I have posted information about the programs that I teach under for the City of San Jose. At different times they had two versions of a “gym-like” program (Group Ex and then SJCITY Fit) where people could purchase an annual membership and attend all of the classes offered under the program at the participating community centers. There is also the program many seemed to be familiar with, where the city sends out a brochure listing all the classes available. The classes are taught in “sessions”. You might want to take guitar lessons being offered for 10 weeks one night a week. You register for the class paying for the entire session, all 10 weeks. There is no make-up if you miss a class. This is the way that I have taken classes with the cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, and Campbell as long as I could take classes. I remember taking a babysitting class when I was young. The “gym-like” program was relatively new. It was a great program, but I am betting that most you reading this that are local didn’t even know about it. It seems like a fair job of promoting it was not done. It was impossible to use the internet to find any information about it and like, happens with all things when they don’t get properly promoted, they fail. The city has determined that the current version of the “gym-like” program – SJCITY Fit – is not sustainable so they are cancelling it.
There are members that take at least one class Monday through Friday. It was a great deal. The majority of the students that came to my class loved the program because when the math was done with them going to at least one class a day Monday through Friday, it was about 50 cents per class. So, yeah, it makes sense that the city wasn’t able to maintain that. But it is sad that the program could not attract more than 140 people. I keep thinking in a city with a population of over 1 million the program could have at least attracted 500 people.
But with so many different choices for the exerciser out there it really takes a strong desire and a concentrated effort to get the word out about exercises programs. So the city it moving some of the classes that were be held under SJCITY Fit into a hybrid of the leisure program (where students sign up for a session of classes). There are a multitude of things that are different under this program, so I will only be teaching Nia once a week on Tuesdays.
Now, in order to take Nia with me through the City of San Jose you have to sign up for the sesssion or “season”. So far there are two sessions/seasons on the books (Winter and Spring). They are both 10 classes each. I say classes because there are some weeks where there is not a class so it might end up being more than 10 WEEKS, but there are only 10 CLASSES. You can see more information on my site.
I am still teaching the yoga classes, one on Tuesdays at 10:30 am and one on Thursdays at 6:00 pm.
It is very sad that this program or a version of it was not salvageable by the city. So many of the consistent exercisers are moving off to other places, some I am afraid might stop exercise altogether. I will miss seeing them every week. I’ve been teaching Nia on Tuesdays for six years, on Thursdays for five years, and on Fridays for three years. Many students have been coming that long or even longer (on different days at the various places I have taught). I did write a post on the how long I have been teaching what.
I do hope to see some of my students taking part in the new program that is being offered. It might not have the convenience of SJCITY Fit, but it is still a great deal. The program will still offer 8 of the 12 classes that were offered under SJCITY Fit.
So, here is to a new chapter of San Jose Nia. I am looking at teaching at a studio right down the street on Union from where I teach now. I am hoping to teach my Thursday Nia class and my Thursday stretch class. So stay tuned.
We have such a great little Nia community in San Jose I hope we can keep dancing together! Here’s to the New Year and to a new chapter of San Jose Nia.
Do you take classes through your city’s exercise program?
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