A transparent alerty levely covidey chat 💘
Hi friends,
An alert level feels like the best time to talk about this stuff as any! How much does Covid-19 SUCK?! And in the big scheme of things, we’ve got it good! Aye yai yai!
We’ve had some recurring themes in the messaging coming through this week and we wanted to touch base on them here. We just want to say – we hear you, we feel you, we love you 👊🙌👏
You can’t get into a class
At Alert Level 2, we reduce our class capacity to ensure safe physical distancing. Maybe you were excited about your class and then your booking gets cancelled. Or you’ve got a 10 Trip on your account but you can’t use it because the classes are waitlist only. It’s the rotten cherry on a rotten week.
This sucks for you as much as it does for us 💩 It’s just a total poo-bum-noo-nah-nah kind of situ and cancelling bookings truly feels like we’re walking backwards and undoing all our hard work too!
We have wives and fiancées (people who pay upfront for the year, or on a weekly direct debit) who take up the first spots in any class. Any remaining spots that we’re able to offer without compromising safe physical distancing at each particular venue stay open to anyone with casual passes to book for. This means that some casual bookings are cancelled, so you do need to keep an eye on your schedule and/or emails when there’s a shift in alert levels.
The last thing we would want is for our classes to feel exclusive – our classes are a space for E V E R Y B O D Y – so we’re frustrated to hear how hard it’s been to join a session for some of you. We wanted to touch base on this as it’s likely we’ll be moving in and out of alert levels more often than we’d all like – but fingers crossed!
Our emails have gone to your spam
If you got confused about why you were cancelled this week, it might be because you didn’t get email updates from us – please make sure you check your spam or junk for messages from us – and then mark us as a contact 🥰
MindBody has been giving you grief
MindBody has been so good to us since we started using it in 2017 – before that we took bookings over email! (how quaint of us!) But as we’re growing and gearing up for a change in booking software, we are also hearing those of you who are struggling – whether you use the app or book via our website, we’d be the first to admit that it can be a little clunky, and tolerances (ours included) are going to be lower than usual. We are totally on board with your frustration – your experience is our first priority 😩
But as you can imagine, making this shift is a huge decision, so we’re taking our time and doing our due diligence. We’re hoping to find something new later this year but in the meantime, you’re welcome to email us with your concerns or issues – or if you can, check out the MindBody support hub – there’s heaps of resources there too in case you’re still waiting on a response from us (this isn’t a full-time job for us – yet! – so thank you for your patience)!
Your passes are expiring
There are so many moving parts in the delivery of our classes as it is – and Covid-19 has really amped up the number of those moving parts! 🤣 If an instructor or even yourself is feeling sick in any way, or if a venue closes its doors due to an increased risk of spread, or if we need to reduce class capacities in level 2 – all these things make it harder for you to use your passes within the originally specified expiry.
Please just take one deep breath and then do a massive shimmy and know that your pass expiry will be extended accordingly to reflect cancellations, class reductions and changes in alert levels. It’s all good. We got you. We aren’t grinches.
But if you can’t make a class, please do cancel it so that someone on the waitlist can join! ✨
Back to Level 1
We’ll be increasing class caps on Sunday morning – so add yourself to the waitlists of whichever classes you want to attend, and keep an eye on our schedule over the coming weeks as classes start to regulate again.
What happens in Level 3/4
We can’t operate at level 3 or 4, and we’re currently re-visioning exactly what it would look like for us to offer classes online again. There’s a chance it will be on Instagram Live, there’s a chance it will be on MindBody Live Streaming, there’s a chance we’ll have new software by then, and there’s also a chance it’ll be on a different platform we haven’t tried yet.
Basically – there are lots of things in the air, but this is currently where we’re at!
Yours, in cheesy dance moves and pop music,
Abby & The Shut Up & Dance Team
Thank you again for all your support and understanding!