Today in Talking Gyms – Vida – “Got this email today and thought it did a good job of explanation”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Ted Eytan

I thought we’d concluded our gym talk but after yesterday’s Washington Sports Club talk folks want to talk about Vida too. So here we are – thanks to Paul for sending the latest from Vida:

“To our VIDA Fitness Members,

Every day we are experiencing an unprecedented volume of twists & turns as our nation comes to grasp with the coronavirus pandemic. It’s vital that I continue to keep you abreast of what we are doing and provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information.

In my original letter dated March 15th, I wrote to inform you that we voluntarily closed all VIDA locations from March 16th to March 31st. A few days after we voluntarily closed, Mayor Bowser mandated that all health clubs must remain closed through April 24th. Yesterday, the Mayor issued a Stay At Home Order. We are also dialed-in to the many briefings from Governor Northam and Governor Hogan. We expect things will continue to progress and find it unlikely that we’ll receive approval to reopen our doors before the end of May.

I also mentioned two other items in my original letter from March 15th. One, that we would continue to pay all our employees through the end of March. Two, that we would issue an account credit for March 16th through March 31st. These promises have not changed, and we will issue the two-week account credit approximately 60-90 days after we reopen.

As you also know, our primary goal throughout this process has been to take care of our employees because we believe it is the right thing to do. I have also agreed to forgo any compensation through the end of this year. In our many conversations with you, we have experienced an overwhelming and humbling level of support. In that spirit, we’d like to remind you of your membership options from April 1st until we reopen.

Virtual VIDA All-Star:
You’ll receive full access to our Virtual Membership with an ever-growing library of fitness programming and nutritional support. By continuing to pay your current membership dues, we can in turn pay our employees for as long as possible. We are building a single landing page that covers all the benefits of your Virtual Membership as well as how to access each component and we’ll send you the link within the next 48 hours. As a reminder, we are allocating all revenues from this membership option 100% to our payroll costs.

VIDA Ambassador:
If continuing your membership is not an option for you, we invite you to freeze your membership and pay our standard $25/month freeze fee. Many of you have graciously asked if there is something you might contribute in-between the $25/month freeze fee and your full membership dues (i.e. 50% of your membership dues). The short answer is yes, please just use this form to specify the amount that you would like to contribute. These funds are also allocated 100% to our payroll costs.

Wake Me Up When It’s Over:
If you do not want to join us in our employee support program or simply cannot afford to do so, you can freeze your membership at no cost by letting us know here. We will automatically reactivate your membership when we reopen the clubs and you’ll start back right where you left off.

Federal Legislation and the CARES Act

As many of you know, we’ve seen two major pieces of legislation signed into law during the past few days. This legislation addresses the needs of businesses like ours that have been forced to close.

First, and most significantly, we’re pursuing the Payroll Protection Program via an SBA loan to pay payroll, rent, and utilities. It is unclear whether we qualify for these loans as our annual revenues exceed the limit of $8.0mm for our industry. The other requirement is that we are under 500 employees and we are still interpreting how that term will be defined. We are going to apply for this loan, and I will keep you up-to-date on our approval status.

Second, under the extended unemployment benefits program, some of our employees may be financially better off collecting unemployment than having us continue to pay them. Under this scenario, we would continue to pay the health insurance of these employees and bring them back as soon as we reopen.

As discussed all along, our employees are our top priority. We have deferred expenses wherever possible, including rent, utilities, and almost all our vendors. We have frozen company credit cards and tightened our spending at every opportunity. We are experiencing tremendous losses. We are doing this because we think it’s the right thing to do and we believe our approach is a better alternative to managing this crisis than defaulting to massive layoffs.

It is of paramount importance that we act as transparently as possible so that you can understand how your membership dues are put to work. I can assure you that while we are indeed experiencing severe financial losses during this shutdown, none of your membership dues are going to any other purpose than paying our employees. Please know that we will also process additional membership dues credits if we find that federal and state relief result in an otherwise financially advantageous position. It is impossible to predict what that will look like at this point in time, but I will keep you posted every step of the way.

Try as we might to make each of our communications clear and complete, we respect that many of you will have additional questions. Please reach out to us with any questions you may have by responding to this email or sending a separate email to [email protected].

Thank you all for your extraordinary support during this challenging time. We can’t wait to see you back at VIDA the moment we get the all-clear.

David von Storch
President & Founder
Urban Adventures Companies”