Everyone, it seems, has a cell phone.
And while sometimes it looks as though there is no escape,in a video store hearing a spouse explain that a long-awaited video is all checked out, in a fast-food restaurant at 8 a.m. or even in the usually silent bathroom of an Irvine office building,several types of businesses in Orange County are gradually forming fortresses of silence amid the flood of communication.
While new hand-held communication devices can help a guest find Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, he’ll have to turn it off once he gets to the first tee with his foursome.
Cell phones, said Big Canyon General Manager David Voorhees, “are not permitted on the golf course or the golf practice area.” They may be used, however, in “regular” dining areas.
Member-based entities such as private golf courses, in fact, are becoming the first places that cell phone use is being limited.
At the Sports Club Irvine, the staff wants people to work abs, not the speed dial.
“Because our members come here to relax, we ask [people to] refrain from cell phone usage in the workout areas,” said Chris Collett, general manager of the gym.
The official policy began in January due to member requests, she said, and applies to all workout areas, the group exercise room and the spa. Members can use cell phones in locker rooms, the lobby and food areas.
“We also do realize our members are very busy people,” she said.
Collett acknowledged some negative feedback,until the club sits down with the member and explains the reasoning behind the policy. She said many members have also called the club to applaud the new rules.
“We also have areas dubbed ‘cell phone zones,’ ” said Collett. “We haven’t put signage up yet but we let people know these areas are places they can talk on cell phones.”
Collett said the club strongly enforces the rule, noting that it isn’t enough to simply excuse oneself from a treadmill when one’s phone rings.
“We ask that there be no ringing phones,” she said. “Members put phones on vibrator mode when they’re working out.”
Of course, as soon as they’re done pumping iron, members start pumping plastic. One member remarked that cellular companies must notice a sharp increase in dialing from the gym parking lot after the most popular workout times.
Power (Using) to the People
The rule in these cases seems to be the more exclusive the site the more likely a peripatetic talker will find his phone habits inhibited.
Exclusive but still public places such as the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point have “no specific guidelines,” said Director of Public Relations Lisa Poppen.
“Most people are considerate of others around them,” she said. “We’ve experienced no problems.”
Poppen added that the hotel naturally sees a lot of cell phone activity from their meeting groups,about 60 percent of their business, depending on the time of year.
The further along the spectrum you get, the more lenient the atmosphere.
For example, you’ll probably find your local 24 Hour Fitness more amenable to cell phones than the Sports Club Irvine.
And even top-quality public golf courses will allow a little more leeway than tony private clubs like Big Canyon.
“You can use a cell phone anywhere here,” said Lynn Davis, marketing director at Pelican Hill Golf Club. The Irvine Co.-owned premium resort course, she added, does not envision limiting use anytime soon.
“We don’t have a policy that either encourages or prohibits them,” said Mike Lichty, general manager at Tustin Ranch Golf Club. “It’s a fact of life and a negative policy would be a detriment here.”
Lichty said there’s no question cell phone use at the club has increased.
“I would guess that on average there’s at least one per group,” he said. “Some groups might have several while others have none.”
Lichty acknowledged a private club’s option of restricting cell phone use because of the membership aspect but said that a public course like Tustin Ranch would not be able to enforce the rule unless it began to affect other golfers’ enjoyment or pace-of-play.
In still other public locales cell phones are virtually required.
In fact, as ire over cell phone use in some places grows apace with, well, cell phone use; in other parts of the county it’s de rigeur.
At restaurants such as Bistango in Irvine, Marc Ghoukassian notes heavy usage, particularly during lunch, and has no plans to step in on such conversations anytime soon.
“Some customers have told me about restaurants in Orange County that don’t allow cell phones,” he said. “But we’ve always allowed it and have never had a problem.”
Ghoukassian’s family owns Bistango, along with Bayside in Newport Beach. He noted more cell phone use at the former, which has more of a business clientele, he said.
“I haven’t heard any complaints at all,” he said. “We don’t see a need for a policy.”
One place they don’t play around with cell phone rules, however, is at school. In the classroom, it’s all business.
One Place Your Kid’s Not on the Phone
“It’s pretty simple,” said Harry Meader, assistant principal at Irvine High School. “Electronic signaling devices are not allowed on campus. That applies to anything you would use to communicate with the outside world.”
Meader said the policy is primarily aimed at preventing illegal activity on campus and that it comes right out of the California Education Code.
The relevant portion of the code, helpfully faxed to the Business Journal by Colleen Cross, assistant principal at Woodbridge High, confirmed this.
“The first time, a kid gets it back,” said Meader. “The second time, the parent gets it. The third time, we turn it over to the police. At that point, it becomes contraband.”
“We take them away every day,” was the comment from one school in Orange.
Cross’s campus puts the education code item in student handbooks and uses a form signed by the student acknowledging the school’s right to confiscate the cell phone. The code allows an exception for medical alert devices.
Ivied Walls, Antennae-Topped Halls
Like many issues, cell phone use gets hazier in college.
As expanded cell phone use has reached academia as well, OC schools are moving toward formal policies like those in place elsewhere.
Cathi Douglas, public relations director at Chapman University in Orange said the school doesn’t have a formal policy – although in discussions and meetings between professors and administrators it is a more frequent subject than in the past.
“It’s already hard enough to capture students’ attention,” she said. “But now with people getting up and leaving, it’s not only disruptive, it’s just plain rude.”
Douglas said she expects to see such sen timents codified in the near future.
“I would assume it would get to a point where we would have a written policy,” she said.
Meanwhile, Douglas’s husband Les, an American history instructor at Orange Coast College and Fullerton College, says that although his schools don’t have formal policies, he does.
“I find it very distracting for other students,” he said. “It’s so common these days that when one person’s phone rings, everyone has to check their pockets and briefcases.”
The telecommunications revolution,which Douglas also addresses in the context of his history lectures,has been both boon and bane.
“Now pagers have humorous melodies which is even more destructive to a class’s ability to concentrate,” he said. But at least he’s able, he said, to ask classes to set cell phones and pagers to vibrate instead of ring.
Despite warnings, and noting the ban in class syllabi, he said, “I still get students who bring their phones to class.”
Paul Frizler, professor of English, comparative literature and film and television at Chapman, says he hasn’t had a problem in this area.
“I don’t really see it in my classes,” he said.
Where he gets cell phones ringing, though, is when he delivers a speech or presentation at a conference.
“People usually think it’s funny,” he said. “And I don’t know any speaker who doesn’t like when people think that.”
Something Sacred
The only other places cell phone policies don’t exist is where it’s virtually unthinkable.
Like church.
Saddleback Church is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, sees 15,000 attendees at five weekend services and employs more than 150 full- and part-time staffers, including 33 pastors and ministers.
“We don’t have a policy regarding cell phone use by the staff,” said Ty Rose, pastor of ministry operations. “But we do have some practices.”
Rose said that as little as three years ago, few staff members carried cell phones but today all senior-level pastoral staff do,and other pastors can request them for as-needed use.
“We encourage [it] if it helps a staff member be more efficient in their job,” he said. “We discourage it if a staff member can’t locate the ‘off’ button.”
Rose said the church encourages a “Sabbath day”,a day off,for all pastors, and that they most often use this time to personally disconnect, literally and figuratively.
“It’s important to let the cell phone work for you and not vice-versa,” said Rose.
As for Sunday services, Rose added that the church bulletin asks all attendees to turn off cell phones and pagers.
“It’s time to connect with God,” said Rose. “I’ve never needed a cell phone to do that.”
On other ‘holy,’ turf, the same does not always hold true.
“Years ago you were virtually isolated,” said Tustin Ranch’s Mike Lichty. “With cell phones, you’re no longer on the hallowed grounds of a golf course. It can be irritating at times, but what are you going to do? It’s the way of the world.” n
