To start off Part II, I'll begin with a little history...

From the beginning, young people have always been welcome to participate in our program.  I'd have to look back at the records, but I believe minors were charged the same as adults for Boot Camp and monthly membership thereafter.  After moving the facility to the old furniture store on Main Avenue, a youth-specific program was implemented, which had a consistent group of young men attending and working together.  Over time, the attendance became sporadic and the new joins didn't share the same enthusiasm as the original group, so the youth-specific workout was canceled.  From that point forward, young people were welcomed into the regular group workouts, although there were few who took advantage of the opportunity.

There's probably many reasons why there isn't a larger percentage of the Choteau youth population that have taken advantage of the free training here.  I suspect the primary reason is that kids simply don't know of the opportunity.  That is my fault, as most of the gym's marketing is word-of-mouth.  Truth is, I've spent some money on advertising and I've seen very little return from it.  The most consistent members are those that have been referred by others.  We are running near the limits of the facility's capacity...although this is a large building, the layout is not ideal, and the amount of equipment limits our group size as well.  As I mentioned in my post last week, the limitations imposed by me being the sole trainer is probably the biggest obstacle to further growth.  So, in one way, I guess we're lucky that more young people haven't become consistent members as they would have made the group sizes more unmanageable than they already are occasionally.  So, one of the first things that will have to happen during the creation of a formal youth program is the exposure of the program.

Next up in Part III:  Societal Pressure to Participate