Blackie6
Proud Parent
I have been coming here to the CB for over two years now and anytime I've read a post about moving gyms I always said to myself "WOW, so glad that is not me making that choice for my daughter because we love our gym and could never ever even think about leaving". Well, ladies (and gents) I have thought long and hard about posting this & have decided to throw this out there because I am just devestated and don't know what else to do. I haven't slept all week and my stomach is just been in knotts over this whole ordeal. Let try to make this as concise as possible. I tend to run on and make posts too long...
Our tuition was posted about 10 days ago. While we knew that the fee for the move to L5 would go up, we knew that our current team was paying about $340-350 and in antipation of a fee raise I have already asked for more hours at work starting Sept. I can't work FT because I have 3 kids in 3 different schools w/3 different start and finish times. On a good day, older kids can walk to DD (8) school and walk her home. On a bad day it is just way to far to walk in either cold or rain. Because DH is fireman he does 24 hr shifts and several times a week can't help in any of this running around. And all three kids do sports and activities so I am running around like crazy as soon as I leave work. In addition to the tuition, we pay an assesment fee of about $1300 which coveres about 9 meets, coaches fees, registration. This was only implementent last year, prior to that we did more of a pay-as-you-go which amounted to about $800 (we did less meets) so last yr I felt the crunch of the assessment fee. Plus when we started L4 two yrs ago the fees were about 245 and thyen raised last yr to 285. We started off OK, but then I wasn't getting hours at work and because DH is state employed, no more raises and no more overtimes which helped DD gymnastics bill. So the increases along with our financial situation often put us at getting the bills for gym paid, but slower. Gym owner understood and allowed us to continue and be a month behind on tuition or slow to pay asses fee. I can't say anything bad about gym owner, he has been patient with us. OK, now to the new increase. To move up to L5 now the new tuition was posted as 390.00 for the extra 4th day along with a normal yearly increase. We have not yet recvv'd new assessment fee which will most likely go up as well. This means we are looking at a yearly fee of over $6,000 for daughter. The tuition hike alone w/move up means a jump of $105. extra a month! Our poor old L5 team fees increased to about 490 for 6/7.
DH puts the foot down and says no more gymnastics we can't afford it. Apparently the rest of team feels the same way as we are all middle class working families and not as well-to-do as some of the other parents are. I suck it up and call the gym we left when DD was about 3/4 and in rec class. Not a bad gym, we know people there and it is closer to home than current one is now since our gym made a move last yr. At this point I am just looking for an area price to see what other gyms are paying. DD goes for an eval along w/teamate. They like the gym and girls. The fees are given and amount to $2,500 CHEAPER! The tuition is less than what I've paid for last two yrs and they don't go to as many meets. There is plenty of fundraising there which is an area our current gym lacks in right now. OK, now the whole team decided they want to STAY TOGETHER! Will new gym take on 6 new girls? Yes!
The owners have a sit down w/us and field all of our questions and concerns. They did a wonderful job of selling us their program which now makes old gym look even worse by now. Only reason we do not sign on the spot is love for our coach and not wanting to walk away w/out even trying to negotiate w/old gym. Becasue we don't want to be sneaky, we tell coach everything. We know she is not in a position to negotiate for us but we wanted her to be the first to know since this will affect her too. She won't have a L5 team. OK, so next day new tuition fees are posted and they are about 20 lower. However, now, we can't shake that another porgram is $2,500 cheaper! On paper at states, this gym is a middle of the road gym like ours. We would not be leaving for top of the line results, just more inexpensive right now. Still, we want to negotiate maybe keep tuition as posted so gym owner not losing anything, but maybe trying to lower assessment fee or cut in half by reducing amout of meets we go too. The new gym would be only about 5 meets so we decide maybe we can stay at current gym and only do 5 meets. And, since others don't want to fund raise, maybe as a L5 team we can do it it ourselves to help w/assess fees too? Now, we are hopeful, maybe it is a way of staying with coach we love dearly but work w/owner. One mom emails sugesstions and basically it is a "no".
Two girls are leaving for camp this week and new tuition kicks in on July 1st so we have to come up w/plan quick, but right now if my own DD wants to be in gymnastics she will need to go to new gym. She doesn't mind, she already has friends there. If whole team moves over it could be wonderful! Closer gym, $2,500 cheaper....Another problem though....while I was at work DH took DD to another gym! A little further, about 20-25 mins away. New gym, only a year or so old. They did send girls to L4 and L5 states so team is in place already. Young owner w/lots of plan and ideas. DH said he was only there to get look and prices and I was impressed he got involved at all but it shows he wants DD to continue as well! They ask if they can do a quick assessment of her skills. Apparently she was in plain shorts with her long hair in face (came out of the pool from dive team) can did her ROBHSBHS and a standing tuck adn then did some stuff on beam. They would take he for L5 and invited her to work out w/team too. Not sure if it was the L5 coach or not, but my DD LOVED her! DD wants to try out on team and says she doesn't care if any teamates come or not, she is not afraid. She is extremely motivated right now and just wants to do L5. Understands the financial situation we are in too. I would love to just slide over to the gym closer to home and cheaper but I promised DD she could try and I would check out prices too.
So, that is about the jist of it. There is so much more I could type....but my biggest question to all of you is...is there anything else I can (or we as a team) can do to suggest to current gym owner that could reduce our fees right now without affecting his expenses. We know it's a bussiness and he has lost alot of rec kids and there is only one L4 girl on team right now so he is struggling too. We are willing to fundraise, do less meets, ect...but he doesn't seem to budge on that even tough it will mean he might lose whole team ($36,000 loss if we leave). All girls went to new gym now and tried out w/team and liked it and want to be together, but my DDD and one other girl still want to try out new gym too before I sign anything. I want to stay w/team and the families, but since DD is the one doing the time if the 2nd gym checked out works for us finacially, do I let her go there even though it is farther? We have 2 other kids so it will afect all of us 4 days/week!
Thanks for hanging in this long. I have been stressed about this all week long. I just feel like throwing up all the time. All of us moms have been crying about losing coach & beloved gym, but all of us have been struggling w/fees too. We all know gymnastics is expensive and there are other options like JOGA and USAIGC (new gym does USAIGC, old gym has JOGA team) but all of our girls want the opportunity to at least try L5. At old gym we would not be able to afford it, new gym, means a change! What to do? To make it all worse, DD just got her grips last week and still has her kip (ugly and bent but still there!) and coach let her do a giant on strap bars, BWO on big beam...she LOVES her coach and so do I!!!
Our tuition was posted about 10 days ago. While we knew that the fee for the move to L5 would go up, we knew that our current team was paying about $340-350 and in antipation of a fee raise I have already asked for more hours at work starting Sept. I can't work FT because I have 3 kids in 3 different schools w/3 different start and finish times. On a good day, older kids can walk to DD (8) school and walk her home. On a bad day it is just way to far to walk in either cold or rain. Because DH is fireman he does 24 hr shifts and several times a week can't help in any of this running around. And all three kids do sports and activities so I am running around like crazy as soon as I leave work. In addition to the tuition, we pay an assesment fee of about $1300 which coveres about 9 meets, coaches fees, registration. This was only implementent last year, prior to that we did more of a pay-as-you-go which amounted to about $800 (we did less meets) so last yr I felt the crunch of the assessment fee. Plus when we started L4 two yrs ago the fees were about 245 and thyen raised last yr to 285. We started off OK, but then I wasn't getting hours at work and because DH is state employed, no more raises and no more overtimes which helped DD gymnastics bill. So the increases along with our financial situation often put us at getting the bills for gym paid, but slower. Gym owner understood and allowed us to continue and be a month behind on tuition or slow to pay asses fee. I can't say anything bad about gym owner, he has been patient with us. OK, now to the new increase. To move up to L5 now the new tuition was posted as 390.00 for the extra 4th day along with a normal yearly increase. We have not yet recvv'd new assessment fee which will most likely go up as well. This means we are looking at a yearly fee of over $6,000 for daughter. The tuition hike alone w/move up means a jump of $105. extra a month! Our poor old L5 team fees increased to about 490 for 6/7.
DH puts the foot down and says no more gymnastics we can't afford it. Apparently the rest of team feels the same way as we are all middle class working families and not as well-to-do as some of the other parents are. I suck it up and call the gym we left when DD was about 3/4 and in rec class. Not a bad gym, we know people there and it is closer to home than current one is now since our gym made a move last yr. At this point I am just looking for an area price to see what other gyms are paying. DD goes for an eval along w/teamate. They like the gym and girls. The fees are given and amount to $2,500 CHEAPER! The tuition is less than what I've paid for last two yrs and they don't go to as many meets. There is plenty of fundraising there which is an area our current gym lacks in right now. OK, now the whole team decided they want to STAY TOGETHER! Will new gym take on 6 new girls? Yes!
The owners have a sit down w/us and field all of our questions and concerns. They did a wonderful job of selling us their program which now makes old gym look even worse by now. Only reason we do not sign on the spot is love for our coach and not wanting to walk away w/out even trying to negotiate w/old gym. Becasue we don't want to be sneaky, we tell coach everything. We know she is not in a position to negotiate for us but we wanted her to be the first to know since this will affect her too. She won't have a L5 team. OK, so next day new tuition fees are posted and they are about 20 lower. However, now, we can't shake that another porgram is $2,500 cheaper! On paper at states, this gym is a middle of the road gym like ours. We would not be leaving for top of the line results, just more inexpensive right now. Still, we want to negotiate maybe keep tuition as posted so gym owner not losing anything, but maybe trying to lower assessment fee or cut in half by reducing amout of meets we go too. The new gym would be only about 5 meets so we decide maybe we can stay at current gym and only do 5 meets. And, since others don't want to fund raise, maybe as a L5 team we can do it it ourselves to help w/assess fees too? Now, we are hopeful, maybe it is a way of staying with coach we love dearly but work w/owner. One mom emails sugesstions and basically it is a "no".
Two girls are leaving for camp this week and new tuition kicks in on July 1st so we have to come up w/plan quick, but right now if my own DD wants to be in gymnastics she will need to go to new gym. She doesn't mind, she already has friends there. If whole team moves over it could be wonderful! Closer gym, $2,500 cheaper....Another problem though....while I was at work DH took DD to another gym! A little further, about 20-25 mins away. New gym, only a year or so old. They did send girls to L4 and L5 states so team is in place already. Young owner w/lots of plan and ideas. DH said he was only there to get look and prices and I was impressed he got involved at all but it shows he wants DD to continue as well! They ask if they can do a quick assessment of her skills. Apparently she was in plain shorts with her long hair in face (came out of the pool from dive team) can did her ROBHSBHS and a standing tuck adn then did some stuff on beam. They would take he for L5 and invited her to work out w/team too. Not sure if it was the L5 coach or not, but my DD LOVED her! DD wants to try out on team and says she doesn't care if any teamates come or not, she is not afraid. She is extremely motivated right now and just wants to do L5. Understands the financial situation we are in too. I would love to just slide over to the gym closer to home and cheaper but I promised DD she could try and I would check out prices too.
So, that is about the jist of it. There is so much more I could type....but my biggest question to all of you is...is there anything else I can (or we as a team) can do to suggest to current gym owner that could reduce our fees right now without affecting his expenses. We know it's a bussiness and he has lost alot of rec kids and there is only one L4 girl on team right now so he is struggling too. We are willing to fundraise, do less meets, ect...but he doesn't seem to budge on that even tough it will mean he might lose whole team ($36,000 loss if we leave). All girls went to new gym now and tried out w/team and liked it and want to be together, but my DDD and one other girl still want to try out new gym too before I sign anything. I want to stay w/team and the families, but since DD is the one doing the time if the 2nd gym checked out works for us finacially, do I let her go there even though it is farther? We have 2 other kids so it will afect all of us 4 days/week!
Thanks for hanging in this long. I have been stressed about this all week long. I just feel like throwing up all the time. All of us moms have been crying about losing coach & beloved gym, but all of us have been struggling w/fees too. We all know gymnastics is expensive and there are other options like JOGA and USAIGC (new gym does USAIGC, old gym has JOGA team) but all of our girls want the opportunity to at least try L5. At old gym we would not be able to afford it, new gym, means a change! What to do? To make it all worse, DD just got her grips last week and still has her kip (ugly and bent but still there!) and coach let her do a giant on strap bars, BWO on big beam...she LOVES her coach and so do I!!!