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Newly merged Aquatics and Fitness Advisory Committee makes recommendation

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

(Friday, Sept. 22): The newly merged Aquatics and Fitness Advisory Committee has recommended that the GRF Board adopt a series of fee hikes for personal training sessions and reformer Pilates classes taught at the Fitness Center, on the heels of other fee increases tied to the 2024 GRF operating budget.

The Board, at its meeting Thursday, Sept. 28, is scheduled to vote on approving the operating budget.

Fees for 30-minute personal training, which are now $35, would go up to $40 next year if approved by the Board. The fee for a 60-minute training session would go up from $60 to $70, and the fee for a Pilates “reformer” class would go from $20 a session to $22.

Guest fees and key tag replacement would also go up.

“We’re trying to make sure that this service pays for itself,” Ann Mottola, GRF’s director of community services, told the advisory committee at its Sept. 14 meeting.

If these fee increases are approved, revenue is projected to go up from $217,000 in 2022 to about $250,000 in 2024.

These fees will be considered by the GRF Board on Thursday to help counteract the effects of an anticipated 34.6% increase in GRF’s master property insurance policy premiums in 2024. Other fee increases will apply to some facility/meeting room rentals, Handyman repair services, residents’ golf rounds and RV storage.

One could get around the fitness fees increase, Mottola said, by buying a “10-pack” of 30- or 60-minute personal training sessions or reformer Pilates sessions. The 10-pack, she said, would be at the old per-session prices; that is, a 10-pack of Pilates next year would cost 10 times what one session costs this year. The same concept would hold true for the personal training sessions.

Committee member Harriet Crosby said the 10-pack may also convince some Rossmoorians to exercise more, ultimately to their benefit.

“You’re going to commit to your own health and well-being,” she said.

GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson told the committee that most of these fees hadn’t been raised in several years. And committee member Christa Kell noted that many free fitness classes are still offered.

The proposed fee increases were approved by a 6-0 vote, with committee member Elisabeth Rutter abstaining.

This Sept. 14 meeting was the first for the Aquatics and Fitness Advisory Committee, the result of combining the former Aquatics Advisory Committee and the Fitness Center Advisory Committee. The GRF Board on July 27 approved a new charter for the newly combined committee.