Background to changes

Since 2005 the awards have developed into a well run, professional event recognising excellence in the fitness industry. The intention of the proposed changes it to build on this, and further enhance the awards, the winners, and the awards evening.

In its role as the industry association Fitness New Zealand has received many suggestions and ideas over the years about the awards, in 2009 specifically invited feedback on ideas for the 2010 awards. Based on this the following ideas were proposed in later 2009, and based on further feedback some minor changes were made, and the following changes are now in effect for 2010:

The Changes

Our Philosophy: Easy to enter, hard to win

The underpinning philosophy of the awards is Easy to enter, hard to win.

To help achieved this following changes will be made:

The entry process will be simplified (easier to enter).
A new online application process that involves answering key questions, uploading files etc will be developed.
Recording a short video will form a part of the entry process for most categories. However videos will NOT be required to be professionally edited (editing quality does not form part of the judging criteria).
In addition to the head and assistant judges, specialist judges will be used for most categories.
All finalists will be robustly verified and checked (harder to win). In the case of PTs this will involve using the PT in a real workout session, as well as contact with selected clients of the PT that the judges select. In the case of a facility, a judge’s representative will mystery shop the facility and provide feedback, as well as visiting the facility and selecting members using the facility to give feedback directly to the judges. This means the judges control who gives feedback on the club (not the entrants).
A lower entry fee for both clubs and individuals, with an additional finalist’s fee to cover the cost of the further checks on finalists.

Award Categories

CATEGORY	OPEN TO	ENTRY FEE	See NOTES
Facilities
Small Club (under 500 members) CHANGED	Exercise Facilities*	$20	Note 1
Medium Club (501-1500 members) CHANGED	Exercise Facilities*	$20	Note 2
Large Club (1500+ members) CHANGED	Exercise Facilities*	$20	Note 3
Studio (under 100 members and under 200m²) NEW	Exercise Studio*	$20	Note 1
Innovation NEW	Exercise Facilities*	$20	Note 1

Individuals
Gym Instructor	Individuals*	$10	Note 4
Group Exercise – Pre-choroegraphed	Individuals*	$10	Note 4
Group Exercise – Freestyle	Individuals*	$10	Note 4
Up and Coming Personal Trainer	Individuals*	$10	Note 4 and 5
Personal Trainer	Individuals*	$10	Note 4
Outstanding club support award CHANGED	Individuals	$10	Notes 4 and 6
Small Group Trainer	Individuals*	$10	Note 4

Education and Community
Lecturer of the year NEW	Individuals	$10	Note 7
Fitness Mentor NEW	Individuals *	$10	Notes 4 & 8
Community	Organisations / Individuals	No charge
Schools	Schools	No charge
Corporate Initiative	Organisations	No charge

Special Awards
Skills Active award	Individuals	No charge	Invite Only
FitnessNZ Outstanding Contribution to the Industry	Individuals	No charge	Invite Only
REPs Award NEW	Individuals* or Organisations*	No charge	Invite only
People’s Choice award NEW	Individuals*	No charge	Note 9

Note: Those marked with a ‘*’ are only open to REPs registered individuals/facilities. Lecturer of the year does not need to be REPs registered, but the institution does (as an education provider)

Full details of, and criteria for, each category will be provided with the online entry process and entry forms that will be available in May 2010.

Notes:

Finalists in this category pay a further $100 to cover the costs of mystery shopping/checks etc.
Finalists in this category pay a further $200 to cover the costs of mystery shopping/checks etc.
Finalists in this category pay a further $350 to cover the costs of mystery shopping/checks etc.
Finalists in this category pay a further $75 to cover the costs of mystery shopping/checks etc.
Up and coming PT is open to any PT who, at the time of entry, has been working as a PT for less than two years.
This award replaces the Salesperson category. This category includes any role (managers, salespeople, administration or reception staff) who work in an exercise facility, in a non exercise role.
Open to any person who lectures/teaches on a course that provides initial education to exercise professionals.
Open to any person who supports others in the industry through education, mentoring and/or other support (ideal for PT Managers, educators etc).
Category will be voted by the public. There will be two rounds of public input – initial nominations, and then once short listed, a full public vote (online).

Process of entering

The following changes will be made to the process of entering the awards:

Categories will be able to be entered online.
In the case of individual and education/community categories, the entire application will be able to be completed online.
There will no longer be any automatic South Island/North Island distinction in each category.
Where judges believe there is sufficient quality and quantity a distinction along any lines may be made (geographic location, speciality area of focus etc), however these will not be regarded as a distinct category.
Videos will be used as a part of many applications, however the quality of any video editing does NOT form part of any criteria. The judges are looking for content, not presentation.

The following applies to winning an award:

For 2010 there will be FINALISTS and one WINNER (no runner ups).
Finalists will be pre-announced.
Winners in a category are not able to enter the SAME category three years in a row (they may however enter it after a one year break from that category, and may enter other categories). This rule would not affect entries for 2010 or 2011 (the first time it may affect entrants is 2012). (see note 1)
Where the same person or business wins two years in a row (and therefore cannot enter the following year) then they will be invited to hand the award to the winner of the following year.

Note 1: Initially it was proposed that the winner could not re-enter two years in a row, but after feedback this was revised to a two year “winning limit”, giving the right balance between allowing the best to be recognised, while also ensuring no person or business dominated the awards. This particular new rule will be watched carefully and open to feedback in 2011 (for 2012).

A robust checking process – winning an award

A significant amount of work has gone into this area, and there will be a lot of additional checks, mystery shops and audits of finalists. Specifically the following will take place:

All finalists will be visited by a judge’s representative at least once.
Many of the visits will be mystery shops (where the finalist is unaware of the person’s involvement with the awards).
Mystery shops will involve many formats – from physical visits, phone calls and/or emails.
On site visits for facilities will involve short surveys of members using the facility (the judges choose who to ask).
Additional checks will be put in place that are not listed here – so there will still be some surprises for finalists!

On the night

The evening itself will follow a similar format, with a high class black tie event. The dinner and venue will be of the same high quality as previous years.

The following changes will be made for 2010:

Ticket price will be reduced to below $100 for single seats (down from $150)
Alcohol will be on a cash bar basis
There will be an organised after function party for those that want to carry on after the awards ceremony has finished
The event will be co-timed with the industry conference (GetNZ Active). This will be particularly useful for those living out of Auckland making this THE weekend for the industry.

The changes are now in effect for the 2010 awards. Like everything, we welcome feedback on any area of the awards, including the 2010 improvements.