Standing up for Life Safety

Monday night Zumba classes at my local gym are very popular.  A little too popular I fear. The classes have become so crowded that I avoid them like the plague, well like a fire emergency to be more exact.

A couple of months ago I quit attending the Monday night classes and made a comment to the gym manager that I thought they were unsafe.  I politely made the suggestion that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check the occupancy load for the room and monitor some classes.  I couldn’t be sure that anything would come of my suggestion, but felt I needed to make them aware of an unsafe situation.

Fast forward to last week and I see this sign at the front desk of my gym.

I inqured as to the purpose of  signing in and was told the classes had become too crowded to be safe.  The first 75 people to sign in will be able to attend the class, others will be turned away.  I was proud of my gym for looking into the situation and coming up with a plan to ensure the safety of its members.

There have been a lot of negative murmurings and I expect it to get worse when people are actually turned away.  I am sure, however that everyone will get used to the new system and hopefully will understand life safety should come first.

A fellow door & hardware professional was in a similar situation while visiting an indoor playground.  Here is her story.