That’s right – were hiring again! Are you creative? Do you have web experience? We have an immediate opening for qualified and talented professionals who are interested in becoming part of a growing design team. If this is you please send a resume and cover letter to employment@inthooz.com.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
M.E Team
Little Rock Athletic Club
Improving lives through health and fitness This statement is both simple and direct. We want our members’ lives to be better as a consequence of utilizing the services and facilities of the Little Rock Athletic Club. The club’s goal is to create a positive, nurturing environment stressing the mental, physical, and emotional benefits of leading an active, participatory, and health conscious lifestyle.
We are keenly aware of and responsive to our members’ needs/complaints.
This value reminds us always to stay open-minded and listen carefully to our members. While it can be difficult to receive criticism, nothing is more crucial to correcting deficiencies within our operation than a member notifying us that something is wrong. It is then incumbent upon us to correct the shortcoming in a timely manner.
We hire service-oriented staff and train them to provide unsurpassed service to the membership.
Good service is first and foremost a willingness to take care of others. Some people simply seemed wired to be good service providers. Those are the individuals we want to hire. When we hire employees who have a “service attitude” we must then train them how to utilize their positive mind-set within our system.
Cleanliness and maintenance is critical to our success and everyone’s job.
Keeping the Club clean and all the equipment functioning is an ongoing challenge. After all, over a thousand people visit the LRAC on a typical day – to sweat and utilize the equipment. This value recognizes that members deserve to work out in a clean environment and have equipment that operates properly. It further acknowledges that keeping the facility in order is every employee’s responsibility.
It is essential that we operate with integrity at all times.
This guideline reflects the role that ethics plays within our business. Whether it involves members, vendors or employees, it is critical that our conduct be honest and fair-minded. This “golden rule” of behavior is just good business and always pays off in the long run.
Teamwork is paramount to our success.
Our organization is made up of twelve separate divisions and nearly 200 full and part-time employees. Each division has its own budget, manager and priorities. This guideline means that in order for our Club to flourish, each division and all employees must operate interdependently. Functioning as a team requires good communication and an ability to maintain focus on the goals of the overall organization.
The work we do makes a positive difference in our members’ lives.
This final Guiding Value relates to our Purpose Statement and reminds us of the life affirming nature of our business. It is the “icing on the cake”. We are fortunate to provide a service that is both beneficial to our members and a pleasure to deliver.
While it would be an overstatement to suggest that we unfailingly live up to all these standards, their existence helps us correct course when we lose our way. Furthermore, by sharing these ideals here, we become more accountable to you and thereby move closer to achieving our mutual goals.
Riley’s Health and Fitness Centers, Inc. (RHFC) was initially formed in 1985 to build the first multi-purpose health club in central Arkansas. The company currently operates four clubs in Little Rock/North Little Rock (i.e. Little Rock Athletic Club, Downtown Athletic Club, North Little Rock Athletic Club, and Little Rock Racquet Club) with a combined membership of 7,000 (family and single memberships) representing almost 18,000 individual members.
The first official act of RHFC was the purchase of the Westside Tennis Center (now the Little Rock Athletic Club) in December 1985. This initial step however, was preceded by several years of planning and dreaming.
The idea to develop a multi-purpose health club in Little Rock was formed in the early ‘80’s in Dallas, Texas. During those years Pat Riley, Jr. was an enthusiastic member of Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s Aerobic Center. At that time, the Aerobics Center was widely regarded as one of the premier multi-purpose health/fitness centers in the U.S.. Being a native of Little Rock, Pat believed that an athletic club, patterned after the Aerobics Center, in his hometown would be successful. He discussed the idea with his father (Pat Riley, Sr.) who had helped develop several clubs in Arkansas (i.e. Little Rock Racquet Club and Westside Tennis Center) in the ’60s and ’70s and Riley, Sr. was in favor of pursing the idea.
The Riley’s hired the Aerobics Center to be their primary consultant in developing the design and format of the new club. The principle consultant was Bill Grantham who was the General Manager of the Aerobics Center and was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable health club managers in the country.
In 1984, Bill and Pat began working on a plan that would eventually become the Little Rock Athletic Club. Once the general design for the club was in place, the next crucial step in the process was determining a location for the facility. The original intention was to build from the ground up rather than renovate an existing club. However, in the fall of 1985 the owners of Westside Tennis Center approached the Riley’s with an offer to sell that facility.
Westside was originally built in 1973 as the first indoor tennis center in Arkansas and although it had added on a small fitness center in 1983, was primarily known as a tennis club. After a thorough analysis, it was determined that the Westside club could feasibly be renovated to become a multi-purpose facility. An additional benefit was the existing membership of 700 at Westside.
Over the next several years, architectural plans were developed and financing was arranged. In April 1988, the construction of the LRAC began. Throughout the construction, Westside remained open to its existing membership.
A critical component in the eventual success of the project occurred in the summer of 1988 when Bill Grantham agreed to move to Little Rock to assume the position of General Manager. Bill served as the Club’s General Manager from its opening in 1989, until his untimely death in January, 2002.
The Little Rock Athletic Club held its grand opening on April 8, 1989. The Club opened with approximately 1,500 memberships and a staff of 55. Currently, this 130,000 square foot club has a membership of over 4,000 and a staff of 200.
Visit the new site today! www.lrac.com
I had a thought this morning in the shower.
Here at M.E we’ve been talking about our site redesigning. It’s definitely in the works and will be happening soon. It’s hard to find time for your internal work when you’ve got so many other things coming in. I was in Florida last week and Ryan asked me to be thinking about things we could incorporate into our new site. I tried, but the sun got in my eyes and I kind of forgot about it until this morning!
This morning I got to thinking about a local agency’s site I had gone to. The site looked decent but when I mentioned the agency’s name to another advertising/design friend he gave me a dirty look as if to say, “no no no, that’s a bad place.”
It hit me this morning, that whole phrase about judging a book by its cover. Does that rule still apply? Especially for a designer? Honestly I wouldn’t read a book if it had an ugly cover. That being the case, I’d never want to use an agency that had an ugly site.
This may be unfair because in the above story the agency had a nice site and apparently crappy work. Some agencies have terrible sites but great work. It just depends I suppose. For me the site of an agency is very important. Here are some things I look for in an agency site:
I realize that’s a bit vague but let me explain. It’s like a timeless logo really. There are basic design principles, such as the use of a grid, that should always last. No matter what the trend is in design (gradients, peeling stickers, shadows, highlights, etc) certain things will always be viewed, at least by myself, as good elements of design. Agencies who change their site to merely reflect a trend don’t really impress me. I just see it as oh, you took note of what everyone else was doing and did it too, way to go!
I came to your agency site to see what you can do. If I can’t find a link to your portfolio or work within about 30 seconds then your site has failed. Your a an ad or design agency, let’s see what you can do!
I want to see who works with you. What you’re position is in the company, who your owner is, all of that good stuff. This staff section lets me know a little more about the internal vibe of the agency and whether or not they’d be good to work with on a project.
Something neat, something cool, just a small thing. I don’t want it to overwhelm me. Just do something really awesome that let’s me know you can think outside the box. Self promotional pieces are usually a great place to show this.
Maybe, maybe not. Just like a book’s cover, an agency’s website is a great starting point to make some sort of judgment call.
Be on the lookout for our new site, we’re probably just going to have to use our nights and weekends to get that done.
-Don
I’m always surprised by the imaturity and down right dirtyness of some of our peers in this industry. A contract is a contract and should be honored on both sides of the agreement.
If you have a client that has a contract with you through a certain period of time, and they decide to terminate that contract pre-maturely, you should continue to honor your end of that contract until the client is successfully and fully separated from you. In lamens terms, don’t cancel someone’s hosting cause you got a little offended that they decided there was someone in the industry that could better service their needs. There is never a reason for a site to be “taken down” before the transfer, or any reason that a client should suddenly find themselves between providers with no where to go.
More times than not, we have to start our relationship with clients in a “resue mission” mode because their current/previous provider has got their feelings hurt and is holding site files, hosting, logins or whatever else hostage knowing that the client has no real understanding or power to obtain these items.
This doesn’t help your business. This doesn’t retain the customer. This really doesn’t make any one hurt in the end, but the company that is selfishly retaining property that the client has already paid for. Do yourself a favor, and help change the current negative persona of this industry and start treating clients like the gold that they truely are.
Our policy is to always, no matter the cost, make the experience with Mass Enthusiasm as pleasant and smooth as possible. If you’re tired of being taken advantage of. Tired of being talked down to, tired of being charged for breathing in the direction of your current provider, please do yourself and us a favor and give us a call. We’d love to start your “rescue mission” today.
Always keep in mind, in this industry, you really get what you pay for.
Do you know Web? Versed in marketing and advertising sales? Great communication skills? Well, then we want to talk to you. We are currently seeking a talented and qualified sales person ready to make their mark.
Here’s what we are looking for:
Proven sales and marketing professional who has a strong background in web sales coupled with traditional marketing and advertising efforts. We are looking for a “go getter” that’s ready to go! Strong cold calling and lead generation ability a must.
If this is you give us a shout! Send resume to: employment@inthooz.com
17300 Chenal Parkway Suite 330 Little Rock, AR 72223 ~ 501.821.8746
