Below is the full text of the letter we sent to CrossFit, Inc.’s Affiliate Support this morning, June 17, 2020.
Dear Sir/Ma’am,
We are the owners of Underwood Park CrossFit in Fort Edward, NY. We became a CrossFit Affiliate in September 2014. We opened our gym because, like for so many others, CrossFit changed our lives and we wanted to bring that same gift to our community. We have continued to re-affiliate each year because we have valued being a part of something bigger than ourselves, and because we deeply believe in the CrossFit methodology.
However, we have found less value in that affiliation over the last several years. That has culminated this year in a sense of disappointment in CrossFit Headquarters’ response to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. At a time when affiliates need help unlike any other moment in CrossFit’s history, Headquarters did little of substance, especially when compared with brands and companies like O2, Driven Nutrition, Uplaunch, Level Method, Healthy Steps Nutrition, and Two Brain Business, who all exhibited tremendous effort to help gyms both financially and tactically.
To have that period followed by the revelation of Greg Glassman’s treatment of the owner of Rocket CrossFit, Headquarters’ silence about systemic racial injustice, Greg Glassman’s increasingly inflammatory behavior, and subsequent allegations of a culture of secrecy and inappropriate power dynamics at CrossFit Headquarters has been enough to make us seriously consider de-affiliating from CrossFit, Inc.
We have decided to keep our affiliation for the time being.
It is however deeply important to us that the brands with which we align ourselves also align with our values. We are only one small affiliate, and we are under no illusions about the scale of the impact our actions have in the broader CrossFit community. Nonetheless, in good faith, we care about being open and transparent with you. Our affiliation agreement expires in September. In order for us to renew, we would need to see the following:
- Greg Glassman’s selling of CrossFit, Inc.
- CrossFit would need to be led by an impartial board of directors, not employed by Headquarters.
- CrossFit Headquarters would need to demonstrate tangible action toward growth and transformation of company culture in the areas of inclusion, power dynamics, and transparency.
We send this letter, certainly hoping that it will be heard and considered, but primarily because we deeply believe that when there is harm felt in a relationship, the harm should be clearly stated, and the desired amends clearly stated as well. This, we do here. Thank you for your consideration.
Yours,
Michael Plank and Lauren Grogan, owners
Underwood Park CrossFit