
· stress reduction
· general/basic exercise information for overall fitness and weight loss
· fitting exercise into a busy life/work schedule with examples of stretches and exercises to do at your desk
Currently, two CR personal trainers are in the process of developing these topic ideas into presentations.
The awards for the Community Transformation Grant are to be announced mid-July. Campus Recreation should be notified in the very near future if any funds have been awarded to the personal trainer’s outreach program. If money is awarded through the grant, the personal trainers will be able to conduct up to four presentations a week throughout fall semester. If no money is awarded through the grant, the outreach program will still be viable through funds CR and HR have agreed to contribute, however the trainers will only offer up to two presentations per week.
APPENDIX I
Survey Question #3 – “What topics would you like to have covered?”
ANSWERS:
1. Exercise limitations for someone with back/shoulder/neck pain
2. Suggest workout routines for someone who has limited amount of time – say over lunch hour
3. Fitness
4. Cycling classes and weight workouts
5. Signups for noon recreations activity like walking, jogging, kickball, Frisbee, volleyball, softball
6. Free classes on campus
7. High intensity interval training
8. Diabetes awareness and prevention/anxiety/stress/depression awareness and reduction
9. Strength exercises to do at your desk
10. Supplements
11. Program that might possibly be available for working out to stay in shape
12. Weight management
13. Heart rate training
14. Fitness
15. Seasonal light disorder, as we work in the basement always. If they have any info covering this topic it would be nice
16. Weight gain in the midsection
17. How to battle high cholesterol
18. As I am unable to afford membership to um fitness facilities/programs, the info provided during lectures needs to be applicable to staff without access to a gym or fitness classes
19. Joint strengthening to reduce pain
20. Cooking and eating healthy, planning, shopping; cooking eating healthy lunch, exercising, sleep – impact and importance; get a life, how do we support employees toward each having the opportunity for a balanced life or a life outside work
21. Flexibility and strength exercises that can be done in office
22. Hormone replacement vs. not
23. Exercise and sports related injuries, prevention, and/or treatment and remediation
24. Diabetes maintenance
25. Injury prevention/rehab
26. Your survey seems set up for staff. Those of us who teach have different times available on different days! I’d also like to hear an overview of any and all fitness/wellness opportunities that are currently ongoing and available to faculty/staff
27. Exercise examples that I can do at work (in my office). And example may be a stretching exercise
28. Fitness and body mass – how to best build muscle and lower body fat percentage
29. The importance of getting off our chairs. No more excuses. And as part of the nutrition basics presentation, it must be pointed out how the large food companies are stuffing all we eat with chemicals and keeping us sick, abut not quite dead – the same thing they are doing with our cattle and other meat products
30. Fitting exercise into a work day
31. How to fit in strength, cardio, and flexibility training into a normal hectic day
32. Basic fitness routines for those who have deconditioned and want to start getting back to basic fitness (may also have some mobility issues with arthritis in knees). Some exercises for prevention/reduction carpal tunnel symptoms. Would attend these classes during work time be eligible for “sick leave” usage or would it have to be annual or flexed lunch?
33. Avoiding injuries
34. Weight control
35. Body toning – how to target specific areas
36. Healthy options on campus. How to maximize your lunch hour for health and fitness. Fitness staff – 45m in exclusive classes for fac/staff fitness
37. Stretching
38. Opportunities for health and wellness related activities for staff on campus
39. Other supplements pros-cons
40. Physical fitness – exercise programs
41. General exercises for overall health
42. Exercise programs including cardio and strength training