April 2016 Cover Story Preview: IHRSA’s 35 and Counting! The VALUE of IHRSA
Posted: April 12, 2016 in Other News
IHRSA: Success By Association
Club Insider is very pleased to acknowledge and help celebrate IHRSA’s 35th Anniversary! After having seen IHRSA in action again March 21-24th in Orlando, Florida, this author came back to his keyboard all charged up…again! That charged up feeling has happened every year for the 35 years that our industry’s best friend, Rick Caro, and I have been attending IHRSA’s Annual Convention and Trade Show.
And, during these past 35 years, Rick Caro has continued to shepherd our great Association along the way, while at the same time helping hundreds of clients through his New York City-based Management Vision, Inc. club consulting company. Rick’s guidance and input to IHRSA has been huge in the overall success of the Association. In addition to speaking at every IHRSA Convention on a myriad of topics along the way, Rick has produced 20 IHRSA Financial Panels, now always one of the highlights of the Annual Convention.
Club Insider has been supportive of IRSA/IHRSA during our 23-year run, and we were helpful when, in 1994, the IHRSA Board of Directors, without any consultation with the IRSA Members, voted 9-0 to change the Association’s name to Exercere, which is Latin for To Exercise. When the members learned of that change, they rebelled big time and sent many letters and faxes objecting to the move. Club Insider published a lot of the member’s protest writings for three months in a row, and due to that barrage of objections from the unhappy membership, the IRSA Board voted to cancel the name change to Exercere. Instead, in June of 1994, the IRSA Board voted 9-0 to change the name again, but this time to change the name by adding the word Health, making the acronym we all know now: IHRSA. Adding the word Health created a significant boom in IHRSA Membership because, before that happened, the health and fitness club operators of the world had always viewed IRSA only as a racquet sports association. This gave our Association an identity of being for and available to serve all health clubs, racquet clubs and sports clubs.
The following comments are from the man, himself, the one and only Rick Caro. And, I’ve reached out to a group of IHRSA Members and supporters for their comments, as well. I’ll then close this Special Cover Story with Thanks and Appreciation to everybody involved in making IHRSA so successful for 35 years now. Read on. Enjoy. And, help IHRSA celebrate 35 and Counting! The VALUE of IHRSA rolls on!
Read all about it in the upcoming April 2016 Edition of Club Insider!
