Touchstone Blog Archive
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Interview with Senior Manager Jeffery Bowling
Jeffery Bowling, one of the senior management team members of Touchstone, began working for the gym over a decade ago when the company was just one small gym in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission. Hired as a data entry person, he found himself in a harness belaying kid’s birthday parties within hours of taking the job. Since his first year in 1996 at Mission Cliffs, he has performed nearly every job at Touchstone from route setting to managing Mission Cliffs to his current job as the Director of Marketing and IT.
I’ve been married for five years in August. We met at a Phish Show in Chicago in 2003. We spent three weeks together traveling around seeing Phish shows. When Phish broke up in 2004, I proposed at their last Vermont show so we could spend more time together. For our anniversary, we’re seeing Phish at the Greek theater then traveling to Colorado and Indiana.
Holly and I up in the mountains in Banff, Alberta. We've spent a lot of time traveling, especially in the northeast- we've seen a lot of Phish shows there.
One of the marketing challenges is taking the uniqueness of the gym and sharing that. We have a really strong, great community, and we’re trying to convey that message. One of the things that we found out early on was that grassroots efforts work well- like all of the comps. Members get excited because of the bouldering and rope series and they bring in their friends.
A lot of things grow organically at Touchstone and we take it from there- finding the best way to utilize the resources we have. The Mission Cliffs Facebook page was actually started by some members and we’ve used it to help promote the community.
My wife, Holly, and I are the San Francisco team leaders for HeadCount. HeadCount is an organization that works with bands to register voters at rock concerts.
Stayed tuned for more interviews with the rest of the Touchstone Management Team.
I’ve been married for five years in August. We met at a Phish Show in Chicago in 2003. We spent three weeks together traveling around seeing Phish shows. When Phish broke up in 2004, I proposed at their last Vermont show so we could spend more time together. For our anniversary, we’re seeing Phish at the Greek theater then traveling to Colorado and Indiana.
Holly and I up in the mountains in Banff, Alberta. We've spent a lot of time traveling, especially in the northeast- we've seen a lot of Phish shows there.
One of the marketing challenges is taking the uniqueness of the gym and sharing that. We have a really strong, great community, and we’re trying to convey that message. One of the things that we found out early on was that grassroots efforts work well- like all of the comps. Members get excited because of the bouldering and rope series and they bring in their friends.
A lot of things grow organically at Touchstone and we take it from there- finding the best way to utilize the resources we have. The Mission Cliffs Facebook page was actually started by some members and we’ve used it to help promote the community.
My wife, Holly, and I are the San Francisco team leaders for HeadCount. HeadCount is an organization that works with bands to register voters at rock concerts.
Stayed tuned for more interviews with the rest of the Touchstone Management Team.
Labels: HeadCount, Jeffery Bowling, Marketing
¶ Sunday, August 01, 2010 0 Comments
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Jeffery Earns His Master's
Our master of IT and poohbah of marketing, Jeffery Bowling, received his master’s in philosophy from San Francisco State last month. The title of his thesis was Johannes Climacus and Socrates: Irony, Eros and the Ladder. Herein he argues that Climacus, a pseudonym of Soren Kierkegaard, should be read as a work of irony rather than a straightforward philosophical work. Kierkegaard uses Socrates as a model for the kind of philosophical project he is undertaking.
Jeffery's interest in philosophy extends outside the academic realm all the way to the naming of his dog Soren after Kierkegaard. (Not sure if Kierkegaard was sweet, but Soren is.) So, if your workout is beating you down, look for Jeffery, probably reviewing our marketing materials or fixing our computers, and strike up a conversation about reason, knowledge, truth, ethics – all the fun stuff in life.
And you thought all management did was climb and bike!
Our master of IT and poohbah of marketing, Jeffery Bowling, received his master’s in philosophy from San Francisco State last month. The title of his thesis was Johannes Climacus and Socrates: Irony, Eros and the Ladder. Herein he argues that Climacus, a pseudonym of Soren Kierkegaard, should be read as a work of irony rather than a straightforward philosophical work. Kierkegaard uses Socrates as a model for the kind of philosophical project he is undertaking.
Jeffery's interest in philosophy extends outside the academic realm all the way to the naming of his dog Soren after Kierkegaard. (Not sure if Kierkegaard was sweet, but Soren is.) So, if your workout is beating you down, look for Jeffery, probably reviewing our marketing materials or fixing our computers, and strike up a conversation about reason, knowledge, truth, ethics – all the fun stuff in life.And you thought all management did was climb and bike!
Labels: Jeffery Bowling, staff, touchstone
¶ Thursday, January 24, 2008 0 Comments
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Profile: Jeffery Bowling
Senior manager Jeffery Bowling is the man who makes sure the word gets out about Touchstone. His official title is Director of IT & Director of Marketing and Promotions.
Jeffery is in a good position to tell Touchstone’s story. He’s been part of the team since 1996, having done everything from working kids birthday parties to course setting to managing Mission Cliffs.
He first came to the gym at age 23, while working with a group that was helping homeless kids on San Francisco’s Haight Street. “The group had a deal with Mission Cliffs that allowed them to bring kids in to the gym for free,” he recalls. “One day I asked the desk if they had any job openings. I was hired to do data entry work, entering all the waiver information into a spreadsheet.”
But right off the bat Mission Cliffs began tapping him for other duties. That same night he was called to ask if he could belay a kids’ party. The combination of data entry and kids belay was his routine for several months -- until he accidentally erased part of the database. “The decision to abandon the waiver database led me to a full-time belay staff position,” Jeffery says. He moved up to desk staff and in 1999 became the manager of Mission Cliffs. In 2002, he moved into his current job. “I am very excited that I have found a career that allows me to work in such a wonderful environment. It still amazes me at how much goes into running a climbing gym,” he says. “Or, in our case, six climbing gyms."
Outside the gym, Jeffery keeps active in both warm and cold climates through snowboarding and disc golf. He’s currently involved with the San Francisco Disc Golf Club, getting a disc golf course installed in Golden Gate Park. It will be the first disc golf course in San Francisco, he notes.
One other interest had a major effect on Jeffery’s life. A big fan of the band Phish, Jeffery was anxious to catch the 2003 tour -- the first by the band in a couple of years. “I was looking for a ride to do 10 Phish shows on the East Coast, and posted on an online Phish message board looking for a ride,” Jeffery recalls. As it worked out, four fans who had never met before ended up spending a couple weeks traveling together in the East. Jeffery made a real connection with one of them, Holly, and she ended up moving to the Bay Area a few months later.
Phish called it quits in 2004, but Jeffery and Holly kept going strong. They got married last year and now live on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Another member of the household is Soren, the family dog named after Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
The dog’s name is a hint that life is not all fun and games for Jeffery. He’s working on his master’s degree in philosophy, and still needs to finish his thesis after “a few years” of procrastination.
Senior manager Jeffery Bowling is the man who makes sure the word gets out about Touchstone. His official title is Director of IT & Director of Marketing and Promotions.Jeffery is in a good position to tell Touchstone’s story. He’s been part of the team since 1996, having done everything from working kids birthday parties to course setting to managing Mission Cliffs.
He first came to the gym at age 23, while working with a group that was helping homeless kids on San Francisco’s Haight Street. “The group had a deal with Mission Cliffs that allowed them to bring kids in to the gym for free,” he recalls. “One day I asked the desk if they had any job openings. I was hired to do data entry work, entering all the waiver information into a spreadsheet.”
But right off the bat Mission Cliffs began tapping him for other duties. That same night he was called to ask if he could belay a kids’ party. The combination of data entry and kids belay was his routine for several months -- until he accidentally erased part of the database. “The decision to abandon the waiver database led me to a full-time belay staff position,” Jeffery says. He moved up to desk staff and in 1999 became the manager of Mission Cliffs. In 2002, he moved into his current job. “I am very excited that I have found a career that allows me to work in such a wonderful environment. It still amazes me at how much goes into running a climbing gym,” he says. “Or, in our case, six climbing gyms."
Outside the gym, Jeffery keeps active in both warm and cold climates through snowboarding and disc golf. He’s currently involved with the San Francisco Disc Golf Club, getting a disc golf course installed in Golden Gate Park. It will be the first disc golf course in San Francisco, he notes.
One other interest had a major effect on Jeffery’s life. A big fan of the band Phish, Jeffery was anxious to catch the 2003 tour -- the first by the band in a couple of years. “I was looking for a ride to do 10 Phish shows on the East Coast, and posted on an online Phish message board looking for a ride,” Jeffery recalls. As it worked out, four fans who had never met before ended up spending a couple weeks traveling together in the East. Jeffery made a real connection with one of them, Holly, and she ended up moving to the Bay Area a few months later.
Phish called it quits in 2004, but Jeffery and Holly kept going strong. They got married last year and now live on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Another member of the household is Soren, the family dog named after Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
The dog’s name is a hint that life is not all fun and games for Jeffery. He’s working on his master’s degree in philosophy, and still needs to finish his thesis after “a few years” of procrastination.
Labels: Jeffery Bowling, mission cliffs, touchstone
¶ Saturday, June 10, 2006 0 Comments
