Parents Assessment Fee Vs Volunteering

[XcelMom08]

Has your gym switched from asking for volunteers at your host meets to cover the coaching assessment fee to actually charging the assessment fee?

OR vs versa for going from assessment fees to volunteering your time?

Do you find the assessment fee less hassle than volunteering? Would you be more than willing to volunteer than pay the assessment fee?

Has anything worked our for you to gain more volunteers when it appears to be a struggle?

Did you gym charge the families that did not honor their agreement?

Looking for overall experience in general to help in this area at our gym.

Personally, I see both sides of pros and cons but I am a natural hand-raiser volunteering at heart so I will always go with volunteering.

 

[Greatlakesmom]

Our gym hosts a lot of meets each year, including states and regional meets. Team parents are required to volunteer 12 hours per gymnast. If they do not volunteer for at least 12 hours per gymnast, the parents are required to pay a fee for each missing hour. Since we have two daughters on the team, we are required to volunteer 24 hours per year. Due to the number of meets we host each year, it is generally not an issue getting hours. I enjoy volunteering at the meets so do not mind the hours. Some parents at the gym simply pay the assessment fee each year as they do not like or want to volunteer.

 

[gym_dad32608]

The whole mandatory volunteer thing is one of those things that are too problematic to have in a gym in my opinion. I have seen it abused, used as a punishment/favorite tool, and created a general distaste for the gym as a parent. I can see in the right circumstances where it makes sense and is probably pretty effective, but the right circumstances are the exception. I would also add that depending upon the gym ownership structure (NFP or FP) and if it is run through a booster club there are real potential legal liabilities from a tax standpoint. I believe its cleaner and easier to just have everyone be responsible for the coaches fees.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I don’t like phrasing something as Volunteering when it is mandatory

 

[JPC13]

I actually enjoy the volunteering a lot, though it's incredibly inconvenient given that I'm (i) super busy, and (ii) live far away from the gym. Even so, being down on the floor interacting with judges and coaches is a nice change of pace from just standing around waiting to watch my daughter take her turn. I don't view it as an imposition at all, but rather as an opportunity to put a bit of sweat equity into the gym that's super important to my kid.

With that said, we've been at gyms where I wouldn't enjoy it -- but that's due to the general crappy vibe that some gyms have.

As far as money versus time, my time is way more valuable than whatever assessment fees they wave when I volunteer. If it was pure economics, I'd pay the extra fee without a doubt.

 

[Kara]

We always just paid the fee. Both parents working; just didn't have the extra time to "volunteer".

 

[ORgymmom]

My daughter’s other sport requires mandatory “volunteering” and doesn’t have a buyout/assessment option. It creates a lot of stress because inevitably we reach the last hosted meet of the season and there aren’t enough hours to go around so parents squeak out of the requirement. Parents also sign up to volunteer for mid-season meets but drop their kids at the door and are no-shows, so other parents pick up the slack. It’s problematic because the parents who don’t pull their weight know that other parents will step up rather than ruin meets for our team or our club’s reputation. The club is run by managers, not the coaches themselves, so the coaches can’t hold kids out of events if their parents haven’t fulfilled their hours because they don’t have visibility into the financial part of things. The sport is pretty transient and kids don’t stick around for years like they do gymnastics, so the incentive for parents to play along isn’t as strong.

After that sport is done for the year, it is a huge relief to just pay the assessment for gymnastics and not have any drama!

 

[JBS]

Has your gym switched from asking for volunteers at your host meets to cover the coaching assessment fee to actually charging the assessment fee?

Long ago... as a coach it is much easier to deal with telling parents the cost than listening to parents constantly unhappy with the fundraising or the booster club.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

High school gymnastics season is upon us. It will be all hands on deck this month. No assessment fee alternative. But it is truly volunteering. The adult coaches mom even helps.

 

[Tmacs]

We have a booster club and charge assessments for meet entries and coaching, hotels etc. associated with meets. We ask for volunteers for fundraising efforts and whatever money we raise gets split among returning gymnasts the next year. Parents also get free entry into their child's session if they volunteer. Those two perks helps motivate people to give back.

 

[Madden3]

At our fairly large gym, where our family has been for over a decade, and where I think this model has worked well over all, we have a combination. Each athlete (or rather, their parents) must pay an annual competition assessment and volunteer for fundraising events (mostly the work of hosting meets.) The money raised is used to lower, but certainly does not cover, the assessment amount. So, the pressure is off to fund-raise ALL costs, resulting in less volunteer burnout, but cost of being in the sport is lowered somewhat, allowing for more opportunity for athletes. Since the booster is a legally set up not for profit and a parent-run entity legally separate from the gym itself, how the money is raised and spent is decided by an elected board and the figures are transparent (and incidentally, volunteering cannot legally be required for participation although it is VERY STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.) Competing is expensive and you are going to pay for it one way or another.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

We have no booster club, fundraisers, etc. Every parent just pays for their child. I guess since that's the only way I've known, it seems most normal to me. We do put on one compulsory meet at our gym and parents (and older gymnasts) can volunteer at it, but it's not mandatory and they have no lack of help. The level 9/10s practically fight over who gets to volunteer because they all need volunteer hours for NHS, etc.

 

[gym_dad32608]

I had one gym where the owner of the FP gym was an executive board member on the NFP booster club. The gym "hosted" two meets a year where volunteering was expected. The booster club was only allowed to keep concessions but was expected to volunteer for setup, breakdown and entry management. Families that volunteered were "paid" with reduced assessment fees.

I present this as exhibit one where these type of things can go sideways.

 

[Madden3]

I had one gym where the owner of the FP gym was an executive board member on the NFP booster club. The gym "hosted" two meets a year where volunteering was expected. The booster club was only allowed to keep concessions but was expected to volunteer for setup, breakdown and entry management. Families that volunteered were "paid" with reduced assessment fees.

I present this as exhibit one where these type of things can go sideways.

Yes, impropriety or the appearance of impropriety leads to unhappy and resentful parents. And the rules for not for profits in the US (last I looked, several years ago) do not permit requiring volunteering in order to benefit from the organization. So if you are breaking the rules, you also can end up getting your not for profit booster audited.

 

[Astraea_9]

Has your gym switched from asking for volunteers at your host meets to cover the coaching assessment fee to actually charging the assessment fee?

OR vs versa for going from assessment fees to volunteering your time?

Do you find the assessment fee less hassle than volunteering? Would you be more than willing to volunteer than pay the assessment fee?

Has anything worked our for you to gain more volunteers when it appears to be a struggle?

Did you gym charge the families that did not honor their agreement?

Looking for overall experience in general to help in this area at our gym.

Personally, I see both sides of pros and cons but I am a natural hand-raiser volunteering at heart so I will always go with volunteering.

We have mandatory volunteer hours but you can opt out and pay a fee instead. We also have large assessment fees but they are not called coaching assessment fees so maybe that is something different. We pay 4 assessment fees a year that we were told these cover meet entry fees. The volunteer hours are for running the at-home meets and if everyone just paid assessment fees there would be no one to do that so I don't see how you could not have the volunteer option.

 

[LCsMom]

We were briefly at a gym that had a fairly disorganized booster club and some weird fundraising ideas (here's a bunch of random cleaning supplies! Go sell them!) but perhaps not surprisingly, that gym folded. I've been at a few meets where the parents were expected to volunteer for something and the reward was no entrance fee for that meet...I enjoyed those times but on the other hand, being asked to be the floor timer or the bar timer and having to do math in my head and run a stop watch wasn't my strong point. Marking people's hands with permanent marker for paying the entrance fee was way more my speed.

Covid put a stop to the parental volunteering thing and most fundraisers at our gym now are organized by the gymnasts themselves, which I personally think is how it ought to be. Ultimately it's the gymnasts' sport, not mine, I like it when they take ownership of the financial aspect of it as well.