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Articles by Jeff Perkins
Tireless Efforts in 2021 Provides Fitness Industry Hope for 2022
It has been a year of tremendous progress for the industry’s advocacy efforts and 2021 has laid a strong foundation for the future. Jeff Perkins December 21, 2021 Congress and legislatures across the country are heading home for the holidays—which means there will be little happening before the new year. So let’s review all our advocacy actions accomplished in 2021 that lay the groundwork for success in 2022.
What is the Long-Term Impact of COVID on the Parking Industry?
Home / IPMI Blog / What is the Long-Term Impact of COVID on the Parking Industry? By Jeff Perkins The pandemic has not only changed the world forever, but has also had a significant impact on the parking industry. In 2020, the volume of parking significantly decreased, and many of the underlying consumer behaviors related to parking transformed. Now, as parking comes back and surpasses the pre-COVID levels, the big question is: what’s has really changed?
SBA Offers Gyms Safe Harbors for Loan Forgiveness
What the Small Business Administration’s safe harbor legal provisions entail and how these new requirements can help your fitness facility’s loan forgiveness application. Jeff Perkins September 16, 2021 If you were one of the gyms, health clubs, or studios fortunate enough to receive a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan in the first round of PPP back in the spring of 2020, you are probably getting ready to file your application for loan forgiveness.
Congressional Champions Ask President Biden to Include GYMS Act in…
Lead GYMS Act sponsors, Reps. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) sent a letter to President Biden requesting that the GYMS Act be included in any future relief bills. Jeff Perkins June 07, 2021 On May 28, our GYMS Act champions in the House of Representatives, Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) sent the following letter to President Biden, requesting that the GYMS Act be included in any future recovery or jobs act legislation.
Listening to Your Customers
By Jeff Perkins One of the real challenges for parking providers is getting input from customers on an ongoing basis. The highly transactional nature of parking doesn’t always lend itself to a good feedback loop. So, as a parking provider, how do you know how you are doing? Are you meeting the consumer’s needs, or are you failing? How do you get better if you don’t know what’s broken? Fortunately, our company’s users are more than willing to share their feedback with us.
What the $900 Billion Omnibus COVID Relief Bill Means for Gyms
What the fitness industry needs to know about the latest COVID relief bill, including Paycheck Protection Program updates, loan and bankruptcy changes, and more. Jeff Perkins December 22, 2020 Congress has finally passed a COVID relief bill. This alert summarizes what you need to know about the $900 billion package. While it is good to see Congress finally take action, the bill fell short of expectations. Unfortunately, the bill does not contain specific grants for health and fitness businesses.
‘All Politics Is Local’ & It’s Time Health Clubs Got Involved
How well do you know your local government officials? These relationships can help your business more than you may expect. Jeff Perkins July 02, 2020 “All politics is local,” former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tip O’Neill was fond of saying. Despite the rise in political partisanship, and a pandemic, it remains a political truism that club operators would do well to heed today.
Getting Your Health Club Back to Business
Maximize your health club’s reopening efforts by lobbying on behalf of the industry using IHRSA resources. Jeff Perkins June 26, 2020 Back in March when the COVID-19 shutdowns in the U.S. began, most of us were expecting closures to last a couple of weeks or a month at most. Now, here we are in June, and clubs in nine states remain closed in some form. It is fair to say this has lasted longer than any of us expected. The good news is 41 states are now open.
Colorado Springs Partners with ParkMobile for Contactless Parking Payments
Residents and Visitors to Colorado Springs Will Have the Option to Pay for Parking on Their Mobile Device Without Touching the Meter Friday, June 5, 2020 1:31 PM The City of Colorado Springs Parking Enterprise and ParkMobile have announced a new partnership to provide contactless payments via mobile app at approximately 2,400 metered parking spaces throughout the City of Colorado Springs.
UIL working on plan to begin summer strength and conditioning June 8
× Help support our COVID-19 coverage We're providing access to COVID-19 articles for free. Please help support our work by subscribing or signing up for an account. Already a subscriber? Log in. The UIL took a small but significant step toward holding football season Tuesday with the organization announcing it will work with state officials to begin allowing schools to conduct limited summer strength and conditioning programs on June 8. The UIL’s message comes a day after Texas Gov.
What IHRSA Has Been Lobbying for During the Economic Crisis
It can be hard to keep track of everything happening in Washington D.C. as the coronavirus crisis upends Capitol Hill. We’ve highlighted all that IHRSA has been doing federally on your behalf in the last month. Jeff Perkins April 16, 2020 It has been a wild and tumultuous month. The novel coronavirus has spread across the globe, putting people’s health at risk and bringing much of the global economy to a halt.
Consistency Is Key: True for Fitness Goals and PHIT Goals
If we want to pass PHIT, we’ll need to keep achieving those small victories, just like your health club members who want to meet their fitness goals. Jeff Perkins February 28, 2020 Whatever happened with the Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act? The PHIT Act passed the House in the 115th Congress, does that mean we're just waiting on the Senate? The PHIT Act is one of the few bills with support from both Republicans and Democrats, so why can't they just pass this bill?
ParkMobile Hits 18 Million User Milestone and Brings on Experienced COO to Help Scale the Business for Future Growth
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 10:52 AM ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the U.S., today announced it hit the 18 million user milestone, growing 110% over the past two years. To help continue to scale the business and manage this rapid growth, the company announced the appointment of experienced technology executive, John Brown, as chief operations officer.
BBVA Stadium Selects ParkMobile As Official Parking Partner
New Service Allows Fans to Easily Reserve Parking Spots in Advance for Houston Dynamo and Dash Soccer Matches and Other Events at the Stadium Monday, January 20, 2020 12:39 PM BBVA Stadium today announced a new partnership with ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in North America, as the official provider of parking reservations for events at the venue.
ParkMobile Partners with the University of Georgia in Athens to Provide Smarter Parking Options Around Campus
Atlanta-based Company Continues to Add Users and Expand Service in Cities, Venues and Universities Across the State of Georgia Wednesday, January 15, 2020 1:05 PM ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the U.S., announced today the launch of service at the University of Georgia’s main campus in Athens. Students and visitors will be able to use the ParkMobile app to easily pay for parking at 2,400 spaces across campus in both lots and decks.
2019 Legislative Session Delivers Gifts to Fitness Industry
Presents: Tennessee Rolled Back Sales Tax on Health Club Membership Dues Tennessee chose to prioritize its citizens’ health and wellness by repealing the amusement tax—a form of sales tax—on health club memberships and fitness services dues. IHRSA actively advocated for the removal of the “gym tax” since before the start of the 2019 legislative session. How were we able to convince Tennessee lawmakers to remove the gym tax?
6 Threats Fitness Professionals Need to Watch Out For in 2020
It's an election year, which could bring new and old legislative threats to your club's door. Jeff Perkins December 17, 2019 You may be asking yourself, "How is it possible to identify the legislative and regulatory threats that will affect club operations in 2020?" We haven't even said goodbye to 2019 yet.
Gym Boss or Worker: Who Benefits from 2019 Legislative Trends?
Legal Staffing Take a look at the trends sweeping the country. These changes to employment law are impacting health clubs and businesses in every industry. Jeff Perkins November 20, 2019 Two of the hottest topics of the 2019 legislative session focused on increasing benefits for employees. Paid family and medical leave laws and increasing the minimum wage continue to be on the minds of voters and lawmakers.
Your Fitness Business Suffered a Data Breach. Now What?
Legal Technology You took all the right steps to protect your health club member’s data, but there was still a data breach. What do you do to minimize the damage? Jeff Perkins September 19, 2019 The term "data breach" is usually one of the last things a health club owner or operator wants to hear happened at their club. It's enough to break the savviest business owner into a sweat. Before your heart rate bursts out of the red zone, remember to breathe.
How an Emerging Fitness Trend Can Become an Industry Threat
Technology Legal IHRSA's team keeps an eye on all possible threats and when the time comes, shares any actionable intelligence with you. Jeff Perkins September 17, 2019 IHRSA’s mission is to grow, promote, and protect the health and fitness industry. One of the ways we do this is by ensuring you are aware of and protected from regulatory issues. Accomplishing this means tracking, reporting, and lobbying on legislation that could harm your business.
7 Ways to Protect Your Health Club From a Data Breach
Technology Legal Your gym has valuable information about your members. If something happens to this data, it can cost your business millions and hurt your reputation. Jeff Perkins August 29, 2019 Our digital economy runs on data. The collection and exchange of data can provide businesses—especially in the fitness industry—vital insights helping to target and better serve customers.
Federal Legislation That Could Change the Fitness Industry
Legal When lawmakers start recognizing physical activity as the literal lifesaver it can be, it could mean policies with significant impact on the fitness industry—and our country. Jeff Perkins August 20, 2019 To promote and protect health clubs, we monitor many bills. In the past year, we've talked about everything from emerging opioid regulations to new overtime rules to changes in state sales tax on gyms. These are all issues that—at the moment—may only impact clubs in a few states.
Tracking 100 Bills That Could Impact the Fitness Industry
The fitness industry had some major victories since our last check-in, and we should all celebrate! But the fight isn't over, and IHRSA is continuing to monitor potential threats. Jeff Perkins June 18, 2019 We’ve been busy this legislative season tracking over 100 pieces of proposed legislation across the U.S. At the time of publication, 35 states are adjourned, which means there are still 15 states conducting business that we’re keeping our eyes on.
Tapping into the Biometric Revolution in a Shifting Landscape
Legal Technology If you're thinking about incorporating biometric information into your health club, there are four principles you need to consider to help protect yourself. Jeff Perkins May 14, 2019 For some time now, IHRSA has been examining the many sides of the biometric revolution, highlighting how clubs can take advantage of the consumer demand for health and fitness data to create successful initiatives that increase results and retention.
How Your Health Club Can Stop a Proposed Sales Tax
Legal CBI Club owners, employees, and members can help stop proposed sales taxes on health club memberships in five easy steps! Jeff Perkins May 08, 2019 It’s pretty obvious that taxing health club memberships discourages people from exercising. What do lawmakers do when they want to discourage smoking or drinking too much sugar? They tax those products. So, why would lawmakers do the same to healthy lifestyles?
How Should You Compensate Group Exercise Instructors?
Staffing Legal Clubs need to think carefully about how to structure the compensation for group exercise instructors. Jeff Perkins April 16, 2019 How best to structure and manage staff compensation is a key issue for club operators. How you structure staff compensation ties directly into your management style and how you incentivize and reward performance.
The Good and the Bad Legislation that Could Affect Your Gym
A lot has already happened in the 2019 legislative season. Here’s a look at legislation that could impact your gym, from the good (a sales tax defeat) to the bad (unfair and harmful regulations). Jeff Perkins March 19, 2019 The 2019 legislative season hit the ground running. We have already tracked over 250 pieces of legislation that could change the way the fitness industry conducts business in 42 states.
Protecting Your Gym From the Next Storm of Laws & Regulations
Sales Tax: Old Issue, New Places While sales tax is not a new issue, where it is popping up now is new. In the most recent legislative session, we saw sales tax measures in traditionally low-tax states such as Georgia, Nebraska, West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, and Kentucky. We have highlighted this trend before, but the threat is real and requires the industry’s vigilance in the coming legislative session and likely beyond.
3 Keys to an Effective Health Club Contract
1. Put It in Writing It sounds simple and obvious, but virtually every state requires that a health club membership contract must be in writing. Also, having a written contract is just good business practice. The membership contract will govern your legal relationship with your members and can help set the right tone for your personal dealings with your members.
How the Outcome of the Midterm Elections Will Impact My Gym
Federal With midterm elections in the rearview mirror, Congress is back in D.C. for the start of what’s known as the “lame duck” session. Now, this may sound, well, lame, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This lame duck session is PHIT’s last and best chance to get through the Senate during the 115th Congress.
Public Outreach Has Unexpected Perks for You and Your Gym
Whenever you donate time, money, or services to a public cause, let people know, and whenever you host a charitable or other event at your club, invite your city councilors, state representatives, and other appropriate individuals to attend. These situations offer a unique opportunity to get acquainted in a pleasant social setting.
What Gyms Need to Know Before Selling Gift Certificates
Selling gift certificates can be a great way to introduce fitness newcomers to the services your club provides, and give regular visitors opportunities to ask friends and loved ones to support their gym habits, since they don’t necessarily need another Christmas sweater or a fancy birthday dinner. However, before you make the decision to sell gift certificates, you should acquaint yourself of the gift certificate laws in your state. Gift certificates continue to grow in popularity each year.
Who can come up with a new nickname? - PreWarCar
Who can come up with a new nickname? Last time when we were discussing names, we were talking about people named after cars. As we all know, cars are quite often named after their inventor / maker. Last week, we received the following message from Jeff Perkins, who bought a lovely Ford model A. And would like a nickname for his new car. What do you think is a good one? Please come up with your best and inventive idea.
The Spreading Threat of Sales Taxes on Membership Dues
States looking to apply a sales tax to club memberships and charges like personal training is not a new phenomenon. There are some states that already apply their sales tax to memberships, such as Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington. What is concerning and bears watching is not only the number of states considering a sales tax on club memberships, but which states are now considering doing it.
How Testing Tools Influence Your Thinking
Imagine you have expertise that could benefit another division in your company- a few days work could save a few million dollars. Except the HR software you use doesn’t allow your team to charge-back the other division, so you can’t do the work. Of course not. That’s crazy. You’d do the work anyway and collect the bonus, right? Except that does happen, exactly like that, all the time. Each little compromise we make to adjust to our tools has a cost – and those can add up to millions.
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