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Post by zazzles on Jul 30, 2018 0:49:17 GMT
The only thing left to take away is the scale itself. Nah. For example, The could take away the restrooms and make us use a service station across the street. They could take away the chairs and make us stand. The could take away the lights and make us bring flashlights. They could take away heat and air conditioning (well that hardly works now, so probably wouldn't net them anything). And those are just three aditional ways the could "be green" (a.k.a. save money...a.k.a. pinch pennies).
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Post by finreporter on Jul 30, 2018 1:07:17 GMT
I'm actually quite surprised they haven't shut down all meetings. It's not a younger demographic kind of thing to go to a weight loss meeting like it's AA. Seems to me if they are encouraging more use of the app it will not be a big leap to save money by becoming tech only.
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Post by zazzles on Jul 30, 2018 1:29:07 GMT
I'm actually quite surprised they haven't shut down all meetings. It's not a younger demographic kind of thing to go to a weight loss meeting like it's AA. Seems to me if they are encouraging more use of the app it will not be a big leap to save money by becoming tech only. I don't disagree. They have set a target demographic of 35-year-old females and apparently are prepared to foregoe the thousands of 40+, 50+ 60+ and more long-term loyal members. And the costs of paying rent for real estate, paying salaries, paying for furnishings, shipping products to centere, etc., must be huge and the savings might more than offset the loss of income from meeting participation. Time will tell.
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Post by borntexan on Jul 30, 2018 1:54:00 GMT
I am not a meetings member but I find these changes to be very wrong.In one of the FB groups I have also read where they are getting rid of the at work meetings but are giving them a discount to go to regular meetings.WW also told them they may be bringing them back sometime in 2019 but nobody I saw really believed that.
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Post by amster on Jul 30, 2018 3:25:00 GMT
Interesting info Deb. Not having the weight label hasn’t hit us yet. Will there be weight tracking on line? I’ll be sure to get to my Tuesday meeting for the details. I guess my area - north San Diego - is also one of the uncomputerized locations. I switch between two meetings, depending on my schedule. At both of them, you hand someone your book, step on the scale, and they record your weight in the book. We did lose our paper towels. I have been bringing my own paper towels the last few weeks. I always hit the ladies room before the meeting, either at work or at the hotel it's held at. When I dry my hands, I just grab a second paper towel and use it on the scale to weigh in. I love the app, I wouldn't do the program without it. I'm kind of a techie person anyway. But it doesn't replace what you get from a good meeting. The feeling of community, encouragement, ideas and suggestions from different people for something you're trying to work through. I think if WW gets too cheap, they will eliminate the reason for their own existence. Anyone can weigh themselves at home, download an app, keep track of calories online, etc for free or close to it. There is no reason to be a WW member if it doesn't give you something beyond a nutrition counter.
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Post by littlepioneerwoman on Jul 30, 2018 3:36:58 GMT
There are probably a hundred members in my meeting. Could you imagine what the lines will be like if the receptionist's have to write everybody's weight in and calculate the loss or gain. As it is the line runs for the first half hour of the meeting. When the snowbirds are here, we can easily have 100 members. We have 3-4 receptionists during busy season and we’ve never known anything BUT manually writing in the weight and calculating the loss or gain. On a few super busy days there are a few people still in line when the meeting starts. That’s usually when WW rolls out a new program or is running a special. The plus side of manual logging and calculation is I’ve never seen people hanging around while a receptionist needs to be rebooted.
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Kitty
Transcendent Member
Posts: 1,448
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Post by Kitty on Jul 30, 2018 6:24:00 GMT
she also mentioned no stickers of any kind: no 5#, 10#, 25#, 10%, etc. What?!!! I mean the sticker was only for 5 pounds. The 25 pound and 10% were charms. There were also charms for 50, 75 and 100 I think. Are they getting rid of all the charms? That upsets me. I have often really worked to get various charms and spent a lot of money to put together a Pandora bracelet with all my charms. And -- even more importantly -- does that mean that they won't celebrate 5 pounds losses or other milestones in the meeting. That is a big deal to me. I have always loved hearing those and earning them. There is not much that would make me decide to quit Weight Watchers but that might do it. BTW, on the name thing thing, I've refused them forever. Never got any flack about it at any of the locations I've gone to. Kitty , lmenglish , just wanted to let both of you know the reason your weight no longer automatically transfers to your WWer account online is because you are Lifetime at goal. When I was still working for WWers I mentioned this to one of the other receptionists and she told me how to "fix" it. I did it for myself, and for my dh and now my weights automatically populate. It's not something you can do yourself, someone at a meeting has to do it for you. That is interesting. I am not currently at goal (sigh) so it is populating. Once I get back to goal I will make sure they fix it. I'm dropping mine! I decided if they can't bother to give me something that benefits me by pasting that silly sticker in the booklet, then I can't be bothered to carry the thing around with me. They can look me up and do the weigh in. In fact, I may simply refuse to weigh in except at the 1st meeting every month. I weigh daily on a scale that records my weight in an app, so I don't really need their weigh-ins to know how I'm doing. Even though I am over goal weight now I don't weigh at every meeting. I like to be able to wear what I want and to drink something before I get there so I have been skipping the weigh in often. I am currently paying for a monthly pass so I don't have to weigh. I weigh daily at home. There are probably a hundred members in my meeting. Could you imagine what the lines will be like if the receptionist's have to write everybody's weight in and calculate the loss or gain. As it is the line runs for the first half hour of the meeting. I have been a member long enough that I remember when they did this at every meeting. I keep my old books (well scans of them). I have a book from 1995. There is a printed sticker which shows the date of the meeting. They wrote in by hand the weight for the day and the amount it was plus or minus. I have a book from about 2005 that is entirely handwritten. There are spots for today's weight, the amount +- and for the total +-. Those were done by hand. There was a place for attendance sticker but this book just has the date of attendance written in. Right now the charms will continue only for weight, because they have made so many of them. There will be no more "challenge charms", Like the little sun for the summer. I think this is a mistake. There were many times in the past that I only attended some meetings so I could get the charms. They usually did them during times of the year that tended to be sparsely attended. There were lots of times that I and others came to the meeting just so we could meet the criteria to get the charms. And, if at the meeting, we were more likely to buy products. The only thing left to take away is the scale itself. The big thing that they could take away is free lifetime status. I don't think they can take it away from those who already have it, but they could quit doing it for new people and perhaps reduce benefits in some ways. I remember once I heard sometime talking up TOPS and it sounded like there was a lot I would like more than WW but I was a lifetime member of WW and keeping that at goal status was worth striving for. Right now I am above goal but getting back to free lifetime is a powerful motivator. Not just monetarily but the feeling of accomplishment. Take away the lifetime structure and I am gone. And they could take away meetings entirely. I think that would be sad as that is what makes Weight Watchers what it is. Group involvement. Online doesn't really work for that. It perhaps could be made to work but not doing anything they are doing now. Connect is not a substitute for a dedicated meeting that you regularly attend. I have never felt that the WW food plan is anything special. I mean -- I think the plan is good and I like the current plan a lot. But, I could do just as well with calorie counting. I would never pay money for the WW plan. I pay for the meetings.
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chook
Epic Member
Posts: 327
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Post by chook on Jul 30, 2018 6:47:52 GMT
I should add I’m in Australia.
We never had much to begin with, but slowly and surely WW are definitely cutting back.
At the beginning of the year I was going to cut my subscription, but they offered my a substantial discount if I committed to a full year.
At the time, a $30 discount per month was worth it (bringing my rate down to $55 Australian per month)..... and a year is long enough to get to LTM, but I definitely won’t be renewing after that. The meetibgs have been reduced in number and now in locations which are not convenient for me. Once I get to LTM I will be content with pen and paper, MFP (if that’s the path I decide), my hand held calculator (because I managed to purchase 2 before they were discontinued), and my 1 free monthly meeting....THE ONLY THING THAT IS FREE TO US AUSSIES once you reach LTM.
Every few months someone gets on Connect to complain about it, usually gets 200+ likes and comments (yet doesn’t appear high up in ‘trending’ topics....funny about that).
While I don’t mind Connect, these forums are so much better.
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Post by debsback on Jul 30, 2018 11:29:09 GMT
I do remember the days of receptionists hand writing the weights and doing the + or - calculations. Those were sometimes wrong too, so having the computer do it was an improvement. The comment about the IT issue is spot on...one of our members is in IT and that was her response. That it was a WW tech issue and thus their problem to fix, not just ignore it an$ make wholesale changes in hopes it would just go away!
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wildcat
Transcendent Member
Posts: 952
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Post by wildcat on Jul 30, 2018 12:22:54 GMT
So if I understand correctly - everyone is mad because they're pushing people to the app, and everyone is also mad because a computer isn't printing out a label and weight has to be recorded by hand. So is technology good or bad? Anyone mad that WW is trying to get people to use more modern tech and media should be wanting handwritten weights right? (written in cursive of course so people under 30 can't read it). In all seriousness - for those of you who go to meetings, are you really going becuase you like having a book with a computerized label and bravo stickers? It's not for the feeling of community or whatever? I have never liked meetings so I'm asking this sincerely - I just truly don't see why these minor changes would really impact the value that I thought people were taking away from the meetings. It just seems like minutiae to me. Nobody mentioned getting rid of name tags. But I think starting tomorrow I will refuse the name tag out of principle. My leader used to say that if we didn't wear them and a manager came around she got in trouble. Because the name tags have never been about identifying who you are; they have always been about a visual indication that you are attending the meeting having paid your monthly or weekly fee. I actually do think you should decline the name tag - it is completely illogical for them to be reducing paper in all of these other areas but still use name tags. If I still went to meetings I think I would refuse the tag.
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Post by Jennifer on Jul 30, 2018 12:30:29 GMT
wildcat Thank you, I am going yo take that mindset with me to my meeting this morning.
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Post by itsrad on Jul 30, 2018 12:52:47 GMT
I stopped meetings years ago because when my good leader retired, the new leader just simply wasn't inspiring or knowledgeable enough, and I wasn't finding them helpful. The little stickers and charms were fun in a "give a kid a sticker" way, but certainly didn't contribute one way or the other to my response to the meeting. This and the paper towel on the scale thing seem awfully trivial to me. As wildcat said, if the leader and other members are interesting and inspiring, then that is what matters. Honestly, I can't remember if they put stickers in the books or not, although I've been around long enough to remember it being hand written in. I'm inclined to agree with Fin, I think meetings are going to rapidly become obsolete. I do think WW is going to need to upgrade their tech presence before that happens - I don't think Connect is going to be enough. Webinars, virtual meetings, etc.
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wildcat
Transcendent Member
Posts: 952
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Post by wildcat on Jul 30, 2018 13:20:27 GMT
Also, I just want to jump back in and say I didn't mean that post in a finger waggy way - I love to bitch about stuff and just because something is a minor thing doesn't mean you can't complain about it. God knows I spent enough time bitching about WW on the old boards. It just seemed like there may have been some talk about quitting meetings over this, or saying stuff in the meetings about it. And frankly if I went to a meeting and time was taken up complaining about paper towels and weight stickers I would be extremely annoyed! But complaing about it here is the whole point of message boards. On re-reading what I wrote it seemed a little like "how dare you care about something so trivial" and I didn't mean it that way.
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Post by zazzles on Jul 30, 2018 14:17:15 GMT
I love to bitch about stuff and just because something is a minor thing doesn't mean you can't complain about it. Seriously, it isn't the paper towels, Bravo stickers, weigh-in labels, etc. It is the ongoing changes over too long a period of time. And while I agree that technology is here to stay, we all know that WW technology is and has always been seriously flawed. Thinking about using the app vs. a weigh-in record made me think about doing that in my meeting...my mind said, "Oh, wait! The meeting center WW chose is a concrete bunker into which electronic signals do NOT penetrate. So cell phone data does not work (oddly voice signals get through). Want to check your weight—get up and go outside to get a signal." Which begs the question: once you're outside, why not just keep walking! I will, of course, get over all of this. My inner child is just having a tantrum because change is taking place. But, honestly, decide on a vision, a direction, create a roll-out plan, prepare member materials to explain and support the changes, and roll the damned thing out—all at once; get the pain over and done with once and let everyone adjust and get on with their lives. STOP making a trivial change every 3 or 4 weeks.
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Post by DebDoesWW on Jul 30, 2018 14:34:54 GMT
I have absolutely seen people of all age ranges at the meetings, lots of young moms, lots of thirty somethings on their lunch hours, it truly would be a shame to see the meetings go away. And I agree, it seems to be the direction WW is going. And then, to me, it won’t be WW in any shape or form. Yes the meetings are about the camaraderie, but part of that is about cheering and getting cheered on, and acknowledging victories, it is what forms the bonds and the continued desire to be a part of that community. Heck yes I was digging in flood debris to find my charms! It is okay that some people don’t get that, but I have been doing WW since I was 18. It has been a huge part of my life, obviously it means a lot to me or I wouldn’t care whether or not these boards existed. I would love to see each and every one of you guys get to goal and dang right I am sitting here cheering you guys on when you’ve had a good weigh in and commiserating when the scale is being a putz. And you know dang well I would be tossing out Bravos right and left if this was a meeting, Rad would get extras for being so cool of course. 🤣 And Mike, I agree with everyone else, but my Irish is up so I would say (and not so politely) if you are trying to save the trees, you seem to have forgotten one of those name tags equals 20 of weight stickers. And just to be clear Deb had posted that employees were no longer writing any info down, at all. So again, how are members supposed to know how many points they get if they aren’t connected? Or when points change after a weigh in? Those employees don’t even ask if someone is using the app and new members wouldn’t even know to ask. And wow diva49 so those without app access are still left in the dark. *shakes head*
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