The First Week

Our first week operating as a business (instead of being a construction site!) is now behind us. It was a very good week. We started with a bang with the Tour de Bloc comp, followed immediately by a very busy day last Sunday (free admission will do that!). The rest of the week was of course not as busy, but we are starting to steadily build up a membership base. Over the course of the week we got caught up on a lot of things:

• Almost all the routes are now up, including route tags, and we've filled in a lot of the boulder problems we intend to have up.
  
• All the waivers (several hundred of them!) that were signed have been entered into our computer system. Thank you desk staff!
• We're getting some sleep, and even the odd day off work!

As we worked through the week we figured out and refined a lot of our processes. We'll continue to do this, and try to make things run as smoothly as possible, to make things better for both our customers and our staff. There may still be a few bumps here and there, and we appreciate you bearing with us as we figure everything out. We still don't have our membership cards in use (they seem not to be recognized by our barcode scanner, and we're working with the card supplier to get that fixed), so for the time being members and 10-pass holders will still need to check in at the front desk. And the web site is still a work in progress. Let us know what you expect to find there that you cannot, and we will respond.

The feedback we have had so far has been overwhelmingly positive, which makes us feel pretty great. There have been some suggestions though on things we can improve:

• Some of you want rental lockers for storage of ropes and other gear between sessions. We have ordered 60 lockerettes (6 small lockers in each column), which should be in place within a few weeks.
• Some of you want us to stay open until 11pm each night. We will probably extend our hours, but first I'd like to see our work schedules settle down a little, and make sure we are really on top of everything within our current hours. The managers are working much longer hours than I want to see, and I'm hoping that gets better over the next few weeks. So please be patient with us, and we'll get to this in a bit.
• Some have asked for weights to be added to the training area. We're thinking about this one. I have some concerns about where they would go, how much room we would need to set aside, and how to be sure they can be used safely, and kept out of the hands of young children. I'd like to hear more details about exactly what kinds of weights are needed to help us figure out what to do about this.
  
• A few people have asked us to provide rope buckets. This is not high on my priority list right now. Some think it makes more sense for each climber to provide their own means of carrying their rope around (I use a Mad Rock rope bucket, which I like a lot). I have a slight concern about these cluttering up the gym, and adding to what our staff need to keep an eye on. It's not a big deal either for us to provide them, or for climbers to get their own, but we're focusing on bigger things first.
• I heard some concern on the forum about the slacklines being in the way. So far that doesn't seem to be a problem, but we're keeping an eye on it. We have added padding to the posts, and we have the option to take them down, or reconfigure them as a single line running parallel to the north tall wall. If they start being too much in the way at busy times, we'll consider not having them up all the time.
  

Please keep the feedback coming. I have told the staff that our goal is to delight our customers. That's a big step beyond merely satisfying them, and it's something we take very seriously. If there is something wrong with the gym, please let me or my staff know about it right away. And if you like the gym, please tell your friends. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.