Assignment 2 AUDREY SMITH

For this assignment, I chose a private membership organization. The facility I chose is Climb On, which is provides "leisurely" rock climbing and rock climbing instruction indoors. Clomb On is located at 18120 Hardwood Ave. in Homewood, Illinois, which is about 20 miles south of downtown Chicago.

Glen Vansimpa, owner and founder of Climb On, started his business in August of 1997. Glen formely did rock climbing on his own and wanted to start a business promoting an insight on rock climbing in the South Suburbs of Chicago. He stated that his purpose "was not to make money", but to provide a way/ place for him and his friends to "have fun". His main purpose was to get more people involved in rock climbing. He turned his passion into an "informal business", but also made a place for others to share their same interest and/or passion as well.

Rock

climbing as a trend is very popular. There are rock clombing walls located in parks, on cruise ships, at festivals, and even on the Quad at the Union on Back to School Night at U of I! This as a business isn't that popular, because it depends on demographics and public interests. Climb On, is very successful as far as attraction goes, but like Glen said, it really isn't a money maker.

Opportunities: For this type of facility there are a few opportunities for employment. There are opportunities such as, but not limited to: facility management, climbing instructor, and even an harness holder. In order to get these such jobs, one must go through trianing to obtain certifications. Also, good people skills and a great personality is beneficial.

When I asked Glen Vansimpa his definition of leisure, he defined it as "active" leisure. Leisure to him does not neccessarily mean relaxation as a generic term. To him, leisure is doing what he loves, which is climb, while either doing it alone, with his friends and family, or with the members of Climb On. He defines leisure as "active" because he's actually doing something physical and challenging, but at the same time enjoyable. I would actually define his leisure as "weisure", because this is actually his job and also what he does for leisure.

Climb On is a private membership organizatiopn, meaning you have to sign-up and pay to become a member and climb as you please. Any age can try and/or become a member, but you must be 14 or older to
belay( hold the protective rope for partner). Climb On also offers birthday parties and climb s fopr groups and churches. Glen Vansimpa(owner) said that most of his costumers are high school and college students, which means that this facility provides services for the teenage population as fun or leisure.

I chose to blog about Climb On, because I actually live in Homewood, and have been to this facility. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to climb inside, but I have when they were at Homewood's festival. Like in my other blog, I showed myself rock climbing, because I really enjoy it! From the outside Climb On looks really smalland descrete, but once you enter and make a right, you are awwed by 3 walls(for beginners, intermidiates, and experts) covered in colorful hand and foot mounts. Besides it's appearance, I took an analytical point-of-view on the agency. As a career option, working in a facility like this one is more of a passion and not a job one would do to support themselves financially, which is a con. As a pro, working in a facility like this brings a lot of joy. Some aspects one would look into in this career is liability and insurance, which provides safety for "costumers". Also, I noticed that Climb On does provide the "recreation" need, as stated on page 198 of the class book. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and being able to have a one-on-one with Glen Vansimpa. I really would like to acknowledge that his dream of having fun was the basis of my project and also it provided an insight on how others view leisure.

The Definition of Leisure

It is hard to define what leisure is, but what I think the leisure is that any activity that you do with friends or families in your free time and relax yourselves from the real life, and enjoy doing those activities. In this picture, Tiger Woods plays golf. I do not mean that it has to be professional like Tiger Woods, just enjoy playing it with any people in your free time. When I go to Korea every summer which is my hometown, I usually go to play golf with my friends or father every weekend and we talk a lot and relax ourselves. As we can see, I do a certain activity with people in my free time. Thus, what I think “Leisure” is that any activity that you can enjoy with people in your free time.

To me, leisure is not doing a leisurely activity alone, but it’s also not doing a leisurely activity with other people. Leisure is when you do an activity with people who are important to you. That is why I chose a picture of my cousins and I on vacation, doing a puzzle. The leisure part is not that we are on vacation; it is that we are spending quality time with each other. Time that we don’t get much of together. Being able to relax and spend time with loved one’s, is how I would describe leisure

What is Leisure? Well to me leisure is a wide concept. There are many different ways people can interpret leisure. However to me it is what we find ourselves doing when we are totally ourselves. Everyone knows that time of the day when your either playing sports, playing with your kids, singing, dancing, hanging with friends, etc...that time of the day when you are totally relaxed and totally yourself. That to me is my definition of leisure. However like i said leisure is a broad concept with many different interpretations to many different people.

leisure and learning

Yoonki Chun
People go to school and study to learn. It is easy to think that learning things are not fun and can only derive from reading textbooks, attend class and work as hard as they can. After, 'learning' people use their unobligated time to enjoy, which they refer to as leisure. However, I believe leisure is something that one can learn many things while enjoying as much as one can.
The Image show a soccer team gathered up before the game. Whenever I have free time, my favorite thing to do as leisure is soccer. Not only I enjoying it so much, I learned priceless values through soccer. I learned friendship between friends, working as a team, teachings from my coach, what is like to work hard, and knowing how to sacrafice for the good of others. Like such, leisure isn't just having fund and spending free time. Leisure to me, is learning things that can't be tought at school or textbooks.

Many people have different definitions for the word "leisure". To me, however, leisure means doing anything a person likes to do, but does not necessarily have to be done. For example, in this picture, there is a person just relaxing in the pool with a drink in her hand. This is what i consider leisure, because for me, it would be enjoyable, but it does not have to be done. Leisure should be helpful in getting away from the everyday world and just getting a chance to relax. Relaxation is what I think of when i think of leisure. Although that is what i think of when i think of leisure, the definition of leisure may be different for other people.

Definition of Leisure:

Webster dictionary defines leisure as "freedom provided by the cessation of activities especially time free from work or duties" (Webster Online.)  No offense to Mr. Webster, but I believe the definition encompasses so much more.  In the previous definition, the author failed to mention leisure should be enjoyable.  The picture above is what I feel best portrays the word leisure.  Endless possibilities of active or inactive play, surrounding yourself with the beauty of nature, and simply getting away from a chaotic lifestyle is why leisure is so important.  Leisure may not be lazy, but it can be.  To me, the spot above would be perfect.  I have the option of being active and taking a dive in the ocean or retreating under the umbrella for some "R&R."  If I were to provide my own definition of the word, it would be this:  Leisure is a time to enjoy what one loves doing most outdoors.  While this may seem broad, I believe this explanation is appropriate because there are various forms of leisure and it differs from person to person.