Weather the Storm

This week there are only a few topics one should write about. The success of UCONN, the failure of Butler, the 17th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, baseball, summer concerts, spring break or weather.

OK, so there are more than a few topics we should touch. However, all of them have either been smashed out of the park, or over looked by major media outlets over the past several days.

To be part of the national media concept that discusses these things, I wanted to engage you in some early spring questions (please leave your answers in the comment area):

1) Who did you cheer for? Butler or UCONN?
2) Do you remember where you were when Kurt Cobain’s body was found?
3) Do you know who Nirvana was?
4) Who is your favorite baseball team?
5) Did your team start off well over the weekend?
6) Going to any summer concerts? I hear U2 is on tour.
7) Spring Break?
8) This isn’t a question — make sure your club is insured for storm damage.

Even though I’d love to write more about the first seven topics (seven in particular) I’m going to touch on eight (it was drawn at random out of my hat).

I have a good friend that went to Oklahoma State University. During halftime of the NCAA Men’s National Championship game, he told me a story about running laps at the track during his freshman year. He admitted he wasn’t running in the greatest of weather. He said, about a mile and a half away from him he watched as a tornado touched ground. His response — “I’ve never run so fast in my life.”

I have a serious problem that occurs with the fascination of tornados and insane storms. In my portfolio, I have some wild pictures of fires I took when I was an editor in Hawaii. However, while reporting for the Journal Review in Crawfordsville, Ind. I spent hours chasing storms attempting to get a tornado shot for my portfolio.

It never happened.

However, unlike me, you should do everything you can to protect yourself and your clubs from natural disasters. I suggest that if you enjoy chasing storms, either become a storm chaser or reporter (give me a call if the later). If you want to own a gym, build it in a low damage area, or insure the heck out of your club.

Flood insurance can be highly expensive, and I would imagine if you live in Tornado Alley, storm insurance would be expensive as well. However, recovering the damage of your uninsured facility will be much worse. So, this spring, when you are watching baseball in your office, listening to old Nirvana tracks and buying tickets to a U2 concert — be aware that the weather can change in the blink of an eye, and tornado damage can ruin lives even quicker. This spring, ensure that you are insured and protect your facility at all costs.