Increase in Enrollment

[virginiacoach]

Just curious if anyone has noticed a crazy upward trend in enrollment, particularly in team and developmental groups? Our gym has almost doubled it's competitive team in the past two years and tripled it's enrollment in developmental teams (levels 1- 4). We are located in a good area but it is strange to see this many kids really committed to high level training. In the past three months alone we have seen more local gym transfers than ever and more boys and tumbling program growth. Our enrollment went from 800 last year to almost 1200 now with no real reasons. Not that we are complaining.. i know that everyone isn't in this situation . We are looking at a very big idea for the upcoming year that will have a major impact on our community and our gym (all positive) and are just wondering if this upward trend will continue. Does it maybe have to do with the upcoming excitement for 2012 olympics... ?I would think not because it is too far off, but can't really come up with a good reason? Has anyone else experienced a huge growth and/or seen a sudden downfall?

 

[CoachAngela]

Exact same situation at the gym I work at. Exact same groups - pre teams and team itself. I have no idea why either, but it's awesome!

 

[10.0]

Ours seems to remain about the same for the competitive levels, because probably an equal amount of kids get to a point where they quit and an equal number come into the program.

But our preschool and rec. classes are insane. The weird thing is, must be due to vacations, Holidays, cheer season etc. sometimes within a week a class will go from 20 kids to 6 stay that way a few weeks then jump back up. It is really hard to properly staff these classes. One of the coaches had a boys rec. class with one kid in it, last week she had 12 all of the sudden to herself, a bunch of trials and makeup's and new enrollments.

Which brings up a good question for me, when you are just staffed enough to cover the kids and classes you have (granted to could get more coaches or shift people if given proper notice) what does your gym do with free trials and new enrollments? There seems to be a disconnect between our office staff and the coaches and owner and no set policy. I would think if the max to one coach is 8 kids the office staff should look at the roster and not allow trials or new enrollments if there are already 8, maybe do a wait list and let them know it will be very soon but they need to make sure the class is properly staffed as it is full right now? Or make a set trial day where they could have extra staff? What does your gym do?

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

I do not own or work at a gym, but my DD's gym will set special "free trial days". That seems to work really well for planning purposes.

 

[3stars]

Which brings up a good question for me, when you are just staffed enough to cover the kids and classes you have (granted to could get more coaches or shift people if given proper notice) what does your gym do with free trials and new enrollments? There seems to be a disconnect between our office staff and the coaches and owner and no set policy. I would think if the max to one coach is 8 kids the office staff should look at the roster and not allow trials or new enrollments if there are already 8, maybe do a wait list and let them know it will be very soon but they need to make sure the class is properly staffed as it is full right now? Or make a set trial day where they could have extra staff? What does your gym do?

I work the front desk at our gym and we have policies for these situations. When enrolling any child in a class, we can never go over the 6/1 or 8/1 ratio that is set for the class. There is a max limit of 2 additional students in any class (so we can only have 1 make-up and 1 trial student or whatever combination). However, if the class is at max capapcity we do not schedule anyone else in the class. Before scheduling a trial or make-up, we check and see if there are any planned absences or make-ups already scheduled so that we do not go over our class-size ratio. I have had parents get very upset with me because I can't make our schedule and policies fit their schedule or a coach tells them it is ok even though it is against policy. It is frustrating for me too when I can't help someone, but someone has to follow the rules.

 

[gymdog]

I think I know what gym you're talking about, and part of the reason is because another gym in the area closed and their team members moved to different gyms. But, the sprawl outward and development of the further suburbs is also probably a factor. Additionally the gym is well managed. There are some parts of this state that I think could certainly support additional gymnastics programs...or even *a* program period.

Edit: some gyms don't have such a thing as free trials. It would be a nightmare. You sign up at the beginning of the session and when classes are filled, they're filled.

 

[CoachGoofy]

One of our programs is growing like crazy. It makes me pretty happy--our staff for that program always have something to do, we've got a lot of up & comers for team, it's good stuff.

 

[virginiacoach]

we don't do any trials... we feel like it is unfair to the paying members of our program to allow a new kid every class to try the class and the teacher of course gives them a lot of attention ... we have had very few people who even care about free trials. we are lucky in that we get a ton of customers from word of mouth

 

[3rd_time_around]

Which brings up a good question for me, when you are just staffed enough to cover the kids and classes you have (granted to could get more coaches or shift people if given proper notice) what does your gym do with free trials and new enrollments? There seems to be a disconnect between our office staff and the coaches and owner and no set policy. I would think if the max to one coach is 8 kids the office staff should look at the roster and not allow trials or new enrollments if there are already 8, maybe do a wait list and let them know it will be very soon but they need to make sure the class is properly staffed as it is full right now? Or make a set trial day where they could have extra staff? What does your gym do?

We have a limit of enrollees per class, per age level. Pre-school is no more than 6 kids to a coach. The kids enroll and pay monthly. If three weeks go by and they don't' show up, they get a phone call. if they want the class still, they must pay for the month even though they were only there one week. If they don't answer, return the call, pay or show up, they lose their spot to the next person. We keep a waiting list and just call the next one on the list, or if not waiting list, the next one who calls and wants the class. Older ages is 8 kids to one coach. Even our team is that way.

As for make-ups, we only allow one make-up per class, and keep a sheet behind the roster to write in make-ups so as not to overwhelm the coach. And for new trials, there must be a spot in the class available in case the child wants to continue. On some occasions, we allow a new trial in place of a make-up if the class is full, but only with the understanding that they are trying a class that is full, so they will not be able to enroll in that class unless someone else drops out. We keep it all in a notebook and everyone must check each class before offering a spot to someone.

 

[3rd_time_around]

We've had an increase in enrollment since January, especially pre-school, but I have decided its because NCAA season has started, our girl is rocking it at her college meets, and people are loving her and have noticed where she trained. But that's just my opinion....

 

[Bajanswife]

Up until the middle of 2009 our team was very small and exclusive - team members were picked by the owner/HC. This is because the gym was small and there weren't enough coaches to support a big team. But in the summer of 2009 our HC had a few new coaches join - most of them had trained with her previously and had now come home, or she had gotten some young assistants trained to the point where they could lead some rec groups and leave the more experienced coaches to train the team. So for the first time she had gym trials the last week of summer holidays. My 2 DDs were invited to try out, as they had done rec classes at various points over the past few years and she was impressed by them. I'm not sure how open the trials were - I know rec kids were invited, and maybe others from word of mouth. We're the only gym in our whole country, so I know kids didn't come from other gyms.

2009 - 2010 school year had a big team, lots of level 2s and 3s just starting out. Only one of my Dds (the younger one) decided to join the team, though both were asked to. HC held trials again in summer 2010 and another new crop joined the team. So now we're actually a good sized team! We have have some girls drop out over the past year, but nothing compared to the amount that joined.

So in our case the expansion was due to an increaee in available coaches - you can't have a team without the requisite number of coaches.