Two Rants for the Price of One Click
For the record, I am an impatient person. I started this blog because I type faster than I write- and I don't have the patience to scribble my thoughts! I am also demanding when it comes to professional availability and preparedness. If you're going to offer a service (or, if I'm going to pay you for a service), be 100% prepared to debut, and be available if and when problems, questions and expected or unexpected situations arise. I love Weight Watchers, and am 100% dedicated to their programs. I had to say all of those things before I begin my rants.WW's new program officially debuted on Sunday, August 22. I went to a meeting on Monday ('cause Sunday was moving day). I got all of my materials, stayed for the meeting and Q/A session that ensued, took notes, read the materials on the website, and read my intro books. I still had questions about the new plan. It's understandable, I'm calm. Today, I went to another additional meeting, my third in 6 days. This time, I came prepared with my materials with notes and questions. I got a lot of 'I don't knows.' I don't like this. Besides that, I'm not a newbie around the WW scene. I've been doing this for a year and a half. I was at the meeting that debuted the Flex plan when that was the newest flavor of WW.
If WW wanted to introduce their plan on Sunday, August 22, 2004, they should have made their leaders, website and printed materials prepared to launch the program on Sunday, August 22, 2004. Basic questions like, "if puffed rice cereals are core- is Rice Krispies core?" should be easy for a leader to answer. A question, "How can a meat leaner than chicken (bison) not be considered core if chicken is core?' garnered an answer of "I don't know, but if the book says it's not core, it must not be core." If I only took my cues from a book, I wouldn't be paying for the meetings and certainly wouldn't be going to multiple meetings, duh! Not to mention that half of the names of different cuts of meat aren't the same in the Kosher world. (I found that out by making the mistake of asking for tenderloin at the butcher- he scoffed and responded that it's not a kosher cut. Stupid butcher, it's against halacha to embarass someone just as much as it is to eat treif! Wait- where was I?) I understand that leaders can't be expected to know the answer to every question on the spot, but at the same time, I would have hoped that they would have sample meetings with real-life members to ask real-thought questions before they send the leaders out without all the information their members would want. And people! A half hour is not long enough to explain a brand new program. Make the debut meetings an hour long so people who thought they be there for a half hour can plan in advance. Be prepared, so that I can be!
The second part of this rant has to do with the fact that I'm not new to this. I know what's up on the Flex plan, and I don't need to re-learn how to use my points finder, or what a point is! If you're dealing with many people at varying degrees of experience and knowledge with a subject, you have to approach them on multiple levels. A member who joined last week is going to need to hear about how to use the points finder and is going to have basic questions about candy and alcohol. A member who's been there for 6 months and is frustrated at a plateau is going to need to hear about earning and using activity points. A member who's been there a year and a half is going to want to immediately hear about what's new- 'cause he/she knows the rest of it cold. Have meetings specifically designed for bona fide newbies, and have meetings that are designed for veterans. Be available to answer my questions- 'cause if you're explaining how to find Kellogg's products in the Complete Food Companion, you're wasting my time- I own three!
Ok. I feel better. I will be going to my 'real' meeting tomorrow afternoon, and I'm going to plan on taking a list of questions (which I very well may post here), as well as plan on going early to ask some questions before the meeting.
posted by Becky @ 1:21 PM
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