On the Ball

Things are starting to get a little giddy around here. And by "things," I mean me.

It's been awhile since I've blogged, so I thought what better day than the day my boss is not here, and while I'm still scouring every nook and cranny of her office for "the really good stuff."

I was out of the office myself Thursday and Friday of last week. In fact, all three amigos (Pam, Jenn and I) haven't been together in the same office since July 6, when we put the July issue to bed. Let's face facts: We simply don't want to work anymore, but at least we should be back to full strength on Tuesday.

From the "Missing the Obvious" department: I checked out my copy of Midwest Mania magazine when I got in the office this morning. The magazine is produced by the fine folks at SCW Fitness. I noticed on Page 3 that SCW's convention will be in Chicago, and that its dates overlap with our national show. I mentioned this neat-o fact to Jenn, who added that there's going to be a shuttle available to and from each show.

Upon further review, not only is there a mention of the overlapping of shows in Sara Kooperman's letter on Page 2 of the magazine, but that, clear as day on the cover, is the blurb, "Free shuttle between Midwest Mania and Club Industry on Thursday, October 11." This is why I get paid the big bucks to be an editor. No stones unturned here.

There's an interesting article today in USA Today about how fitness clubs are looking for more opportunities to advertise in their clubs. I saw this article this morning and was about to forward it to members of our staff, but our associate publisher beat me to it. I'd like to say, "Great minds think alike," but I'm really bummed out about not sending it first.

Late Friday, I had a really nice chat with Marc Tascher, the founder of Town Sports International who relinquished his duties as CEO of Crunch Fitness to make room for club industry newcomer Tim Miller. Marc called me back while I was away, and he says that, although he's going to remain on the Crunch board, he's going to start taking some time for himself. We'll have more industry news later in the week, plus, we're breaking in a new author for our "One Last Thought" column, a writer who hopefully will have a keen sense of details.