Wellness and Recreation Committee

October 11, 2011 minutes

Attended: Maureen Barry, Kathy Winters, Greg Coffey, Susan D’Autremont, Jennifer Turpin

Updates

· Fit Bowl (Fall Fitness incentive program) is in week 5. Participants log their exercise minutes at the Rec Desk each week. For each minute of exercise, participants travel 1 mile to a pre-determined college bowl game (football) destination. At the end of the quarter, all participants who reach their bowl game destination will receive a t-shirt. Top finishers from each group will be awarded a grand prize. We have 54 Fit Bowl participants this year.

· The Inaugural Freshstart session was held on Monday, October 3. Freshstart is the American Cancer Society’s free Smoking Cessation program. The program is offered in 4 group meetings. Freshstart utilizes behavior theory, group/social support and self-regulation (through home-work and reflective activities) with the goal of helping participants to make a successful quit attempt.

· The Rec Fit Group Fitness program is now a fee-based service for WSU faculty and staff (effective September 6, 2011). The cost for an annual membership is $80, $30 quarterly, or $5.00 for a day-use pass (plus tax). To date, we’ve sold 38 annual passes and 9 quarterly passes.

Upcoming Programs

· Chair Massage – Friday, October 14 (Chair massage is offered once a month, typically on the second Friday).

· Pre-postnatal Yoga – Friday, October 14 (This class will run 4 weeks as a pilot. We hope to include a full/10-week class on the winter quarter Rec Fit schedule). Pre-registration, along with a Physician’s Clearance form (can be obtained from 092D Student Union or Jennifer.turpin@wright.edu) is required for this class. We have 5 participants registered for the fall session.

· Health Benefits Fair – Wednesday, October 19. WRC will have a booth at the fair with health brochures available (Food Labels, Starting a Walking Program, Weight Loss Tips). We will also offer information about the Freshstart Smoking Program and will offer free body composition analysis. Susan suggested including a short survey to obtain information about WSU employee familiarity with WRC programs as well as program ideas. The committee decided that in exchange for completing the short questionnaire, participants could be entered into a raffle for a prize drawing. Suggested prizes included a group fitness pass, personal training package and a free chair massage.

· WIN (Women in Nature) Fall 2011 Program: Backpacking at Red River Gorge in Slade, KY. This trip is open to WSU faculty, staff and students. Participants may bring 1 (non WSU) guest. The cost of the trip is $40.00 (register in the Outdoor Resource Center). Trip can accommodate a max of 12 participants. The WIN series is a joint venture sponsored by the Women’s Center and Campus Recreation (ORC and the Wellness & Recreation Committee).

2011-2012 Calendar

· During the October meeting, committee members reviewed the 2010-2011 WRC Program calendar and discussed which (if any) programs should be added or omitted for the 2011-2012 academic year. Specifically, attendees discussed whether or not to continue the tradition of University Challenge. The committee agreed to reflect on the discussion and meeting notes and decided to postpone making a decision regarding University Challenge until the November meeting. The following ideas were discussed:

Ø Remove University Challenge from the program calendar altogether.

Ø Restructure University Challenge into an eight-month series. Each month would focus on one of the eight areas of wellness. This program could keep the UC framework; the committee also discussed using a new model/program theme altogether. One suggestion was to discontinue the competition format and to offer programs solely for the purpose of information sharing/seeking. – Maureen suggested offering one or two programs each month (based on the wellness theme) and possibly offering a mid-day and late afternoon/evening option for each program.

Ø Other competitive, web-based wellness programs were discussed, specifically, America on the Move and Active for Life. Both are Physical Activity incentive programs. These programs would allow WRC to continue offering friendly competition options to faculty and staff but would allow for more flexibility in planning UC wellness events.